Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, India (1869-1948)
Indian nationalist leader, born in Poorbandar, India. He studied law in London, but in 1893 went to South Africa, where he spent 20 years opposing discriminatory legislation against Indians. In 1914 he returned to India where he supported the Home Rule movement. A pacifist, he became leader of the Indian National Congress, leading the struggle for Indian independence from the UK by advocating non-violent non-cooperation. Following his civil disobedience campaign (1919-22), he was jailed for conspiracy (1922-4). He organised hunger strikes and events of civil disobedience, and campaigned for social reform, including religious tolerance and an end to discrimination against the untouchable caste.
In 1930 he led a 320 km/200 mile march to the sea to collect salt in symbolic defiance of the government monopoly. On his release from prison (1931), he attended the London Round Table Conference on Indian constitutional reform. In 1946 he negotiated with the Cabinet Mission which recommended the new constitutional structure. After independence (1947), he tried to stop the Hindu-Muslim conflict in Bengal, a policy which led to his assassination in Delhi by a Hindu fanatic.