TimeLine !
October 2, 1869: ·Birth of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
1883: ·Gandhi and Kasturbai are married.
1885: ·Death of Karamchand Gandhi, Gandhi's
father
September 4, 1888: ·Gandhi leaves for England
to study law.
June 10, 1891: ·Gandhi passes the bar exam in
England.
1891-1893: ·Gandhi fails as a lawyer in India.
April 1893: ·Gandhi accepts commission to spend
a year in South Africa advising on a lawsuit.
Spring 1894: ·Gandhi elects to stay on South
Africa, and founds the Natal Indian Congress.
Spring 1896: ·Gandhi returns to India to
collect his wife and children.
December 1896: ·Gandhi returns to South Africa
with his family.
October 1899: ·Outbreak of Boer War (1899-1901)
in South Africa. Gandhi organizes an ambulance corps for the British.
1901: ·Gandhi returns to India to attend the
Indian National Congress. G.K. Gokhale introduces him to nationalist leaders.
1901-1906: ·Gandhi struggles toward
Brahmacharya, or celibacy, finally ending his sexual activity in 1906.
1904: ·Nationalists found the magazine the
Indian Opinion, and soon print it on Gandhi's farm, the "Phoenix
Settlement."
July 31, 1907: ·The Boer Republic Transvaal,
now under the control of the British, attempts to register all Indians as
members; Gandhi and others refuse to register. Their resistance efforts mark
the first use of nonviolent non-cooperation by the Indian minority in South
Africa, soon calledsatyagraha, or "soul-force."
January 11, 1908: ·Gandhi is arrested and
sentenced to two months in prison.
October 10, 1908: ·Gandhi is arrested again,
spends a month in jail.
1909: ·Gandhi travels to London, pushing for
rights of South African Indians. The Transvaal registration law is repealed.
November 13, 1913: ·Indians in Natal and
Transvaal, under Gandhi's leadership, march peacefully in protest of a racist
poll tax and marriage laws. The marches continue through the winter.
June 30, 1914: ·Gandhi and Smuts, the Prime
Minister of the Transvaal, reach an agreement, ending the protests.
July 18, 1914: ·Gandhi sails to England.
August 1914: ·Gandhi arrives in England, just
at the outbreak of World War I(1914-1918).
January 9, 1915: ·Gandhi returns home to
India, and receives a hero's welcome.
May 25, 1915: ·Gandhi and his followers found
Satyagraha ashram, the religiously-oriented communal farm where Gandhi,
his family, and his followers will live.
April 6, 1919: ·Nationalists hold a
hartal, or day of fasting and prayer, in protest of the Rowlatt Act,
which drastically curtails civil liberties in India.
April 13, 1919: ·Amritsar Massacre; Under
General Dyer, British troops slaughter Indian protesters.
August 1, 1920: ·Gandhi calls for a period of
non-cooperation across India.
March 10, 1922: ·Gandhi is arrested for
sedition.
March 1922-January 1924: ·Gandhi remains in
prison.
1924-1928: ·Gandhi avoids politics, focusing
his writings on the improvement of India.
1925: ·Despite his long absence from politics,
Gandhi becomes President of the Indian National Congress.
February-August 1928: ·Residents in the
district of Bardoli protest high rents using methods of non-cooperation inspired
by Gandhi.
January 26, 1930: ·Gandhi publishes the
Declaration of Independence of India.
March 2, 1931: ·Gandhi warns the Viceroy of his
intention to break the Salt Laws.
March 12-April 6, 1931: ·Gandhi leads his Salt
March to the sea.
May 5, 1931: ·Gandhi is arrested for violating
the Salt Laws; non-cooperation movements break out across India.
January 1931: ·British government yields to
protests, releases all prisoners, invites a Congress representative to Britain
for a Round Table Conference (the Congress asks Gandhi to be this
representative).
Autumn 1931: ·Gandhi participates in the Round
Table Conference in Britain.
December 28, 1931: ·Gandhi returns to India.
January 4, 1932: ·Gandhi is arrested for
sedition, and held without a trial.
September 20-25, 1932: ·Gandhi fasts in prison
to protest the treatment of untouchables.
1934-38: ·Gandhi avoids politics, travels in
rural India.
1935: ·Government of India Act passes British
Parliament and is implemented in India; it is the first movement toward
independence.
September 1939: · World War II begins, lasting until 1945.
March 22, 1942: ·Sir Stafford Cripps arrives in
India, presenting to the Indian National Congress a proposal for Dominion status
(autonomy within the British Commonwealth) after the War.
August 8, 1942: ·The Indian National Congress
rejects the Cripps proposal, and declares it will grant its support for the
British war effort only in return for independence.
August 1942: ·Congress leaders are arrested;
Gandhi is imprisoned in the Aga Khan's palace.
February 10 to March 2, 1943: ·Gandhi fasts
while imprisoned, to protest British rule.
February 22, 1944: ·Death of Kasturbai
May 6, 1944: ·Gandhi is released from the Aga
Khan's palace.
Summer 1944: ·Gandhi visits Muhammed Ali Jinnah
in Bombay, but is unable to work out an agreement that will keep India whole.
May 16, 1946: ·British Cabinet Mission
publishes proposal for an Indian state, without partition; Jinnah and the Muslim
League reject the proposal.
March 1947: ·Lord Mountbatten arrives in India
and hammers out agreement for independence and partition.
August 15, 1947: ·Indian independence becomes
official, as does the partition into two countries, India and Pakistan.
August-December 1948: ·India dissolves into
chaos and killings, as Hindus and Muslims flee for the borders of India and
Pakistan.
January 30, 1948: ·Gandhi is assassinated by
Nathuram Vinayuk Godse, a Hindu nationalist.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Extra Information
Gandhi in South Africa (1895)
In South Africa, Gandhi was thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg after
refusing to move from the first-class. He protested and was allowed on first
class the next day. Travelling farther on by stagecoach, he was
beaten by a driver for refusing to move to make room for a European
passenger when he was travelling farther by stagecoach. He
was also barred from several hotels due to his skin color. In another
incident, Gandhi was ordered by the magistrate of a Durban court
to remove his turban, which he refused to do.
These events changed Gandhi's life and shaped his social activism and awakened
him to social injustice. After witnessing racism, rejudice and
injustice against Indians in South Africa, Gandhi began to people's standing in
the British Empire.
Gandhi extended his original period of stay in
South Africa to assist Indians in opposing a bill to deny them the right to vote
and sent request to Joseph Chamberlain,British Colonial Secretary, to reconsider
his position on this bill. Gandhi was not able to halt the bill's passage, but his
campaign was successful in drawing attention to the grievances of Indians in South
Africa. He helped found the Natal Indian Congress in1894, and molded the Indian
community of South Africa into a unified political organization.
In 1906, the Transvaal government made a new Act compelling the Indian population
for registration. On 11 September, Gandhi adopted the methodology of Satyagraha (devotion
to the truth) with nonviolent protest. He urged Indians to refuse to obey the new law and
to take the punishments, if needed. For 7 years, thousands of Indians were jailed or troubled
for refusing to register. This forced the South African government forced South African
leader Jan Christiaan Smuts to negotiate a compromise with Gandhi. This incidence
matured the Gandhi's the concept of Satyagraha and gave him confidence.
Gandhi returned to India permanently in 1915. Gandhi now had a reputation of a
successful leader and organizer. He joined the Indian National Congress. Gandhi
became the congress leaders in 1920. The Indian National Congress declared the
independence of India on 26 January 1930 under his leadership. Gandhi and
Congress withdrew their support from the British Raj when the Viceroy declared
war on Germany in September 1939. Gandhi demanded immediate independence of
India from British in 1942. This led to his imprisonment along with other
leaders for the duration. In August 1947 the British partitioned the land, with
India and Pakistan each achieving independence on terms that Gandhi
disapproved.
Champaran and Kheda Protest
Picture Missing !!!
Gandhi
in 1918, at the time of the Kheda and Champaran
Satyagrahas
Gandhi's first major achievements came in 1918
with the Champaran, Bihar, where the peasantry was forced to grow
Indigo and were forced to sell their crops to the planters at a fixed price.
Gandhi applied the nonviolent protest strategy to win concessions from the
authorities.
In 1918, Kheda was
hit by floods and famine and the peasantry was demanding relief from taxes.
Gandhi used the noncooperation by initiating a signature campaign where peasants
pledged non-payment of revenue.The Government gave way on important provisions
and relaxed the conditions of payment of revenue tax until the famine ended. In
1919 Gandhi united the Muslims with Indian National Congress, thus becoming the
India's first national leader with a multicultural base due to Khilafat
movement.
Non-cooperation
Mahatma
Gandhi spinning yarn, in the late 1920s
By 1920, Gandhi had become a popular leader in
the Congress. Gandhi now had the people and force to employ noncooperation,
nonviolence and peaceful against the British
Raj. In
the Jallianwala
Bagh massacre of hundreds of peaceful civilians by British
troops in Punjab. Gandhi criticised both the actions of the
British Raj and the retaliatory violence of Indians in an emotional speech
saying that all violence was evil and could not be justified.
Gandhi now began to focus on winning complete
self-government and control of all Indian government institutions, maturing soon
into Swaraj or
complete individual, spiritual, political independence.
Sabarmati
Ashram,
Gandhi's home in Gujarat as seen in 2006.
In December 1921, Gandhi reorganized the congress
with a new constitution, with the goal of “Swaraj”. Gandhi started to make
a “swadeshi” policy, which meant to boycott of foreign-made goods,
especially British goods and advocated to wear homespun cloth (khadi) be worn by
all Indians instead of British-made textiles.
Gandhi even invented a small, portable spinning
wheel to inculcate discipline and dedication and to include women in the
movement. Gandhi also urged the people to boycott British educational
institutions and law courts, to resign from government employment, and to
forsake British titles and
honors.
"Non-cooperation"
enjoyed widespread appeal and success, increasing excitement and participation
from all strata of Indian society.
Salt Satyagraha (Salt
March)
Original footage of Gandhi and his followers
marching to Dandi in the Salt Satyagraha
Gandhi
also focused on expanding initiatives against untouchability, alcoholism,
ignorance and poverty.
Gandhi
launched a new Satyagraha against the tax on salt in March 1930 in the famous
Salt March to Dandi from 12 March to 6 April, where he marched about 241 mi
from Ahmedabad to Dandi in Gujarat to make salt himself. Thousands of Indians
joined him on this march to the sea making it the most successful campaign at
upsetting British hold on India.
Women
Gandhi strongly favored the emancipation of
women. He opposed purdah, child marriage,
untouchability, and the extreme oppression of Hindu widows, up
to and including sati. Gandhi's success in enlisting women in his
campaigns, including the salt tax campaign, anti-untouchability campaign and the
peasant movement, gave many women a new self-confidence and dignity in the
mainstream of Indian public life.
Negotiations
Mahadev
Desai (left)
reading out a letter to Gandhi from the viceroy at
Birla House, Bombay, 7 April 1939
Gandhi
was invited to attend the Round Table Conference in London as the sole
representative of the Indian National Congress. The conference was a
disappointment to Gandhi and the nationalists, because it focused on the Indian
princes and Indian minorities rather than on a transfer of power.
World War II and Quit
India
Gandhi
and Nehru in 1942
In the World War II, Gandhi declared that India
could not be with British fighters while that freedom was denied to India
itself. Gandhi called for the British to Quit India in
1939.
Gandhi and Muhammad Ali
Jinnah, Bombay,
1944
Partition and independence,
1947
Gandhi with LouisMountbatten,Britain's last Viceroy of India, 1947. On 15 August 1947
the Indian Independence Act was invoked.
Assassination
Memorial at the former BirlaHouse, New Delhi,
Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi was assassinated at 5:17 PM on 30 January 1948 on his way to a prayer meeting.
1883: ·Gandhi and Kasturbai are married.
1885: ·Death of Karamchand Gandhi, Gandhi's
father
September 4, 1888: ·Gandhi leaves for England
to study law.
June 10, 1891: ·Gandhi passes the bar exam in
England.
1891-1893: ·Gandhi fails as a lawyer in India.
April 1893: ·Gandhi accepts commission to spend
a year in South Africa advising on a lawsuit.
Spring 1894: ·Gandhi elects to stay on South
Africa, and founds the Natal Indian Congress.
Spring 1896: ·Gandhi returns to India to
collect his wife and children.
December 1896: ·Gandhi returns to South Africa
with his family.
October 1899: ·Outbreak of Boer War (1899-1901)
in South Africa. Gandhi organizes an ambulance corps for the British.
1901: ·Gandhi returns to India to attend the
Indian National Congress. G.K. Gokhale introduces him to nationalist leaders.
1901-1906: ·Gandhi struggles toward
Brahmacharya, or celibacy, finally ending his sexual activity in 1906.
1904: ·Nationalists found the magazine the
Indian Opinion, and soon print it on Gandhi's farm, the "Phoenix
Settlement."
July 31, 1907: ·The Boer Republic Transvaal,
now under the control of the British, attempts to register all Indians as
members; Gandhi and others refuse to register. Their resistance efforts mark
the first use of nonviolent non-cooperation by the Indian minority in South
Africa, soon calledsatyagraha, or "soul-force."
January 11, 1908: ·Gandhi is arrested and
sentenced to two months in prison.
October 10, 1908: ·Gandhi is arrested again,
spends a month in jail.
1909: ·Gandhi travels to London, pushing for
rights of South African Indians. The Transvaal registration law is repealed.
November 13, 1913: ·Indians in Natal and
Transvaal, under Gandhi's leadership, march peacefully in protest of a racist
poll tax and marriage laws. The marches continue through the winter.
June 30, 1914: ·Gandhi and Smuts, the Prime
Minister of the Transvaal, reach an agreement, ending the protests.
July 18, 1914: ·Gandhi sails to England.
August 1914: ·Gandhi arrives in England, just
at the outbreak of World War I(1914-1918).
January 9, 1915: ·Gandhi returns home to
India, and receives a hero's welcome.
May 25, 1915: ·Gandhi and his followers found
Satyagraha ashram, the religiously-oriented communal farm where Gandhi,
his family, and his followers will live.
April 6, 1919: ·Nationalists hold a
hartal, or day of fasting and prayer, in protest of the Rowlatt Act,
which drastically curtails civil liberties in India.
April 13, 1919: ·Amritsar Massacre; Under
General Dyer, British troops slaughter Indian protesters.
August 1, 1920: ·Gandhi calls for a period of
non-cooperation across India.
March 10, 1922: ·Gandhi is arrested for
sedition.
March 1922-January 1924: ·Gandhi remains in
prison.
1924-1928: ·Gandhi avoids politics, focusing
his writings on the improvement of India.
1925: ·Despite his long absence from politics,
Gandhi becomes President of the Indian National Congress.
February-August 1928: ·Residents in the
district of Bardoli protest high rents using methods of non-cooperation inspired
by Gandhi.
January 26, 1930: ·Gandhi publishes the
Declaration of Independence of India.
March 2, 1931: ·Gandhi warns the Viceroy of his
intention to break the Salt Laws.
March 12-April 6, 1931: ·Gandhi leads his Salt
March to the sea.
May 5, 1931: ·Gandhi is arrested for violating
the Salt Laws; non-cooperation movements break out across India.
January 1931: ·British government yields to
protests, releases all prisoners, invites a Congress representative to Britain
for a Round Table Conference (the Congress asks Gandhi to be this
representative).
Autumn 1931: ·Gandhi participates in the Round
Table Conference in Britain.
December 28, 1931: ·Gandhi returns to India.
January 4, 1932: ·Gandhi is arrested for
sedition, and held without a trial.
September 20-25, 1932: ·Gandhi fasts in prison
to protest the treatment of untouchables.
1934-38: ·Gandhi avoids politics, travels in
rural India.
1935: ·Government of India Act passes British
Parliament and is implemented in India; it is the first movement toward
independence.
September 1939: · World War II begins, lasting until 1945.
March 22, 1942: ·Sir Stafford Cripps arrives in
India, presenting to the Indian National Congress a proposal for Dominion status
(autonomy within the British Commonwealth) after the War.
August 8, 1942: ·The Indian National Congress
rejects the Cripps proposal, and declares it will grant its support for the
British war effort only in return for independence.
August 1942: ·Congress leaders are arrested;
Gandhi is imprisoned in the Aga Khan's palace.
February 10 to March 2, 1943: ·Gandhi fasts
while imprisoned, to protest British rule.
February 22, 1944: ·Death of Kasturbai
May 6, 1944: ·Gandhi is released from the Aga
Khan's palace.
Summer 1944: ·Gandhi visits Muhammed Ali Jinnah
in Bombay, but is unable to work out an agreement that will keep India whole.
May 16, 1946: ·British Cabinet Mission
publishes proposal for an Indian state, without partition; Jinnah and the Muslim
League reject the proposal.
March 1947: ·Lord Mountbatten arrives in India
and hammers out agreement for independence and partition.
August 15, 1947: ·Indian independence becomes
official, as does the partition into two countries, India and Pakistan.
August-December 1948: ·India dissolves into
chaos and killings, as Hindus and Muslims flee for the borders of India and
Pakistan.
January 30, 1948: ·Gandhi is assassinated by
Nathuram Vinayuk Godse, a Hindu nationalist.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Extra Information
Gandhi in South Africa (1895)
In South Africa, Gandhi was thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg after
refusing to move from the first-class. He protested and was allowed on first
class the next day. Travelling farther on by stagecoach, he was
beaten by a driver for refusing to move to make room for a European
passenger when he was travelling farther by stagecoach. He
was also barred from several hotels due to his skin color. In another
incident, Gandhi was ordered by the magistrate of a Durban court
to remove his turban, which he refused to do.
These events changed Gandhi's life and shaped his social activism and awakened
him to social injustice. After witnessing racism, rejudice and
injustice against Indians in South Africa, Gandhi began to people's standing in
the British Empire.
Gandhi extended his original period of stay in
South Africa to assist Indians in opposing a bill to deny them the right to vote
and sent request to Joseph Chamberlain,British Colonial Secretary, to reconsider
his position on this bill. Gandhi was not able to halt the bill's passage, but his
campaign was successful in drawing attention to the grievances of Indians in South
Africa. He helped found the Natal Indian Congress in1894, and molded the Indian
community of South Africa into a unified political organization.
In 1906, the Transvaal government made a new Act compelling the Indian population
for registration. On 11 September, Gandhi adopted the methodology of Satyagraha (devotion
to the truth) with nonviolent protest. He urged Indians to refuse to obey the new law and
to take the punishments, if needed. For 7 years, thousands of Indians were jailed or troubled
for refusing to register. This forced the South African government forced South African
leader Jan Christiaan Smuts to negotiate a compromise with Gandhi. This incidence
matured the Gandhi's the concept of Satyagraha and gave him confidence.
Gandhi returned to India permanently in 1915. Gandhi now had a reputation of a
successful leader and organizer. He joined the Indian National Congress. Gandhi
became the congress leaders in 1920. The Indian National Congress declared the
independence of India on 26 January 1930 under his leadership. Gandhi and
Congress withdrew their support from the British Raj when the Viceroy declared
war on Germany in September 1939. Gandhi demanded immediate independence of
India from British in 1942. This led to his imprisonment along with other
leaders for the duration. In August 1947 the British partitioned the land, with
India and Pakistan each achieving independence on terms that Gandhi
disapproved.
Champaran and Kheda Protest
Picture Missing !!!
Gandhi
in 1918, at the time of the Kheda and Champaran
Satyagrahas
Gandhi's first major achievements came in 1918
with the Champaran, Bihar, where the peasantry was forced to grow
Indigo and were forced to sell their crops to the planters at a fixed price.
Gandhi applied the nonviolent protest strategy to win concessions from the
authorities.
In 1918, Kheda was
hit by floods and famine and the peasantry was demanding relief from taxes.
Gandhi used the noncooperation by initiating a signature campaign where peasants
pledged non-payment of revenue.The Government gave way on important provisions
and relaxed the conditions of payment of revenue tax until the famine ended. In
1919 Gandhi united the Muslims with Indian National Congress, thus becoming the
India's first national leader with a multicultural base due to Khilafat
movement.
Non-cooperation
Mahatma
Gandhi spinning yarn, in the late 1920s
By 1920, Gandhi had become a popular leader in
the Congress. Gandhi now had the people and force to employ noncooperation,
nonviolence and peaceful against the British
Raj. In
the Jallianwala
Bagh massacre of hundreds of peaceful civilians by British
troops in Punjab. Gandhi criticised both the actions of the
British Raj and the retaliatory violence of Indians in an emotional speech
saying that all violence was evil and could not be justified.
Gandhi now began to focus on winning complete
self-government and control of all Indian government institutions, maturing soon
into Swaraj or
complete individual, spiritual, political independence.
Sabarmati
Ashram,
Gandhi's home in Gujarat as seen in 2006.
In December 1921, Gandhi reorganized the congress
with a new constitution, with the goal of “Swaraj”. Gandhi started to make
a “swadeshi” policy, which meant to boycott of foreign-made goods,
especially British goods and advocated to wear homespun cloth (khadi) be worn by
all Indians instead of British-made textiles.
Gandhi even invented a small, portable spinning
wheel to inculcate discipline and dedication and to include women in the
movement. Gandhi also urged the people to boycott British educational
institutions and law courts, to resign from government employment, and to
forsake British titles and
honors.
"Non-cooperation"
enjoyed widespread appeal and success, increasing excitement and participation
from all strata of Indian society.
Salt Satyagraha (Salt
March)
Original footage of Gandhi and his followers
marching to Dandi in the Salt Satyagraha
Gandhi
also focused on expanding initiatives against untouchability, alcoholism,
ignorance and poverty.
Gandhi
launched a new Satyagraha against the tax on salt in March 1930 in the famous
Salt March to Dandi from 12 March to 6 April, where he marched about 241 mi
from Ahmedabad to Dandi in Gujarat to make salt himself. Thousands of Indians
joined him on this march to the sea making it the most successful campaign at
upsetting British hold on India.
Women
Gandhi strongly favored the emancipation of
women. He opposed purdah, child marriage,
untouchability, and the extreme oppression of Hindu widows, up
to and including sati. Gandhi's success in enlisting women in his
campaigns, including the salt tax campaign, anti-untouchability campaign and the
peasant movement, gave many women a new self-confidence and dignity in the
mainstream of Indian public life.
Negotiations
Mahadev
Desai (left)
reading out a letter to Gandhi from the viceroy at
Birla House, Bombay, 7 April 1939
Gandhi
was invited to attend the Round Table Conference in London as the sole
representative of the Indian National Congress. The conference was a
disappointment to Gandhi and the nationalists, because it focused on the Indian
princes and Indian minorities rather than on a transfer of power.
World War II and Quit
India
Gandhi
and Nehru in 1942
In the World War II, Gandhi declared that India
could not be with British fighters while that freedom was denied to India
itself. Gandhi called for the British to Quit India in
1939.
Gandhi and Muhammad Ali
Jinnah, Bombay,
1944
Partition and independence,
1947
Gandhi with LouisMountbatten,Britain's last Viceroy of India, 1947. On 15 August 1947
the Indian Independence Act was invoked.
Assassination
Memorial at the former BirlaHouse, New Delhi,
Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi was assassinated at 5:17 PM on 30 January 1948 on his way to a prayer meeting.