Father of Our Nation in Indian History:

• Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, called Mahatma, is the father of our nation.
• He was born on 2 October 1869 at Porbandar in Gujarat as the son of Diwan Karamchand and his fourth wife ‘Putilibai’.
• In 1883, at the age of 14, he married Kasthurba Later he went to England to study law.
• In 1893 he went to South Africa to practice law.
• After his studies in England Gandhiji began his practice as a lawyer in Bombay and Rajcot.
• He was subjected to racial discrimination and organised Natal Indian Congress in 1894. There he started a weekly, Indian opinion 1904.
• Gandhiji experimented the weapon Satyagraha for the first time in South Africa in September 1906 to protest against the Asiatic Ordinance issued against the Indians in Transval
• Gandhiji’s first imprisonment was in 1908 at Johannesberg in South Africa.
• In 1899 during the Boer war Gandhiji organised Indian Ambulance Corps for the British.
• Gandhiji was humiliated and ousted from Peter Marits Burg Railway Station in South Africa.
• Gandhiji became a Brahmachari in 1906.
• Gandhiji started Tolstoy Farm South Africa in 1910.
• Gandhiji started the Foenix Settlement in Durban.
• Gandhian Era in Indian politics is from 1915 -1948.
• He returned to India on 9th January 1915, leaving South Africa for ever. January 9 is observed as ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Divas’ to commemorate this.
• Gandhiji’s first Satyagraha in India was for the right of Indigo workers in Champaran in 1917.
• Gandhiji’s first fast was in 1918 in connection with the strike of mill workers in Ahmedabad.
• He started the Satyagrahasrama on the banks of Sabarmati river in Ahmedabad in 1917.
• In 1918 he started two weeklies – Young India in English and Navjeevan in Gujarati.
• Gandhiji abandoned his title Kaiser -i-Hind in protest against Jallianwalabagh Massacre (1919)
• Gandhijis first National Movement was organised against the Rowlat Act in 1919.
• Gandhiji launched the Non-Co-operation Movement on August 1, 1920 which caused the violent incident at Chauri Chaura in UP. This incident initiated Gandhiji to suspend the movement in 1922.
• Gandhiji renounced worldly pleasures and became a symbol of halfnaked villager in 1920.
• The only Congress session presided over by Gandhiji was the one which held at Belgaum in 1924.
• Gandhiji started his historic Dandi March on 12 March 1930 related to the Salt Satyagraha.
• Gandhiji partcipated in the Second Round Table Conference in London in 1931 August.
• With the aim of eradicating untouchability Gandhiji founded the All India Harijan Samaj in 1932.
• Gandhiji started his journey for Harijan upliftment from the Wardha Ashram in Maharashtra.
• Gandhiji called low class people as ‘Harijan’ which means ‘sons of God’.
• He started the weekly Harijan in 1933.
• Gandhi-Irwin pact was signed on 5 march 1931.
• Gandhiji was associated with the Vaikom and Guruvayur Sathyagraha in Kerala.
• Gandhiji called the Temple Entry Proclamation a wonder of the Modern Age.
• Pattabhi Sitaramayya Gandhiji’s candidate for the Presidentship of INC was defeated by Subash Chandra Bose.
• Gandhiji called Subhah Chandra Bose the‘Palriots’, Patriot
• Winston Churchil called Gandhiji a ‘‘Half naked Seditious Fakir.
• The name ‘Gurudev’ was given to Tagore by Gandhiji
• Tagore called Gandhiji ‘Mahatma’.
• ‘Wardha’ scheme of education was the basic education policy formulated by Gandhiji.
• In 1940 Gandhiji started Individual Satyagraha and selected Vinoba Bhave and Nehru for that.
• In 1942 August 9 Gandhiji started the Quit India Movement and gave the call ‘Do or Die’.
• Gandhiji called the Cripps Mission (1942) ‘‘a postdated cheque on a drowning bank’’.
• Gandhiji was assassinated by Nadhuram Vinayak Godse on 30 January 1948 at the Birla house in Delhi. He died at 5 : 17 pm. ‘He Ram, He Ram’ was his last words.
• Godse used an Italian Beritta Pistol to shoot at Gandhiji.
• Gandhiyum Godseyum is a book written by N.K. Krishnavarier.
• ‘Mem Nadhuram Godse Bolthai’ is a play written by Pradeep Dalvi to humiliate Gandhi.
• After the assassination, The R.S.S was banned in 1948 February 4.
• Narayan Dathathrya Apte was hanged to death along with Godse on the Gandhi Assassination case.
• French Novelist who wrote the biography of Gandhiji was Romain Rolland.
• Medalim Slaiduin a British woman became a follower Gandhi and came to be known as Meera Ben.
• The original autobiography of Gandhiji written in Gujarathi language was ‘Sathya na Karogo’.
• Liberty or Death written by Patrick French deals with antogonism in Gandhis life.
• Gandhiji called his hanging clock my little dictator.
• ‘Ente Gurunathan’ poem written by Vallathol Narayana Menon speaks about Gandhiji.
• ‘That’s my mother’ Gandhiji said these words about Bhagavatgita.
• Gandhiji’s political guru was Gopalakrishna Gokhale.
• Gandhi’s prisoner is a book written by Uma Dupfeli Mistri , daughter of Gandhis son, Manilal.
• Harilal, Manilal, Ramdas and Devdas were Gandhijis four sons.
• ‘I follow Mahatma’ is a book written by K.M.Munshi.
• ‘Unto This Last’ of John Ruskin greately influenced Gandhiji
• R.K. Narayan wrote ‘Waiting for the Mahatma’.
• R.K. Narayan wrote ‘Waiting for the Mahatma’.
• Gandhiji grandson Thushar Gandhi led the second Dandi March from Marh 12 – April 17, 2005 on the 75th anniversary of Dandi March.
• Gandhiji’s autobiography ‘‘My Experiments with Truth’ was written in 1922 while he was in Jail. It describes his life from 1869 to 1921.
• It was translated into English by Mahadev Desai.
• Leon Tolstoy is considered as the spiritual guru of Gandhiji.
• One of the great dreams of Gandhiji was the establishment of Grama Swaraj. He said ‘‘India lives in villages’’. He started Sewagram Ashram on 30 April 1936.
• Gandhiji said ‘‘Non violence is not one form it is the only form of direct action’’.
• Gandhiji once sarcastically (humorously) called jail ‘‘His Majesty’s Hotel’’.
• ”Generations to come it may scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth”, Einstein said about Gandhiji.
• ‘‘Truth and Non-violence are my Gods’’ Gandhiji
• Untouchability is a crime against God and Mankind Gandhiji.
• ‘‘Swaraj for me means freedom for the meanest of our countrymen’’ – Gandhiji
• ‘‘The light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere’’ Nehru on the death of Gandhiji.
• ‘‘Non-violence is the law of our species as violence is the law of the brute’’ Gandhiji
• ‘‘Indian culture is neither Hindu, Islam, nor any other wholly. It is a fusion of all’ – Gandhiji
• ‘‘Non Co-operation with evil is as much a duty as co-operation with good’’ – Gandhiji
• ‘‘My only hope lies in prayer and answer to prayer’’ – Gandhiji

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