GANDHI ASSASSINATED:

January 30, 1948

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the political and spiritual leader of the Indian
independence movement, is assassinated in New Delhi by a Hindu fanatic.Born the
son of an Indian official in 1869, Gandhi's Vaishnava mother was deeply
religious and early on exposed her son to Jainism, a morally rigorous Indian
religion that advocated nonviolence. Gandhi was an unremarkable student but in
1888 was given an opportunity to study law in England. In 1891, he returned to
India, but failing to find regular legal work he accepted in 1893 a one-year
contract in South Africa.Settling in Natal, he was subjected to racism and South
African laws that restricted the rights of Indian laborers. Gandhi later
recalled one such incident, in which he was removed from a first-class railway
compartment and thrown off a train, as his moment of truth. From thereon, he
decided to fight injustice and defend his rights as an Indian and a man. When
his contract expired, he spontaneously decided to remain in South Africa and
launched a campaign against legislation that would deprive Indians of the right
to vote. He formed the Natal Indian Congress and drew international attention to
the plight of Indians in South Africa. In 1906, the Transvaal government sought
to further restrict the rights of Indians, and Gandhi organized his first
campaign of satyagraha, or mass civil disobedience. After seven years of
protest, he negotiated a compromise agreement with the South African
government.In 1914, Gandhi returned to India and lived a life of abstinence and
spirituality on the periphery of Indian politics. He supported Britain in the
First World War but in 1919 launched a new satyagraha in protest of Britain's
mandatory military draft of Indians. Hundreds of thousands answered his call to
protest, and by 1920 he was leader of the Indian movement for independence. He
reorganized the Indian National Congress as a political force and launched a
massive boycott of British goods, services, and institutions in India. Then, in
1922, he abruptly called off the satyagraha when violence erupted. One month
later, he was arrested by the British authorities for sedition, found guilty,
and imprisoned.After his release in 1924, he led an extended fast in protest of
Hindu-Muslim violence. In 1928, he returned to national politics when he
demanded dominion status for India and in 1930 launched a mass protest against
the British salt tax, which hurt India's poor. In his most famous campaign of
civil disobedience, Gandhi and his followers marched to the Arabian Sea, where
they made their own salt by evaporating sea water. The march, which resulted in
the arrest of Gandhi and 60,000 others, earned new international respect and
support for the leader and his movement.In 1931, Gandhi was released to attend
the Round Table Conference on India in London as the sole representative of the
Indian National Congress. The meeting was a great disappointment, and after his
return to India he was again imprisoned. While in jail, he led another fast in
protest of the British government's treatment of the "untouchables"--the
impoverished and degraded Indians who occupied the lowest tiers of the caste
system. In 1934, he left the Indian Congress Party to work for the economic
development of India's many poor. His protýgý, Jawaharlal Nehru, was named
leader of the party in his place.With the outbreak of World War II, Gandhi
returned to politics and called for Indian cooperation with the British war
effort in exchange for independence. Britain refused and sought to divide India
by supporting conservative Hindu and Muslim groups. In response, Gandhi launched
the "Quit India" movement it 1942, which called for a total British withdrawal.
Gandhi and other nationalist leaders were imprisoned until 1944.In 1945, a new
government came to power in Britain, and negotiations for India's independence
began. Gandhi sought a unified India, but the Muslim League, which had grown in
influence during the war, disagreed. After protracted talks, Britain agreed to
create the two new independent states of India and Pakistan on August 15, 1947.
Gandhi was greatly distressed by the partition, and bloody violence soon broke
out between Hindus and Muslims in India.In an effort to end India's religious
strife, he resorted to fasts and visits to the troubled areas. He was on one
such vigil in New Delhi when Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist who objected to
Gandhi's tolerance for the Muslims, fatally shot him. Known as Mahatma, or "the
great soul," during his lifetime, Gandhi's persuasive methods of civil
disobedience influenced leaders of civil rights movements around the world,
especially Martin Luther King Jr. in the United States.