Eternal India Encyclopedia

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." 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. 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 Gopai Krishna Gokhale (1866-1915) Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948)

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". 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. Chittaranjan Das ( Deshbandu ) (1870-1925)

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