Mahatma Gandhi's Children: Learn Facts You Didn't Know Before!

Mohandas Gandhi was a leader in India's independence movement.

Gandhi employed nonviolent ways to challenge British imperialism when India was a colony. As a result of this, he was given the title Mahatma for his services ('mahatma' is a Sanskrit word that means 'great soul').

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in Porbandar, India, on October 2, 1869. In his youth, he studied different religions, particularly Hinduism and Jainism. One of Jainism's key concepts is nonviolence (ahimsa).

Gandhi was regarded as an ordinary student during his school years. He completed his studies at the University of Bombay in 1887. He then went to England to pursue a law degree. In 1891, he returned to India where he attempted but failed to enter the legal profession.

Gandhi accepted a job in a British colony in South Africa in 1893. There, he witnessed Europeans abusing Indian settlers which made him decide to politics to fight for natives' rights.

Gandhi used civil disobedience for the first time in 1906. He advised the Indian people not to follow British laws that they believed were unjust.

He further stated that no matter how the Indian protestors were punished for their crimes and how many died young, they should remain peaceful. Satyagraha, or 'devotion to truth,' became the name for this new form of protest.

Gandhi was also elected as a member of the Indian National Congress party in 1920, but he eventually left the party in 1934 and continued to work on India's independence struggle on his own.

If you like reading about Mahatma Gandhi, you should read further to know about him in detail. There is a lot of information available on Mahatma Gandhi, and many curious questions have been answered for you. So keep reading to find when is Gandhi's birthday or when he visited South Africa.

Interesting Facts About Mahatma Gandhi's Children

On October 2, 1869, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in Porbandar, India, a seacoast town on the Kathiawar Peninsula north of Bombay.

His affluent family belonged to one of the upper castes (Indian social classes) and he was the fourth child of Karamchand Gandhi, the prime minister of three tiny city-states, and his fourth wife, Putlibai.

Mohandas was just 14 years old when his parents married him to Kasturba Gandhi, a girl from Porbandar. For the time being, Mohandas was ecstatic at the time, because he knew getting married provided him with some wonderful new clothes and a new playmate.

However, as he grew older, he began to understand more about child marriage and consistently criticized and battled against it.

Mohandas Gandhi and Kasturba Gandhi had four sons, all of whom are now deceased. Their eldest son, Harilal, rebelled against his legendary father.

He drank a lot, converted to Islam and died a shattered man. Manilal, the second son, remained in South Africa to pursue the civil rights campaign. Ramdas and Devadas Gandhi, the Mahatma's younger sons, resided with or near him, and Devadas Gandhi served as editor of The Hindustan Times for 24 years.

The Gandhi Memorial Museum was originally founded in 1959, in the city of Madurai, in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The museum is also referred to as Gandhi Museum and holds a blood-stained robe that Mahatma Gandhi wore when he was shot by Nathuram Godse.

Mahatma Gandhi's Political Influence And Leadership

Rajmohan Gandhi has written extensively about the Indian independence struggle and its leaders and Indo-Pak ties, human rights, and conflict resolution. As well as being a biographer, he is Mahatma Gandhi's grandson and the former President of Initiatives for Change International.

Mahatma Gandhi was dearly declared the father of the Nation, and countless monuments were erected in his honor. Gandhi was then nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five times between 1937 and 1948, but he never received it, and by the time it was decided to award him for the fifth nomination, he had already been assassinated.

India was a British colony during Gandhi's life, yet he desired independence. Gandhi led the Dandi march after the British imposed a heavy tax for salt on March 12, 1930. The Quit India Movement was initiated by Mahatma Gandhi on August 8, 1942.

He gave his famous 'Quit India' speech to the All India Congress Committee of Bombay on March 8, 1942, and urged Indians to 'karo ya maro' (do or die).

When he returned to India, he was instrumental in the country's freedom from British rule, encouraging other colonial people to struggle for their own independence and dismantle the British Empire.

In British India, people of many different religions and ethnic groups existed. Many people believed that the country should be divided into separate countries so that different ethnic groups could have their own nations. Many people particularly believed that Hindus and Muslims should live in separate countries.

The title Mahatma Gandhi did not come naturally to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. According to a few authors, Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel Prize-winning Bengali poet, bestowed the title to him.

Gandhi Ji (as he is respectfully called) was not present when Jawaharlal Nehru delivered the Tryst with Destiny speech to commemorate India's freedom.

Mahatma Gandhi's funeral procession is believed to have been 4.9 mi (8 km) long.

Political Facts About Mahatma Gandhi And His Children

During World War II, Mohandas Gandhi was imprisoned for two years. As a reward for assisting Britain in the war, he and other Indian leaders desired immediate independence.

Gandhi continued to campaign for independence after his release.

In 1947, India was granted freedom. Gandhi had won a major victory. However, he was saddened to learn that India's land had been partitioned into two new countries: India and Pakistan. India was ripped apart by Hindu-Muslim violence both before and after its partition. Gandhi attempted to bring peace to the world.

He was shot and killed by a Hindu extremist in the city of Delhi on January 30, 1948, who believed Mahatma Gandhi was too courteous of Muslims. Indian officials later tried and executed Godse.

Gandhi was one of the most influential political and social figures of the 20th century. His use of nonviolent protest contributed to the independence of his country.

Within his own country, he advocated for both Hindu and Muslim rights. He also fought for improved treatment for Indian men and women, and groups and communities that the rest of society scorned.

Other democratic and anti-racist campaigners such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela have been inspired by Gandhi's satyagraha principle, which is sometimes translated as 'path of truth' or 'pursuit of truth.' Gandhi frequently stated that his values were basic and were founded on old Hindu beliefs of truth (satya) and nonviolence (ahimsa).

When black South Africans gained the right to vote in 1994, Mahatma Gandhi was declared a national hero, and countless monuments were erected in his honor. In 1894, he had assisted in forming the Natal Indian Congress, and it was through this organization, he shaped South Africa's Indian community into a coherent political force.

Even though they had their father's political legacy, Mahatma Gandhi's children did not follow him into politics. However, his son Devadas and grandson Rajmohan joined the press and carried forward their patriotic duty without being directly involved in politics.

Similarly, Manilal Gandhi contributed to the civil movement in South Africa and carried his father's legacy forward in his own way. He also joined the press and became the editor of The Indian Opinion, a newspaper started by Gandhi himself in 1903.

The newspaper was meant to document the struggle of people living in India and South Africa under oppressive colonial rule.

Mahatma Gandhi's Rise In Politics

In 1915, Gandhi returned to India from South Africa. He rose to become India's most powerful political leader in just a few years.

He had not succeeded as a lawyer since he lacked the psychological skills to cross-examine witnesses. He had hence returned to Rajkot, where he began drafting petitions for litigants to make a living. However, he was compelled to stop working following a dispute with a British officer.

In the years 1920–22, 1930–34, and 1940–42, he spearheaded massive protests. Gandhi's supporters boycotted British goods. and refused to enter British government courts or British schools.

Gandhi led a demonstration against a British salt tax in 1930. He led a march of Indians to the sea to gather their own salt. Gandhi was occasionally imprisoned for his actions.

Many powerful people, both at the time and today, revered Gandhi. For example, Gandhi was admired by Albert Einstein, one of the finest scientists of all time.

Gandhi's example has influenced many individuals who have battled for equality and justice. Martin Luther King, Jr. studied Gandhi's nonviolence ideology and used it to help the civil rights movement in the United States win successes.

Gandhi was a Hindu, but he admired concepts from a wide range of religions, including Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. He believed that people of all faiths should have equal rights and coexist peacefully in the same country.

Gandhi resigned from Congress in 1938. He stated that he could no longer work via Congress to bring caste and religious groups together. He also didn't think he had much to contribute to the political process.

The British Indian Empire was divided into India and Pakistan in August 1947. Gandhi led the fight for Indian independence, but not the division of the erstwhile Raj into two countries. So on Independence Day, instead of celebrating, he was mourning the demise of India as it was.

As stated above, Gandhi's sons - except his oldest, Harilal, who is said to have lost his way when rebelling against his father for not letting him go to the UK to study - had respectful careers.

However, a lesser-known fact is that they all managed this without a formal education. As Gandhi was against anything British, he did not send his children to formal British schools like he himself had attended growing up.

Despite this fact, combined with what would have undoubtedly been a great pressure, given they had such big shoes to fill because of their father's reputation, they still managed to overcome obstacles and led fulfilling lives helping others, in India and South Africa.

Other Interesting Facts About Gandhi

Gandhi was born to a rich, upper-caste family. Gandhiji's mother was the one who encouraged him to fast for long periods of time in his later years.

His father, Karamchand, left Porbandar in 1874 and went to Rajkot to work as a chief minister for the monarch, Thakur Sahib.

For the first time, Gandhi wore a loincloth as a mark of his sympathy with India's poor. The visual of Gandhi spinning yarn was promoted to Indian workers in favor of Gandhi in 1930.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu presented a bronze statue of Gandhi commemorating the anniversary of the incident at the Pietermaritzburg Railway Station on Church Street.

Two (Ramdas and Devadas) of Gandhi's four sons were born in South Africa while the other two (Harilal and Manilal) were born in India.