Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (/ˈɡɑːndi, ˈɡæn-/;Hindustani: [ˈmoːɦənd̪aːs ˈkərəmtʃənd̪ ˈɡaːnd̪ʱi]; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the preeminent leader of the Indian independence movement in British-ruled India. Employing nonviolent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahatma (Sanskrit: "high-souled", "venerable")—applied to him first in 1914 in South Africa,—is now used worldwide. He is also called Bapu (Gujarati: endearment for "father", "papa") in India. In common parlance in India he is often called Gandhiji. He is unofficially called the Father of the Nation.

Born and raised in a Hindu merchant caste family in coastal Gujarat, western India, and trained in law at the Inner Temple, London, Gandhi first employed nonviolent civil disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, in the resident Indian community's struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest against excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, but above all for achieving Swaraj or self-rule.

Mohandas K. Gandhi (sculpture)

Mohandas K. Gandhi is a 1988 bronze sculpture of Mahatma Gandhi, located in the plaza of the San Francisco Ferry Building along the Embarcadero in San Francisco, California, United States. The 8-foot (2.4 m) tall sculpture was a gift from the Gandhi Memorial International Foundation.

In 2010, a group called the Organization for Minorities of India, which formed to protest the oppression of Indian minorities, demanded the removal of the sculpture, claiming Gandhi was a racist "who harbored violent urges".

Reception

msnbc.com contributor Chris Rodell wrote that the sculpture of Gandhi, a "renowned vegetarian", was appropriate for the plaza, being the site of a weekly farmers' market.

See also

References