Chronology

(1869- 1915)Discovering Himself

Mohandas Gandhi returns to India from London after

passing the Bar - Due to his foreign education, Gandhi gained a world perspective and an understanding of the British laws, which helped him challenge Britain’s unjust impositions during the Independence Movement.

12 June 1891

Mahatma Gandhi is ejected from a South African train, motivating him to fight for Indian rights in

the British Colony

“Pietermaritzburg is also famous for an incident early in the life of Mahatma Gandhi. In May 1893, while Gandhi was on his way to Pretoria, a white man objected to Gandhi's presence in a first-class carriage, and he was ordered to move to the van compartment at the end of the train. Gandhi, who had a first-class ticket, refused, and was thrown off the train at Pietermaritzburg. Shivering through the winter night in the waiting room of the station, Gandhi made the momentous decision to stay on in South Africa and fight the racial discrimination against Indians there. Out of that struggle emerged his unique version of nonviolent resistance, Satyagraha.”

- Courtesy of World History Project

May 1893

Gandhi begins "Great March" to gain Indian rights in South

Africa

“Some of the major points on which the Satyagraha struggle had been waged were conceded to the Indians. The tax on the ex-indentured labourers was abolished; marriages performed according to Indian rites were legalized, and a domicile certificate bearing the holder’s thumb-imprint was too a sufficient evidence of the right to enter South Africa.”

- Courtesy of World History Project

6 Nov 1913

(1917-1931)Inspiring an Oppressed Nation

Gandhi establishes Sabarmati Ashram

“This is the right place for our activities to carry on the search for Truth and develop Fearlessness – for, on one side, are the iron bolts of the foreigners, and on the other, thunderbolts of Mother Nature.”

— Gandhi- Courtesy of World History Project

17 June 1917

British government passes the Rowlatt Act in Colonial India,

indefinitely extending the use of ‘emergency measures'

“…enacted during the First World War in order to control public unrest and root out conspiracy.…Gandhi and others found that constitutional opposition to the measure was fruitless, so on April 6, a ‘hartal’ was organized where Indians would suspend all business and fast as a sign of their hatred for the legislation. This event is known as the Rowlatt Satyagraha.”

-Courtesy of World History Project

- This was a turning point because Gandhi emerged as a national leader.

March 1919

Jallianwala Bagh Massacre

“…Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer opened fire on a peaceful religious gathering of Sikh men, women and children. The firing lasted for 10 to 15 minutes, until they ran out of ammunition.”

- Courtesy of World History Project

13 April 1919

The Gandhi Era of the Indian Independence Movement begins

with the Non-Cooperation Movement

“The programme of ‘non-violent non-cooperation’ included the boycott of councils, courts and schools, set up by the British and of all foreign cloth.… The British saw that the success of ‘non-cooperation’ would paralyze their administration…. A number of eminent ‘moderate’ politicians joined official critics in underlining the risks of mass non-cooperation as proposed by Gandhi.”

- Courtesy of World History Project

Sep 1920

Gandhi founds the 'All-India Spinners' Association

“During the next three years, while national politics were dominated by communal issues and controversies in legislatures, Gandhi retired from the political scene; to be precise, he retired only from the political controversies of the day to devote his time to the less spectacular but more important task of nation-building ‘from the bottom up’…. He exhorted the people to shake off the age-old social evils such as child-marriage and untouchability, and to ply the spinning wheel…. It became a symbol of defiance of foreign rule; Khadi, the cloth made from yarn spun on the spinning wheel, became the nationalist garment, the ‘livery of freedom’, as Jawaharlal Nehru once picturesquely described it.”

- Courtesy of World History Project

Sep 1925

Mahatma Gandhi embarks on the

Salt Satyagraha

“The Salt Satyagraha was a campaign of nonviolent protest against the British salt tax in colonial India which began with the Salt March to Dandi on March 12, 1930…. Mahatma Gandhi led the Dandi march from his Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi, Gujarat to produce salt without paying the tax, with growing numbers of Indians joining him along the way.”

- Courtesy of World History Project

- Dandi March was a singular event that energized and mobilized the entire nation to stand for its rights responsibly, for the tax hurt everyone equally.

12 March 1930

(1932-1948)  Gaining Rights Through Fortitude

Gandhi begins six-day fast to protest separate elections for

Untouchables

“When the British agreed with Ambedkar and announced the awarding of separate electorates, Gandhi began a fast-unto-death while imprisoned in the Yeravada Central Jail of Pune in 1932.…The fast dramatized the issues at stake; ostensibly it suppressed reason, but in fact it was designed to free reason from that mixture of inertia and prejudice which had permitted the evil of untouchability, which condemned millions of Hindus to humiliation, discrimination and hardship.”

- Courtesy of World History Project

Sep 1932

The All India Congress Committee launches the Quit

India Movement

“The Quit India Movement (Bharat Chhodo Andolan or the August Movement) was a civil disobedience movement launched in India in August 1942 in response to Mohandas Gandhi's call for immediate independence. Gandhi hoped to bring the British government to the negotiating table.”

- Courtesy of World History Project

- Though marred by violence, Quit India Movement spurred the nation towards freedom.

8 Aug 1942

United Kingdom passes the Indian Independence Act

1947

“The Indian Independence Act 1947 was the legislation passed and enacted by the British Parliament that officially announced the independence of India and the partition of India.”

- Courtesy of World History Project

15 June 1947

The partition of India

“What Gandhi had feared had come to pass. India was to be divided, but partition was not being imposed; it had been accepted by Nehru, Patel and a majority of the Congress leaders. Gandhi had serious doubts on the wisdom of this decision.”

- Courtesy of World History Project

15 Aug 1947

Mahatma Gandhi announces fast to end Hindu/Muslim violence in

Delhi

“On January 13, 1948, he began a fast; ‘my greatest fast,’ he wrote to Miraben, his English disciple. It was also to be his last. The fast was not to be broken until Delhi became peaceful. The fast had a refreshing impact upon Pakistan. In India there was an emotional shake-up. The fast compelled people to think afresh on the problem, on the solution of which he had staked his life.”

- Courtesy of World History Project

12 Jan 1948