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Mahatma Karamchand Gandhi 1869 - 1948

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869 in Porbandar, Kathiawad Agency British India, and died at age 78 years old on January 30, 1948 in New Delhi, Delhi India. Mohandas Gandhi was buried in Rajghat, New Delhi.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Mahatma Karamchand Gandhi

October 2, 1869

Porbandar, Kathiawad Agency, British India

January 30, 1948

New Delhi, Delhi, India

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Mahatma Karamchand Gandhi Mohandas Gandhi (1869 - 1948)

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Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's History: 1869 - 1948

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Introduction

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
10/2

1869

Birthday

October 2, 1869

Birthdate

Porbandar, Kathiawad Agency British India

Birthplace

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01/30

1948

Death

January 30, 1948

Death date

Assassination by revolver.

Cause of death

New Delhi, Delhi India
Death location

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Gravesite & Burial

mm/dd/yyyy
Funeral date
Rajghat, New Delhi
Burial location
Obituary

Jan. 30, 1948 | Mahatma Gandhi Assassinated JANUARY 30, 2012 4:01 AM On Jan. 30, 1948, Indian political and spiritual leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was murdered by the Hindu nationalist Nathuram Godse, who fired three shots at close range as the 78-year-old Gandhi entered a prayer meeting. “His death left all India stunned and bewildered as to the direction that this newly independent nation would take without its ‘Mahatma’ (Great Teacher),” wrote The New York Times. “The loss of Mr. Gandhi brings this country of 300,000,000 abruptly to a crossroads. Mingled with the sadness in this capital tonight was an undercurrent of fear and uncertainty, for now the strongest influence for peace in India that this generation has known is gone.” Gandhi had for decades been a leader of India’s independence movement. He preached “satyagraha” (a Sanskrit term loosely translated as “insistence upon truth”), a philosophy of non-violence and civil disobedience. He protested British rule and sought to improve the lives of Indians through frequent fasting and peaceful protesting. In the early 1920s, he led a boycott of British goods and campaign of non-cooperation. In 1930, he protested Britain’s tax on salt by leading a 250-mile Salt March. Gandhi’s calls for independence grew louder during World War II. In 1942, his demand that Britain “quit India” spurred Britain to make mass arrests of independence leaders, including Gandhi, who spent two years in prison. At the end of the war, Britain began to move toward granting independence; it developed a plan for India to be partitioned into two countries, India and Pakistan, which would become independent in August 1947. The partition, which Gandhi opposed, caused the displacement of millions of Hindus and Muslims and widespread violence between the two communities. Gandhi continued to preach non-violence, which angered many Hindu nationalists who felt that Hindus needed to protect themselves from Muslim attacks. As Gopal Godse, brother and co-conspirator of assassin Nathuram Godse, explained before his death in 2005, Hindu extremists believed Gandhi’s calls for nonviolence were “part of a plot to allow Hindus to be slaughtered by Muslims.” The Godse brothers and a team of conspirators carried out a failed bombing attack against Gandhi on Jan. 20, 1948. Ten days later, their second assassination attempt succeeded. Nathuram Godse and Narayan Dattatraya Apte were sentenced to death, while the other conspirators received prison sentences. The Times’ obituary of Gandhi stated: “As was perhaps inevitable in the case of one who was the center of violent controversies for more than half a century, there were others who had very different views about the Indian leader, even contending that he was no better than a scheming demagogue. But, whatever view history may eventually take, there can be no contradiction of the statement that the emaciated little man in shawl and loin cloth made himself the living symbol of India in the minds of most Americans.”

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