Better known as the Mahatma, or great soul, Gandhi was an Indian lawyer who led his country to freedom from British colonial rule in 1947. Gandhi is most famous for his philosophy of nonviolence that has inspired civil rights leaders around the world.

Mahatma Gandhi’s Achievements He served as a lawyer, politician, and activist in the struggle for social justice and for India’s independence from British rule. Gandhi is internationally esteemed for his doctrine of nonviolent protest (satyagraha) to achieve political and social progress.

Mohandas Gandhi was born on Oct. 2, 1869, in Porbandar, a seacoast town in the Kathiawar Peninsula north of Bombay. His wealthy family was of a Modh Bania subcaste of the Vaisya, or merchant, caste. He was the fourth child of Karamchand Gandhi, prime minister to the raja of three small city-states.

Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on 30 January 1948 at age 78 in the compound of Birla House (now Gandhi Smriti), a large mansion in central New Delhi. Godse considered Gandhi to have been too accommodating to Muslims during the Partition of India of the previous year.

His non-violent resistance helped end British rule in India and has influenced modern civil disobedience movements across the globe. Widely referred to as Mahatma, meaning great soul or saint in Sanskrit, Gandhi helped India reach independence through a philosophy of non-violent non-cooperation.

India
South AfricaLondon
Mahatma Gandhi/Places lived

His family stayed in India while Gandhi went to London in 1888 to study law and to South Africa in 1893 to practice it. He brought them to South Africa in 1897, where Kasturba would assist him in his activism, which she continued to do after the family moved back to India in 1915.

Kasturba Gandhim. 1883–1944
Mahatma Gandhi/Spouse
At 13, Gandhi, whose father was the “diwan,” or chief minister, of a series of small princely states in western India, wed Kasturba Makanji (1869-1944), then also a teen and the daughter of a merchant. It was an arranged marriage, and Gandhi had been engaged to Kasturba since he was seven.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, in Porbandar, India, a seacoast town in the Kathiawar Peninsula north of Bombay, India. His wealthy family was from one of the higher castes (Indian social classes). Mohandas was a small, quiet boy who disliked sports and was only an average student.

As it happened, Godse arrived at Mahatma Gandhi’s prayer meeting without having been frisked, fired bullets at him and he died with “Hey Ram” as the last words on his lips.

78 years (1869–1948)
Mahatma Gandhi/Age at death
Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by a young Hindu extremist while walking to his prayer meeting in the lawn of Birla House, New Delhi, yesterday. He was 78.

Harilal Gandhi
Devdas GandhiRamdas GandhiManilal Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi/Sons
In 1885, Gandhi and his wife Kasturba (née Kasturbai Makhanji Kapadia) had their first baby, who survived only a few days. The Gandhi couple had four more children, all sons: Harilal, born in 1888; Manilal, born in 1892; Ramdas, born in 1897; and Devdas, born in 1900.