"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will."
A man who got India freed from British Raj with non-violence as a tool, Gandhi was and is indeed an important part of India's history, present and future, but who called Gandhi as mahatma?
During the struggle for India's independence, for millions of Indians, Gandhi became more than a mere freedom fighter, he became "Mahatma" or "Great Soul". While in the west, Mahatma is the often taken to be Gandhi's given name, According to history books, the famous poet and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore bestowed the title on Gandhi in 1915 while writing his autobiography after the latter called him Gurudev.
MAHATMA GANDHI FULL NAME: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
MAHATMA GANDHI DATE OF BIRTH: October 2, 1869, Porbandar, India
MAHATMA GANDHI DEATH DATE: January 30, 1948, Delhi
The youngest child of his father's fourth wife, Mahatma Gandhi's father name was Karamchand Gandhi, who was the dewan (chief minister) of Porbandar, the capital of a small principality in western India (in what is now Gujarat state) under British suzerainty.
Religion is of importance in India, and in Mahatma Gandhi's case, it can be said that there was a connection between his religion and his approach towards the freedom movements. Gandhi while growing up in Porbandar observed her mother who was absorbed in religion. Gandhi followed a religion called Vaishnavism which focused on the worship of the Hindu god Vishnu with a strong tinge of Jainism, a morally rigorous Indian religion whose chief tenets are nonviolence and the belief that everything in the universe is eternal.
Having said that, it is believed, he took for granted ahimsa (noninjury to all living beings), vegetarianism, fasting for self-purification, and mutual tolerance between adherents of various creeds and sects.
Like most of India at that point of time, the educational facilities at Porbandar were rudimentary. It is evident with the fact that in the primary school that Mohandas attended, the children wrote the alphabet in the dust with their fingers.
Even though his father did not have much in the way of formal education, Gandhi was lucky as his father became dewan of Rajkot, another princely state. Gandhi's education cannot be summarised in one light as even though Mohandas occasionally won prizes and scholarships at the local schools, his record was on the whole mediocre.
He was married at the age of 13 and thus lost a year at school. His life as a student does, however, shows his psychology as a diffident child as he excelled neither in the classroom nor on the playing field. He loved to go out on long solitary walks when he was not nursing his by then ailing father (who died soon thereafter) or helping his mother with her household chores.
The leader of Indian independence's family consists of himself, his wife, and five sons as one of his son died soon after birth. While Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Kasturba Gandhi are part of the Gandhi family's second generation, His sons Harilal Gandhi, Manilal Gandhi, Ramdas Gandhi, Devdas Gandhi, Maganlal Gandhi, Samaldas Gandhi were part of the third generation.
One of the history's most celebrated freedom fighter, most transformative figure and also the most controversial one, Gandhi was a fearless campaigner for the rights and freedom of Indians with focus on the path of non-violence, which created a mark on the minds and hearts of people across the globe.
If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. We need not wait to see what others do.
While the quotes one knows about a freedom fighter are mostly slogans, Mahatma Gandhi's quotes and inspirational and motivational not only in patriotic but also in a daily life sense. Here are some of his quotes:
"A man is but a product of his thoughts. What he thinks he becomes."
Mahatma Gandhi
"Nobody can hurt me without my permission."
Mahatma Gandhi
"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong."
Mahatma Gandhi
"An ounce of practice is worth a thousand words."
Mahatma Gandhi
"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."
Mahatma Gandhi
"Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes."
Mahatma Gandhi
"If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children."
Mahatma Gandhi
"In a gentle way, you can shake the world."
Mahatma Gandhi
"Glory lies in the attempt to reach one's goal and not in reaching it."
Mahatma Gandhi
"Permanent good can never be the outcome of untruth and violence."
Mahatma Gandhi
"The future depends on what you do today."
Mahatma Gandhi
"To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer."
Mahatma Gandhi
"I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent."
Mahatma Gandhi
"You may never know what results come of your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results."
Mahatma Gandhi
"You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty."
Mahatma Gandhi
Gandhi was killed by Nathuram Vinayak Godse, who shot Gandhi in the chest three times at point-blank range in New Delhi on 30 January 1948. At 17:17 on 30 January 1948, as Gandhi made his way to a prayer meeting on a raised lawn behind Birla House, a mansion in New Delhi, where he was staying, Godse stepped out of the crowd flanking his path to the dais and shot Gandhi. An advocate of Hindu nationalism assassinated Gandhi as he favoured the political demands of India's Muslims during the partition of India. He was given capital punishment and hanged on 15 November 1949.
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