Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi was an Indian lawyer and activist who led India's successful campaign for independence from British rule through a philosophy of nonviolent civil disobedience.
Two decades spent fighting discrimination in South Africa shaped the tactics of nonviolent resistance Gandhi would later bring home to a very different struggle against British rule in India.
Forged in South Africa
Gandhi trained as a lawyer in London before spending over 20 years in South Africa, where he first developed and tested his methods of nonviolent resistance while fighting discriminatory laws targeting the local Indian community — formative experiences that shaped his political philosophy for decades to come.
Returning to Lead a Movement
Gandhi returned to India in 1915 and quickly became a central figure in the independence movement, adopting simple, deliberate personal habits — including traditional dress and spinning his own cloth — to identify with India's poorest citizens.
The Salt March
In 1930, Gandhi organized the famous Salt March, walking 240 miles to the sea to produce salt in defiance of British taxation and monopoly laws — a symbolic act of civil disobedience that drew international attention to the independence cause.
Independence and Tragedy
India finally achieved independence in August 1947, though the achievement was accompanied by the traumatic partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan. Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu nationalist just months later, in January 1948.
A Global Philosophy of Resistance
Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolent resistance, known as satyagraha, went on to profoundly influence civil rights and independence movements around the world, most notably inspiring the strategy and moral framework of Martin Luther King Jr. during the American civil rights movement.
