
A preeminent leader of Indian nationalism and civil rights who successfully led the nonviolent independence movement against British rule.
Một lãnh đạo hàng đầu của chủ nghĩa dân tộc Ấn Độ và phong trào dân quyền, người đã lãnh đạo thành công cuộc đấu tranh giành độc lập bằng phương pháp bất bạo động chống lại sự cai trị của Anh.
This biography of Mahatma Gandhi helps you learn English through real historical stories. Explore Mahatma Gandhi's impact on the world.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, widely known as Mahatma (meaning "Great Soul"), was born in 1869 in Porbandar, India. After studying law in London, he moved to South Africa in 1893 to practice his profession. It was there, facing severe racial discrimination, that he first developed his revolutionary concept of "Satyagraha"—a form of active but strictly nonviolent civil disobedience based on truth and moral courage. For over two decades, he led campaigns for the civil rights of the Indian community in South Africa, transforming from a shy lawyer into a formidable political activist.
Gandhi returned to India in 1915 and soon became the leading figure of the Indian National Congress. He organized massive, nationwide campaigns to ease poverty, expand women's rights, build religious amity, and most importantly, achieve "Swaraj" or self-rule from the British Empire. His most iconic act of defiance came in 1930 with the Salt March, a 240-mile journey to the Arabian Sea to protest the oppressive British monopoly on salt. By simply making their own salt from seawater, Gandhi and his followers exposed the injustice of British rule to the world, enduring brutal police beatings and mass imprisonment without striking back.
Gandhi's unwavering commitment to nonviolence and his ascetic lifestyle—wearing simple homespun clothes and undertaking long fasts for self-purification and political protest—earned him the reverence of millions. His efforts ultimately culminated in India's independence in 1947. Tragically, the accompanying partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan caused immense religious violence, breaking Gandhi's heart. He was assassinated by a Hindu nationalist in 1948. Nevertheless, Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolent resistance profoundly influenced global civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela, making him an eternal symbol of peace and moral authority.