October 2, 1869 saw the birth of a famous Indian personality, lovingly called, the Father of the Nation. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born to the Diwan of Porbandar, in the state of Kathewar in Gujarat. His mother, Putlibai, was a very religious lady and brought up her son with stories from the scriptures and mythology. Little Gandhi grew up to be an honest, upright student.
At the tender age of 13 he was married to a beautiful damsel named Kasturba. At 19, much to his mother's chagrin, he was sent to England to study law. He promised his mother that he would keep away from wine, women and non-vegetarianism … and he managed to stick to his word.
He launched 3 significant movements with one goal - freedom from the British rule. The first one was the Non-Cooperation Movement, the objective of which was 'the attainment of swaraj by peaceful and legitimate means'. The method was to boycott foreign goods and official durbars, British courts and schools, give up honours and titles and go back to the use of swadeshi goods.
The second was the Civil Disobedience Movement. Launched on April 6, 1930, it began with the historic Dandi March or the 'Salt Satyagraha'. In order to oppose the British Salt Law, Gandhiji marched to Dandi along with his followers to make their own salt.
On January 30, 1948, the Mahatma was shot dead by a misguided communalist. As Pandit Nehru put it, 'the light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere'.
