Mahatma Gandhi
...eed to Gandhi’s demands. These included the recognition of Indian marriages and the abolition of the poll tax. Gandhi felt his work there was done and returned to India. When Gandhi returned to India, he was well known. He became a leader in the struggle for Indian Independence and began advocating Satyagraha again. In 1919 the British parliament passed laws that gave the police emergency power to deal with the "revolutionary activities". This sparked the spread of Satyagraha through out India. When Gandhi proclaimed a national day of prayer, the police retaliated with the massacre of more than 400 hundred Indians who were praying at Amritsar. The Indian people reacted with a massive protest and strike. Gandhi was arrested and jailed but the British were soon forced to release him . Gandhi began his homespun movement in order to gain economic independence from Britain. This involved the complete boycott of British goods. India’s home industries had been destroyed by British industrialists exploitation of the villagers and had resulted in extreme poverty. To decrease such poverty , Gandhi advocated the renewal of industries. He began using a spinning wheel as a demonstration of the return to village life, and the revival of native Indian industries. The boycott had significant economic consequences. Gandhi had become a symbol of free India. He lived a simple spiritual life of prayer, fasting, and meditation. He wore the same clothes as the poorest Indian and lived as a vegetarian. He used to earn his livelihood by spinning clothes. He cleared public toilet with his own hand. He never wavered in his unshakable belief in nonviolent protest and religious tolerance. When Muslim and Hindu compatriots committed acts of violence, whether against the British who ruled India, or against each other, he fasted until the fighting ceased. Indians thought of him as a ‘saint’ and so the British authorities dared not interfere with him. After his release from prison in 1924 Gandhi temporarily withdrew from politics and devoted himself to national unity. In 1930 the Mahatma began his Salt Campaign, calling upon the Indian people to refuse to pay taxes, especially taxes on salt. With thousands of Indians following, he marched to the Arabian sea, where they made salt by evaporating sea water. With this," cried Gandhi, making a claim as sweeping as the vast shoreline on which he stood, "I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire. Men need salt as he needs air and water. This salt comes from the Indian Ocean, let every Indian claim it as his life" - Gandhi’s speech about salt. Gandhi was arrested again and was released in 1931. India’s fight for independence was nearing its end by 1944. The British government had agreed to independence, but wanted to make two separate states for the Hindus and Muslims. Gandhi was against this. Gandhi had achieved Indian independence in 1947 but not the national unity he sought and he marked this as his greatest failure. On January 30, 1948, a...