Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandi, "the great souled-one" was born as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He was born on October 2, 1869 in India. His father was a successful chief minister in India and his mom was a very religious woman. When he was 19 years old, Gandhi was sent to London like most upper and middle class Indians to study law and become somewhat westernized. His law career in India was a failure so he moved his wife and children with him in South Africa where he met a little more success. It was not until he lived almost 20 years in South Africa did he realize that the British were manipulating Indian culture to put the people against each other. It is important to remember that India did have a caste system, but the British found another way to suppress them and cause more internal conflict despite unifying India as one which was never done before. In 1913, Gandhi and the British and Indian governments pressured the South African government for their killing and imprisonment of Indians there. He lead a resistance movement against the British government and was imprisoned for two years from 1922 to 1924. When he came back in 1930, he lead yet another civil movement but retired in 1934. In January 1948, Gandhi fasted as he often did when pushing for changes. He fasted for 12 days until Delhi found peace, but on his way there he was shot to death.

http://www.history.com/topics/mahatma-gandhi