Key Points

In January 1915, Mahatma Gandhi returned to India after two decades in South Africa, where he had developed his technique of non-violent protest, satyagraha.

Gandhi's first major public appearance was at the opening of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in February 1916, where he criticized the Indian elite for their lack of concern for the laboring poor.

Between 1917 and 1918, Gandhi led three localized struggles: the Champaran movement for indigo peasants, a labor dispute for textile workers in Ahmedabad, and a tax remission campaign for peasants in Kheda.

Gandhi called for a countrywide campaign against the Rowlatt Act, which permitted detention without trial. This satyagraha established him as a truly national leader.

Gandhi called for a campaign of non-cooperation with British rule, asking Indians to boycott schools, courts, and not pay taxes, with the promise of achieving swaraj within a year.

Gandhi joined the Non-Cooperation Movement with the Khilafat Movement, which sought to restore the Turkish Caliphate, in order to unite Hindus and Muslims against colonial rule.

In February 1922, a violent incident at Chauri Chaura, where peasants attacked and torched a police station, prompted Gandhi to call off the Non-Cooperation Movement altogether.

Gandhi identified with the common people by adopting a simple loincloth, speaking their language, and promoting the charkha (spinning wheel), which made him revered as a 'Mahatma'.

The Congress session in Lahore in December 1929 was significant for electing Jawaharlal Nehru as President and for proclaiming 'Purna Swaraj' or complete independence as the national goal.

On 12 March 1930, Gandhi began his march from Sabarmati to the coastal village of Dandi to break the unpopular salt law, marking the beginning of the Civil Disobedience Movement.

The Salt March brought Mahatma Gandhi to world attention, saw the first large-scale participation of women in a nationalist activity, and forced the British to realize their rule would not last forever.

In March 1931, the Gandhi-Irwin Pact was signed, leading to the suspension of civil disobedience and Gandhi's participation in the Second Round Table Conference in London, which proved inconclusive.

In 1935, a new Government of India Act promised a form of representative government, leading to Congress forming ministries in eight out of eleven provinces after the 1937 elections.

Launched in August 1942 after the failure of the Cripps Mission, 'Quit India' was a mass movement with strikes, sabotage, and the establishment of parallel governments in several districts.

Gandhi was deeply pained by the Partition of India and spent the last months of his life trying to stop communal violence in Bengal and Delhi, appealing for Hindu-Muslim harmony.

On 30 January 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead by Nathuram Godse during his evening prayer meeting in Delhi.