“Lives of great men all remind us, We can make our lives sublime”
Mahatma Gandhi is popularly known as Bapu by the country-men. He is also called the Father of the nation. His full name was Mohan Dass Karam Chand Gandhi. He was born on 2nd of October, 1869 at Porbandar. His father was the Dewan of the state of Rajkot. He received his early education at home. After passing the matriculation examination he went to England to study law. By that time he had been married to Kasturbabai. After qualifying for the bar, he became a barrister. He practised in South Africa and started Satyagraha to secure for the Indians their due rights.
On his return to India in 1915, he joined the Indian National Congress. He hurled himself, central core, into India’s battle for opportunity. He wanted to end the foreign rule in the country.
Mahatma Gandhi started his non-cooperation movement in 1919. He loved non-violence. He boycotted foreign goods. For three decades, he remained the guiding deity of the Congress. He was both a saint and a politician. Throughout his wonderful career, he dominated the field of politics in India. At last, he brought her freedom on August 15, 1947.
As a man, he was a noble specimen of humanity and led a saintly life. He preached and practised Truth and Non-violence. For about four decades, his contribution to political, social, educational, religious and ethical topics commanded respect and attention both at home and abroad. His stress was never on the intellectual approach to a problem but the character of the Indian people. Though he had a poor physique, yet he had something of steel in him.
In his personal dealing with individuals hostile to him, he had gained many a victory. He was the true representative of the teeming millions of India. He knew his India well and reacted to her lightest tremors. He gauged a situation accurately and almost instinctively. He had a knack of acting at the most psychological moment. Sometimes he was the single-minded revolutionary going like an arrow to his target and shaking up millions in the process. He did not descend from the top. He seemed to emerge from the millions of Indians, speaking their language.
He was a man who felt he had a message not only for India but for the world. He was a staunch nationalist. He ardently desired world peace. He was a citizen of the world and his nationalism, therefore, had a certain world outlook.
His actions were always in keeping with his words. He was every inch a practical man. He practised what he preached. He always began with himself. His words and activities fit into one another perfectly on the hand. Whatever the consequences, he never lost his integrity. There was always organic completeness about his life and work.
He taught us not to hate anybody, not to quarrel, but to play with one another and co-operate in the service of the country. He was very wise, but he never tried to show off his wisdom. He was simple and child-like in many ways and he loved children. With the basic things, he was inflexible and firm as a rock. For him, there was no compromise with what he considered evil. He taught us the lesson of unity, equality and brotherhood.
He was a champion of Hindu-Muslim unity. He worked earnestly for the achievement of this object. It was with this object that he supported the `Khalifat movement’. Gandhi sacrificed his life for this ideal. A misguided youth fired at Gandhi Ji, killing him there and then. He was the greatest of the great and the like of him may not be born for centuries to come.
here is also essay on jawaharlal nehru.
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