He was an Indian political and religious leader named Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi who was born in 1869.
He came over to London to study law and also spent some time in South Africa before returning to India in 1915 to lead a powerful movement from home rule and insisting on a policy of Non-violence.
Gandhi implemented a practice of non-violent civic disobedience by raising awareness of oppressive practices in Bihar, in 1918, where the local people were being oppressed by a large British constituance. As a way for the villagers to improve their lives, he encouraged them to lead peaceful strikes and protests.
He used to some unconventional methods at the time called passive resistance, which generally meant lying down on railway tracts and not moving, fasting, almost until death and generally refusing to co-operate with the British Authorities.
At the same time that his fame spread, his political influence was on the increase and by 1921 he was the leader of the Indian National Congress. He reorganise the party’s constitution around the principle of ‘Swaraj’, wishing for a complete political independence from the British.
He instigated a boycott of British goods and institutions, with this mass civil disobedience, he was subsequently arrested, on 10th March 1922. After a trial on sedition charges, he served 2 years, of a 6-year prison sentence.
In the final negotiations between India and Britain, a partition between India and the home rule resulted and Mahatma Gandhi had played a key part in the background talks.
The meaning of his title, the Mahatma, is that of a Great Soul. He was and still is revered throughout India.
Unfortnuately, in January 1948 one extreme Hindu fanatic assassinated Mahatma Gandhi because he believed that Gandhi’s belief in a non-violent acceptance and tolerance of all religions would compromise the supremacy of the Hindu religion.