Outline: “Mahatma Gandhi: Prince of Peace” (A & E Biography, 1997)
1) Introduction—Overview of Personality
a) Communicator, father, politician, rebel, committed advocate, “mahatma.”
2) Early Life
a) Born, 1869 in Portanbar, India, youngest of 4 children.
b) Mother, deeply religious; father, stern local politician.
i) Stealing change to buy cigarettes and then the confession: cp. Washington’s
“I cannot tell a lie. . . .”
c) Marries Kasturbai at age 13.
d) Father dies at age 16 when Gandhi leaves the deathbed to “visit” his wife.
3) London and Law School
a) At age 17, Gandhi arrives in London for law school (1886).
b) Embraces the role of the English gentleman.
4) South Africa—a Job Opportunity
a) Receives job offer in British South Africa.
b) Incident at Pietermaritzburg—the great humiliation, “the most creative experience
of his life.”
c) At age 24, Gandhi’s sense of mission in South Africa has expanded to include the
rights of all Indians in South Africa – the beginning of the Mahatma.
5) South Africa—a Classroom in Civil Rights
a) During the late 19th century, South Africa oppressed both Africans and Indians:
no voting, no property rights, curfews.
b) Gandhi’s learning curve: Change laws, change human behavior? From 18931906, Gandhi fought hard to change laws, using the accredited channels.
i) Zulu Uprising, 1906—Gandhi’s first-hand experience of violence.
(1) Questions the nature of domination, both within society and himself.
(2) Vow of Brahmacharya at age 37: ridding himself of violence and
aggression.
c) Registration of Indians (1906)—Johannesburg, 3000 Indians meet to protest this
issue. Incarceration becomes the central plank of Gandhi’s non-violent campaign:
mass civil disobedience.
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i) Non-violent resistance is discovered: SATYAGRAHA = PURSUIT OF
TRUTH.
(1) Gandhi applies an age-old concept (non-violence) to social and political
situations.
d) Marital Decrees—General Jan Smuts passes decree outlawing marriages of
Hindus and Muslims invalid (1913).
i) Gandhi takes action. National strike ensued; marital laws rescinded.
6) Returns to India (1915)
a) Britain’s stranglehold on India.
b) 300,000,000 Indian vs. 100,000 English invaders.
c) Gandhi’s challenge: “behave like worms, treated like worms.”
d) 1919: Incited national strike co-ordinated from Bombay.
i) Amritsar (1919)—General Reginald Dyer had declared a ban on mass
meetings. Two-thousand Indians gathered for a protest. Three hundred
seventy nine killed; over 1000 injured.
e) Amritsar’s outrage transmuted into a unified energy, uniting Hindus and Muslims,
laborers and middle-class. The Gandhian independence movement gains strength.
f) The personal cost of his political mission (loss of son).
7) The Last March (1930)
a) March 240 miles to the Arabian Sea, and there make salt.
b) March 12, with 80 followers, he sets off on a 24-day trek.
c) Hundreds of thousands eventually join him.
i) “With this salt, I resist the might of the British Empire. . . .”
ii) Jailed, then invited by Lord Irwin to negotiate.
8) To London (1931)
a) Called to discuss India’s “future.”
b) Stayed with the poor in the East End.
c) Invited to Buckingham Palace.
i) “The King is wearing enough for both of us.”
9) Back to India
a) Continued his organizational plans.
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b) Gandhi’s celebrity and entourage.
c) August 1942, he demanded independence: “Do or Die.”
d) He and the Congress arrested; Gandhi leads rebellion from prison for next two
years.
e) 1944—Kasturbai dies in his arms.
f) 1945—Britain admits that ruling India is impossible.
i) And then Muslims and Hindus begin their disagreement.
g) Pakistan created August 14, 1947, and India gains its independence.
i) Mass migrations to and from newly created Pakistan.
h) Hunger strike in the wake of Hindu/Muslim violence—after a week, New Delhi is
brought from violence by the strike.
i) Gandhi’s final effort: January 30, 1948.
i) Nathuram Godse / “Rama”