Do you know Mahatma Gandhi? If no have to read this.Great person of last 200 yrs

@itgalary (633)
February 22, 2007 3:53pm CST
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Gujarati: ??????? ?????? ?????, Hindi: ??????? ?????? ?????, IAST: mohandas karamcand gandhi, IPA: [mo?h?nd?a?s k?r?mt??nd? ga?nd??i?]) (October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948), was a major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement. In India, he is recognized as the Father of the Nation. October 2nd, his birthday, is commemorated each year as Gandhi Jayanti, and is a national holiday. He was the pioneer of Satyagraha—the resistance of tyranny through mass civil disobedience, firmly founded upon ahimsa or total non-violence—which led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Gandhi is commonly known in India and across the world as Mahatma Gandhi (Hindi: ???????, m?hatma ; from Sanskrit, mahatma: Great Soul) and as Bapu (in Gujarati, Father). A British-educated lawyer, Gandhi first employed his ideas of peaceful civil disobedience in the Indian community's struggle for civil rights in South Africa. Upon his return to India, he organized poor farmers and labourers to protest against oppressive taxation and widespread discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for the alleviation of poverty, for the liberation of women, for brotherhood amongst differing religions and ethnicities, for an end to untouchability and caste discrimination, and for the economic self-sufficiency of the nation, but above all for Swaraj—the independence of India from foreign domination. Gandhi famously led Indians in the disobedience of the salt tax on the 400 kilometre (248 miles) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and in an open call for the British to Quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years on numerous occasions in both South Africa and India. Throughout his life, Gandhi remained committed to non-violence and truth even in the most extreme situations. A student of Hindu philosophy, he lived simply, organizing an ashram that was self-sufficient in its needs. Making his own clothes—the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl woven with a charkha, he lived on a simple vegetarian diet. He used rigorous fasts, for long periods, for both self-purification and protest. Gandhi's life and teachings inspired Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Biko and Aung San Suu Kyi and through them the American civil rights movement and the freedom struggles in South Africa and Myanmar respectively
1 response
@ESKARENA1 (18261)
22 Feb 07
certainly gandhi was instrumental in the liberation of India from British rule but was this enough to call him the greatest person for 200 years, was he not just in the right place at the right time?
@itgalary (633)
22 Feb 07
I meant he was 1 among the greatest persons. He is not famous for his freedom fight alone. He was famous for his policy of Ahimsa (Non violence).
@itgalary (633)
22 Feb 07
% % % % % Mother Teresa 49 Martin Luther King Jr. 34 John F. Kennedy 32 Albert Einstein 31 Helen Keller 30 Franklin Delano Roosevelt 26 Billy Graham 26 Pope John Paul II 25 Eleanor Roosevelt 22 Winston Churchill 20 Dwight D. Eisenhower 18 Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis 18 Mahatma Gandhi 18 Nelson Mandela 17 Ronald Reagan 17 Henry Ford 15 Bill Clinton 10 Margaret Thatcher 9 Ref :: http://www.pollingreport.com/20th.htm --------------------------------------------------------------------------------