Essays

In his last year, unhappy at the partition of India, Gandhi worked to stop the carnage between Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs that raged in the border area between India and Pakistan. He was assassinated on 30 January 1948 by Nathuram Godse who thought Gandhi was too sympathetic to India's Muslims. 30 January is observed as Martyrs' Day in India. The honorific Mahatma ("Great Soul") was applied to him by 1914.[7] In India he was also called Bapu ("Father"). He is known in India as the Father of the Nation;[8] his birthday, 2 October, is commemorated there as Gandhi Jayanti, anational holiday, and world-wide as the International Day of Non-Violence. Gandhi's philosophy was not theoretical but one of pragmatism, that is, practicing his principles in the moment. Asked to give a message to the people, he would respond, "My life is my message."[9]
Gandhi was 24 when he arrived in South Africa[24] to work as a legal representative for the Muslim Indian Traders based in the city of Pretoria.[25] He spent 21 years in South Africa, where he developed his political views, ethics and political leadership skills.

Purported photograph of Gandhi in South Africa (1895)
Indians in South Africa were led by wealthy Muslims, who employed Gandhi as a lawyer, and by impoverished Hindu indentured laborers with very limited rights. Gandhi considered them all to be Indians, taking a lifetime view that "Indianness" transcended religion and caste. He believed he could bridge historic differences, especially regarding religion, and he took that belief back to India where he tried to implement it. The South African experience exposed handicaps to Gandhi that he had not known about. He realised he was out of contact with the enormous complexities of religious and cultural life in India, and believed he understood India by getting to know and leading Indians in South Africa.[26]
In South Africa, Gandhi faced the discrimination directed at all coloured people. He was thrown off a train at