MAHĀTMĀ MOHANDAS KARAMCHAND GANDHI (1869-1948) was the leader of the Indian independence movement against British rule. He is unofficially called the Father of the Nation. Born and raised in a Hind...view moreMAHĀTMĀ MOHANDAS KARAMCHAND GANDHI (1869-1948) was the leader of the Indian independence movement against British rule. He is unofficially called the Father of the Nation. Born and raised in a Hindu merchant caste family in coastal Gujarat, western India, and trained in law at the Inner Temple, London, he first employed nonviolent civil disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, in the resident Indian community’s struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest against excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for various social causes and for achieving Swaraj or self-rule. He famously led Indians in challenging the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km (250 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and later in calling for the British to Quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned many times for many years in both South Africa and India. In the early 1940s, Muslim nationalists demanded a separate Muslim homeland carved out of India. In August 1947, Britain granted independence, but the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two dominions: a Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. As many displaced Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs made their way to their new lands, religious violence broke out, especially in the Punjab and Bengal. Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist, assassinated Gandhi on 30 January 1948.view less