Volta
Person1869 – 1948

Mahatma Gandhi

Also called: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Gandhi

Leader of the Indian independence movement who resisted British rule through non-violent civil disobedience grounded in satyagraha ("holding to truth")

Born in Porbandar, Gujarat, he studied law in London. In 1893 he went to South Africa, where for some twenty years he practised satyagraha against discrimination toward Indians, returning home in 1915. He led the non-cooperation movement, the Salt March and the Quit India movement, was jailed many times, and campaigned against untouchability and for Hindu–Muslim harmony. On 30 January 1948, the year after independence, he was shot dead in Delhi by a Hindu extremist. "Mahatma", "great soul", is an honorific.

Show on the map

Where they went

Open the full map

OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles © OpenStreetMap contributors

5 related events

  1. 1
    1919Rowlatt Act and the Amritsar Massacrerelated figure

    When Britain passed the Rowlatt Act allowing arrest and detention without warrant, protests broke out across India. At Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar British troops fired on an unarmed crowd, killing hundreds.

  2. 2
    1920 – 1922Gandhi’s Non-violent Non-cooperation Movementleader

    Gandhi and the Indian National Congress led a non-violent movement to boycott British goods, schools, courts and offices—the first nationwide mass movement uniting Hindus and Muslims.

  3. 3
    1929 – 1930Purna Swaraj Resolutionparticipant

    At its Lahore session the Indian National Congress resolved to seek complete independence (purna swaraj) rather than dominion status, and proclaimed 26 January 1930 Independence Day.

  4. 4
    1930Salt Marchleader

    Defying the British salt monopoly, Gandhi walked some 390 km from his ashram to the seaside at Dandi and made salt from seawater, signalling civil disobedience across India.

  5. 5
    1942 – 1944Quit India Movementleader

    During the Second World War the Congress demanded that Britain leave India at once and launched a mass campaign. Gandhi and the leadership were arrested immediately and the movement was crushed, but British rule became harder to sustain.

Related works

  • Film: GandhiDramatizedFilm · 1982 · Richard Attenborough

Dramatized works (films, dramas, novels) may differ from the historical record.

People who appear alongside

  • Jawaharlal Nehru1889 – 1964

    Indian National Congress leader who carried the call for complete independence at Lahore in 1929 and became independent India’s first prime minister (1947–1964)

  • Muhammad Ali Jinnah1876 – 1948

    Leader of the All-India Muslim League who led the creation of Pakistan as a separate Muslim state and became its first governor-general

Themes this person appears in

  • National Movements in Asia and Africa1915 – 1948

    From the Hussein–McMahon correspondence to the founding of Israel — three decades in which India, West Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa, swept up in the tide of self-determination after the First World War, pressed toward independence and modernization