Richard d north biography of mahatma

Indian independence activist (1869–1948)

"Gandhi" redirects here. For other uses, see Gandhi (disambiguation).

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule. He inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahātmā (from Sanskrit, meaning great-souled, or venerable), first applied to him in South Africa in 1914, is now used throughout the world.

Born and raised in a Hindu family in coastal Gujarat, Gandhi trained in the law at the Inner Temple in London and was called to the bar at the age of 22. After two uncertain years in India, where he was unable to start a successful law practice, Gandhi moved to South Africa in 1893 to represent an Indian merchant in a lawsuit. He went on to live in South Africa for 21 years. Here, Gandhi raised a family and first employed nonviolent resistance in a campaign for civil rights. In 1915, aged 45, he returned to India and soon set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest against discrimination and excessive land tax.

Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, and, above all, achieving swaraj or self-rule. Gandhi adopted the short dhoti woven with hand-spun yarn as a mark of identification with India's rural poor. He began to live in a self-sufficient residential community, to eat simple food, and undertake long fasts as a means of both introspection and political protest. Bringing anti-colonial nationalism to the common Indians, Gandhi led them in challenging the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km (250 mi) Dandi

The tortuous and blood-stained road to Indian independence and partition is uncannily like the path taken in other countries. The most important political leaders are Mahatma Gandhi (Inner Temple), Mohammad Ali Jinnah (Lincoln’s Inn) and Jawaharlal Nehru (Harrow, Trinity College Cambridge and Inner Temple) …  and Lord Mountbatten who, like my cousin Richard, went to Lockers Park and, unlike Richard, to the Royal Naval College, Osborne. 

An English education seems to be a prerequisite to gain freedom from British rule. The pattern in India has a remarkable resemblance to Ireland a quarter of a century earlier, where the founding of the Irish Free Sate was followed by a civil war. In both countries Britain conceded the principal of independence many years before it was implemented. Differences between Muslims and Hindus, Catholics and Protestants with Britain trying hopelessly to see fair play make for tragedy, although it is hard to see any other outcome even with hindsight.

Various forms of Home Rule were mooted for Malta after World War Two until independence was achieved in 1964. Politicians on left and right differed but the Catholic Church unifies the country to this day.

I have got up to 1947 in Alex von Tunzelmann’s, Indian Summer. Mountbatten has arrived as Wavell’s successor as Viceroy. Poor old Wavell; he was not given enough soldiers or weapons to beat Rommel in North Africa and then was given the starving Indian sub-continent to rule as Commander-in-Chief and Viceroy. He was a good soldier, less accomplished as a politician but, at heart, a deeply good man who gave his life to serve his country. His anthology of poetry, Other Men’s Flowers, is a memorial many of us might envy but few could emulate. He only selected work that he knew by heart.

Meanwhile our exploration of Gozo continues. On Friday we walked to Qbajjar for another excellent seaside lunch. Pronouncing place names here is tricky and I was relieved

Desai, Ashwin and Vahed, Goolem. "References". The South African Gandhi: Stretcher-Bearer of Empire, Redwood City: Stanford University Press, 2015, pp. 307-322. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804797221-027

Desai, A. & Vahed, G. (2015). References. In The South African Gandhi: Stretcher-Bearer of Empire (pp. 307-322). Redwood City: Stanford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804797221-027

Desai, A. and Vahed, G. 2015. References. The South African Gandhi: Stretcher-Bearer of Empire. Redwood City: Stanford University Press, pp. 307-322. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804797221-027

Desai, Ashwin and Vahed, Goolem. "References" In The South African Gandhi: Stretcher-Bearer of Empire, 307-322. Redwood City: Stanford University Press, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804797221-027

Desai A, Vahed G. References. In: The South African Gandhi: Stretcher-Bearer of Empire. Redwood City: Stanford University Press; 2015. p.307-322. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804797221-027

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by Sachi Sri Kantha, October 1

During the past 40 years, I have read hundreds of popular articles, reasearch papers and a dozen books on Mahatma Gandhi.  Among all the portrayals made of this great human being by academics, acquaintances, politicians and journalists, I suppose if I’m asked what I consider as the best, I’d say my number 1 pick is the article by Leo Rosten (1908-1997), which appeared in Reader’s Digest in July 1983.  Note the date.  It appeared in July 1983 – a date Eelam Tamils will never forget – and following the 1983 Academy Awards which honored Richard Attenborough’s 1982 movie Gandhi.  I have kept an original tear sheet of this article by Leo Rosten in my collection.

Rosten was a noted Poland-born American humorist and author.  The introductory note to his article (length, only around 2,840 words) stated the obvious, which the Gandhi movie had obscured.  It was as follows:

The iconic image-making of Gandhi became an industry in post-independent India.  The culprits were India’s pygmy-grade politicians, pundits and mainstream press (including the House of Hindu in Chennai).  The money-bags owning the House of Hindu initially didn’t even warm up to Gandhi’s agitational politics of non-violence campaigns (see below, for the details).  They were fence-sitters in the 1919-21 period, more inclined to protect their business investment, rather than openly supporting Gandhi, then in his early forties.  But, once Gandhi’s agitational campaigns gained momentum among the nominally illiterate masses, making money on Gandhi’s name and fame was