794 / 822
1928
when the Simon Commission came to
India, the Indian National Congress under
Gandhi decided to boycott it as it had no
Indian as its members. It was everywhere met
with cries of
"Simon, go back."
At Lahore a
procession taken out under Lala Lajpat Rai
was lathi-charged. He was injured and died of
his injuries. His last words- "Every blow
aimed at me is a nail struck in the coffin of
the British empire in India."
Gopai Krishna Gokhale
(1866-1915)
A follower of Ranade and a Chitpavan
Brahmin like him, Gokhale's political
philosophy was similar to that of his mentor.
He was also a moderate and a believer in a
policy of co-operation with the Government.
On his graduation from the Elphinstone
College he joined the Deccan Education
Society, the members of which took a vow of
poverty for 20 years in order to devote their
time
exclusively
to
educating
their
countrymen. On joining the Fergusson
College he became a teacher of English and
mathematics. He became a member of the
Bombay Legislative Council in 1899 and in
1901 the Central Legislative Council. In
1905
he founded the Servants of India
Society in Poona to work in the areas of
famine relief, education, Hindu-Muslim unity
and the welfare of the lowest castes. Gokhale
was bitterly attacked by Tilak and other
advocates of violent methods to end foreign
rule.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
(1869-1948)
Mahatma Gandhi once said to those who
would make him a saint, "I am not a saint who
has strayed into politics. I am a politician who
is trying to be a saint." He was more a man of
action, a Karmayogi, than a thinker. When
asked for his message to mankind, he
declared, "My life is my message." He was
born on October 2,1869 in Porbundar, a port
town on the Kathiawar peninsula north of
Bombay. Porbundar was a princely state of
which Gandhi's father was Chief Minister.
The Gandhis belonged to the Modh Bania
subdivision of the Vaisya caste. The youngest
of six children the young Mohandas spent his
early years in a three-storey house. At 13 he
was married to Kasturba who was his own-
age and at 17 his father died. After passing his
matriculation in 1887 he resolved to study law
as that would qualify him for the Dewanship.
He sailed for England at 18 leaving his wife
and infant son after pledging under oath to his
mother that he would abstain from women,
wine and meat. His three years
in London turned Gandhi into a
Westernised and smartly dressed young
barrister. He became an active member of the
London Vegetarian Society and was
introduced by English Theosophists to the
Bhagavad Gita. They asked Gandhi if he
would help them read it in the original
Sanskrit. He agreed, although he was
embarrassed to confess that he had never read
it in any version. Thereafter for most of his
adult years, he read from the Gita daily
drawing from its works the strength "to smile
in the midst of overwhelming sorrow." He
studied the New Testament and often attended
church to hear sermons by the best preachers
of the day. He returned to Gujarat at 21
convinced that "next to India I would rather
live in London than in any other place in the
world." He tried to set up a law practice in
Rajkot but did not succeed. In 1893 a firm of
Porbundar Muslims asked him to go to South
Africa to handle a suit that was pending there.
The suit was settled out of court but the racial
intolerance that he encountered in South
Africa came as a shock to him after the close
relations with English friends in London.
Gandhi stayed on to help the Indians in South
Africa to fight for their rights. He founded the
Natal Indian Congress and became the first
"coloured" barrister to be enrolled as an
advocate of the Supreme Court of Natal. It
was in South Africa that he read Tolstoy's
The
Kingdom of God is Within You
which
overwhelmed him with its message of
Christian Pacifism and Thoreau's essay on
"Civil Disobedience" read during a spell of
imprisonment confirmed his view that an
honest man is duty-bound to violate unjust
laws. He coined the term satyagraha defining
it as "soul force" or "the force which is born
of truth and love or non-violence." To fit
himself for a life of voluntary hardship
Gandhi continued to simplify his diet and
dress and took a vow of celibacy. He returned
to India in 1915. He established the
Satyagraha Ashram at Sabarmati, Ahmedabad.
He launched a Satyagraha campaign in
Champaran, Bihar to fight for the removal of
indigo workers' grievances. In 1919 he called
for a non-co-operation movement against the
Rowlatt Bills but called off the Satyagraha
campaign after 12 days because of violence.
He had underestimated the forces of violence
and he called it a "Himalayan blunder." With
the death of Tilak in 1920 he became the
unchallenged master of the Congress. In 1922
he began a civil disobedience movement
launching it initially in Bardoli in Gujarat
before extending it nationwide. But violence
at Chauri Chaura near Gorakhpur in Uttar
Pradesh where 22 policemen were burnt alive
forced him to call off the campaign. In
March 1922 he was sentenced to six years of
imprisonment after being tried for sedition but
was released after two years on health
grounds. On March 12,1930 Gandhi began his
24 - day march to Dandi from Ahmedabad to
make salt in violation of the provisions of the
salt laws. He was arrested on May 4 but was
released eight months later. Following the
Gandhi - Irwin pact in March 1931 he sailed
for London in August that year to take part in
the Second Round Table Conference.
Returning from London after the failure of the
conference Gandhi resumed civil disobedience
in January 1932 and was imprisoned along
with other Congress leaders. In Yeravada Jail
Gandhi started a fast unto death against the
introduction of separate electorates for
Harijans under the Communal Award and
broke it only when the Poona Pact was
reached. After the outbreak of World War II,
he began the Quit India movement in August
1942 demanding complete independence
following the failure of the Cripps Mission.
He was put in prison and while there lost his
wife, Kasturba. He was deeply grieved at the
partition of British India into the two states of
India and Pakistan and was heartbroken at the
ensuing communal conflict between Sikhs and
Muslims and Muslims and Hindus. In Calcutta
in September 1947 he undertook a fast to end
communal rioting. Seventy-three hours later
he broke his fast when in his presence Hindu,
Muslim and Christian delegations signed
collective vows to keep the peace. On January
30,
1948 he was shot at his daily prayer
meeting in Delhi by Nathuram Vinayak
Godse. His last words were,
"He Ram".
Chittaranjan Das
(
Deshbandu
)
(1870-1925)
A graduate from the Presidency College,
Calcutta, he did his Bar-at-law in England in
1894. He came to be known as a good lawyer
when he defended Aurobindo Ghose in the
famous Alipore Bomb Case (1908). He joined
the Indian National Congress and was arrested
in 1922 for demonstrating against the visit of
the Prince of Wales. He was the first Mayor of
the Calcutta Corporation.
Sri Aurobindo Ghosh
(1872-1950)
A completely Westernised individual who
became an extremist nationalist, and ended his
days as a Yogi, Sri Aurobindo, the third son of
Dr. Krishna Dhan Ghose and Swarnalata Devi,
was born on the 15th of August 1872. His
father was determined to