Speech on Mahatma Gandhi – The Father of Nation
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in the town of Porbander in Gujarat on 2nd October 1869. He did his schooling, in Rajkot Gujarat. At that time India was under British rule. His father died before Gandhi could finish his schooling.
At the age of thirteen, Gandhi got married to Kasturba, who was even younger. In 1888, he set sail for England, where he decided to pursue a degree in law.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
After one year of a none too successful law practice, Gandhi decided to accept an offer from an Indian businessman in South Africa, Dada Abdulla, to join him as a legal adviser. During those days, the Indians who were living in South Africa were without political rights, and were generally known by the derogatory name of ‘coolies’.
Gandhi himself came to an awareness of the frightening force when he was thrown out of a first-class railway compartment car, though he held a first-class ticket, at Pietermaritzburg.
From this political awakening, Gandhi was to emerge as the leader of the Indian community, and it was in South Africa that he first coined the term satyagraha to signify his theory and practice of non-violent resistance. Gandhi was to describe himself as a seeker of satya (truth), which could not be attained other than through ahinsa (non-violence, love) and brahmacharya (celibacy, striving towards God).
Gandhi returned to India in early 1915 with the determination of raising an awareness among people for their rights. Over the next few years, he was to become involved in numerous local struggles, such as at Champaran in Bihar, where workers on indigo plantations complained of oppressive working conditions, and at Ahmadabad, where a dispute had broken out between management and workers at textile mills.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Gandhi had ideas on every subject, from hygiene and nutrition to education and labour, and he relentlessly pursued his ideas in newspapers. He is still remembered as one of the principal figures in the history of Indian journalism.
Due to his efforts in the awakening of Indian people, he had earned the title of Mahatma from Rabindranath Tagore, India’s most well-known writer. When the tragedy happened at the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, Gandhi wrote the report of the Punjab Congress Inquiry Committee.
Over the next two years, he initiated the non-cooperation movement, which called upon Indians to withdraw from British institutions, to return honors conferred by the British, and to learn the art of self-reliance. Though the British administration was at places paralyzed, the movement was suspended in February 1922.
In early 1930, the Indian National Congress declared that it would now be satisfied with nothing short of complete independence (purna swaraj). On March 2, Gandhi addressed a letter to the Viceroy, Lord Irwin, informing him that unless Indian demands were met, he would be compelled to break the ‘salt laws’.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
On the early morning of March 12, with a small group of followers he proceeded for Dandi March on the sea. They arrived there on April 5. Gandhi picked up a small lump of natural salt and gave the signal to hundreds of thousands of people to similarly defy the law, since the British exercised a monopoly on the production and sale. This was the beginning of the civil disobedience movement.
In 1942, Gandhi issued the last call for independence from British rule. On the ground of Kranti Maidan, he delivered a speech, asking every Indian to lay down their life, if necessary, in the cause of freedom. He gave them this mantra, ‘Do or Die’; at the same time, he asked the British to ‘Quit India’. After a long struggle, Indian got independence on August 15, 1947.
Though Indian gained independence, yet it was achieved at a cost. The partition of India and Pakistan created much pain and a lot of bloodshed. This earned many opposes of Gandhi as well. One morning, Gandhi folded his hands, greeted his audience with namaskar and was about to leave for prayers.
At that moment, a young man came up to him, took a revolver out of his pocket, and shot him three times in his chest. Bloodstains appeared over Gandhi’s white woolen shawl. His hands still folded in a greeting, Gandhi uttered “He Ram! He Ram!” and left the world.