Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), Indian political and religious leader, a key figure in India’s struggle for home rule. A Hindu, he was regarded as a prophet by many Indians and his nickname ‘Mahatma’ means ‘the Great Soul’. Gandhi originally trained as a lawyer but in 1893 he gave up his £5,000 a year legal practice in Bombay to live on a week campaigning against unfair treatment of Indians in South Africa. Back in India, he used similar methods of non-violent non-cooperation, including hunger strikes, as a means of achieving reform. He was assassinated by a Hindu extremist, offended by Gandhi’s campaign for friendship between the Muslims and Hindus, in the year after India’s independence.
