Importance of Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on 2nd October 1869 A.D. in Porbandar of Gujarat (1869-1948). Just after passing Barristership from London in 1883 A.D., he had to rush to South Africa to plead a case on behalf of ‘Dada Abdullah and Co.’ in 1897 A.D.

At this time, he observed the exploitation and oppression towards the Negros by the Whites and formed ‘Natal Indian National Congress’ to protest it. The non-violent Satyagraha movement of Mahatma gandhi had a very significant impact worldwide.

Gandhiji adopted the non-violence ideology and his first lesson in politics started in the South Africa. After that he had to come back to India due to First World War (1914-18) A.D.) as per the international law. The period from 1915 A.D. to 1948 A.D. in Indian politics is called “Gandhi Era”. This is the most important period in Indian History.

Gandhiji had great impact on Indian politics while the Home Rule Movement was continuing on the other side.

He developed the regional movements in Kheda and Champaran in Gujrat.

He formed ‘Mazdur Mahajan Sabha’ for making movements against the mill owners of Ahmedabad for fixing the working time of the workers to 8 hours a day. Besides this, the wages were also increased by 35%, revenue taxes were also decreased in the case of the farmers of Kheda.

For the interest of the indigo farmers in Champaran they were allotted 3 Kattahs of land each for indigo cultivation. Besides this the price of the indigo was also raised by 25%.

Gandhiji successfully applied his ideology of Satyagraha experimentally by giving his leadership in the regional movements. So, many other important personalities like J.B. Kripalani, Mahadev Desai, Rajendra Prasad, Vallabhbhai Patel etc. also joined him.