Born on 2 October 1869 in Porbandar, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was a great leader of the Indian Independence Movement in British-ruled India. Born to Karamchand Gandhi and Putlibai Gandhi, this saint employed nonviolent civil disobedient to inspire movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahatma applied to him first in 1914 in South Africa is now used worldwide and he is known more famously as Mahatma Gandhi.
Gandhi 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 organizing peasants, farmers, and urban laborers to protest against excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, but above all for achieving Swaraj or home-rule.
