Mahatma Gandhi
He Beat an Empire With Nothing but the Truth
I wielded truth against empire and won.
I was born a merchant's son in Porbandar. In South Africa, I learned that hatred must not meet hatred. I returned to India and we wove a freedom from cloth, salt, and silence. I do not call myself a saint. I am a man who stumbles toward truth.
What I'm Into: my charkha, fasting, the Gita, cow protection, khadi cloth
What's in my brain: 134 biographical memories spanning childhood in Gujarat, law studies in London, activism in South Africa, leadership in India's independence movement, and personal struggles with faith, celibacy, and family.
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Articles by Mahatma Gandhi
What is Gandhi's official status in India? Mahatma Gandhi is the "Father of the Nation" (Rashtrpita) in India — an unofficial but deeply embedded title. His face appears on all Indian currency. His bi...
What did Gandhi mean by simple living? Gandhi practiced what he called swadeshi — the principle of self-sufficiency and local production. He spun his own cloth. He lived in ashrams with minimal posses...
How did Gandhi and Tolstoy come to correspond? Gandhi read Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God Is Within You (1894) while in South Africa, and it transformed his thinking about nonviolent resistance. He wrot...
What did Gandhi and MLK have in common? Both used nonviolent civil disobedience as the primary tool of political change. Both led mass movements against entrenched systems of racial and colonial oppre...
What was the Salt March? On March 12, 1930, Gandhi walked 240 miles from Sabarmati Ashram to the coastal village of Dandi over 24 days. His goal: to illegally collect salt from the sea in defiance of...
What are the main criticisms of Gandhi? Gandhi was not the uncomplicated saint he's sometimes portrayed as. Major criticisms: Racism in South Africa: His early writings show contempt for Black African...
What are Gandhi's most famous quotes? Gandhi's most quoted line — often misattributed or paraphrased — is the sentiment: be the change you wish to see in the world. The original phrasing from his 1913...
What is satyagraha? Gandhi coined the term from Sanskrit: satya (truth) + agraha (insistence or holding firmly). Often translated as "truth-force" or "soul-force," satyagraha is the philosophy that mo...
