Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in 1869 in Porbandar, a coastal town in western India. He trained as a lawyer in London and in 1893 travelled to South Africa, where the discrimination he experienced set him on the path of activism. There he developed satyagraha, a method of nonviolent resistance grounded in truth, patience, and the refusal to return harm for harm.

Returning to India in 1915, Gandhi became the guiding spirit of the independence movement. He led campaigns of non-cooperation with British rule, championed hand-spinning and village self-reliance, and in 1930 walked 240 miles to the sea in the Salt March, defying the colonial salt tax. Imprisoned many times, he fasted for communal harmony and worked tirelessly for the dignity of the poorest.

India achieved independence in August 1947, though Gandhi grieved the partition that accompanied it. On January 30, 1948, he was assassinated in Delhi while walking to a prayer meeting. Honored as the Father of the Nation in India, his philosophy of nonviolence shaped leaders from Martin Luther King Jr. to Nelson Mandela, and his legacy endures wherever conscience confronts power peacefully.

Leader of India's independence movement who pioneered satyagraha, the philosophy of nonviolent resistance, inspiring civil rights movements across the world.