Is known as the father of india but throughout his life 100 columns have gundy evoked mixed feelings he was viewed alternatively as a fanatic or an eccentric a reactionary revolutionary saint almost cyo or as a man who must be killed. He championed a philosophy of nonviolence only to die at the hand of an assassin. He led a peaceful Resistance Movement to free india from british rule yet independent india was born as an ally of crucial carnage. Emit sectarian killings on an unprecedented scale gandhi risked his life to preach nonviolence until his dying day. On january 30th 948 he was killed by a hindu nationalist with 3 shots to the chest. In 1931 gandhi was interviewed by an american journalist and. Your concern. Were you. And. If you could lead. The late brother afghanis assassin was jailed for almost 2 decades at the time of that interview he was 85 years old and recalled every detail of the plot hope our lord say but oh. Not that im going to say not that im going to say well dear one. Assassinated gandhigiri then mark. The here was. 948. Bread and. Water i mean. India weve read their bed persons. Being able to disperse not live. In the indian capital delhi there are several sites dedicated to the memory of the man to whom the poet to gore gave the name mahatma great soul. This somebody this site where gandhis body was cremated on a funeral pyre of sandal wood in accordance with hindu funeral custom. The National Gandhi museum and house converted into a Memorial Museum after gandhi was assassinated on its grounds. Every day crowds of visitors flock there from all over the country bengal and Kerala Pradesh and money poor. Many indians rich or poor still see it as their duty to make the pilgrimage and pay homage. To the atmosphere feels more like a temple that museum. One room has a series of die ramas depicting key scenes from gandhis life. Visit his remove their shoes to approach the spot where the mahatma fell to the assassins bullets. Briscoes. Crafts gandhis meager personal belongings. His notebooks walkingstick lettice even his blood stained clothes everything related to the life of the father of the nation has been preserved. When 100 gandhi was born in 869 india was firmly under britains imperial young. Like his father he seemed destined to serve the ruling palace. His family belong to the banya caste hardworking merchants from western state. Gandhis marriage at the age of 13 was a ranged he and his wife custard would have 4 children. When he was 16 his father fell gravely ill. Has described him as a devoted son. This bedside. Gandhi felt that he added you to his father the time he was dying and hopefully he wanted to actually be with him at the hour of his death. But on that particular day when his father came critically ill he. Felt more attracted to his wife and he was actually in the act of making love to her at the moment when his father died and its a lot of historians looked at. His life feel that this was really something that colors his whole attitude to his sexuality and led eventually to his deciding to renounce a sexual relationship with his wife. After passing his bar exams in london county returned to india to practice law but soon went on to take up as. Short Term Position in south africa he ended up staying for 20 years. Initially. In south africa live the life of a rich who had a quite an affluent lifestyle he hadnt really changed become this very ascetic person dressed in. Clothes and so on he was wearing western style so c. Was living well. But then on a train journey to pretoria a white passenger objected to gandhis presence in a 1st class carriage and though he had a 1st class ticket he was thrown off the train he resolved to stay and fight for inequality in south africa. When he returned to india in 1915 gandhi was a changed man. The barrister had become a political activist trading his english suit and tie for a dhoti the traditional dress of the indian poor he set out to familiarize himself with the social problems in his homeland travelling by train across the country always in 3rd class. The movement for Indian Independence was gaining momentum gandhi addressed crowds in every town and village he visited he spoke of Human Dignity ringback justice and independence. Across the country nationalists organized bonfire protests to burn textiles imported from england. Gandhi launched his charkha Spinning Wheel movement. He declared it the patriotic duty of every indian to spend 200. 00 yards of cotton thread a day and to boycott textiles produced in the mills of manchester and liverpool. It did become a symbol of the commitment of the nationalist corps to every every morning to sit down and to get out your Spinning Wheel to spin your cotton thread and they became very skillful at it you know they would spend hours every day doing this and gandhi saw this is something which was was it was almost a Spiritual Task of spending you know for the good of the nation. In the 1930 gun to lead the 3 week sultan march walking 358 kilometers to the village of dandy on the arabian sea where he defied the british sultan of lead by lifting and auctioning off just for the song. Gandhi and his followers where arrested but it was a victory for the man who churchill contemptuously called the half naked for. Coverage of the march captured the worlds attention. May god. Grant he had an innate sense of symbolism and mass communication. The more this seems like a contradiction to a paradoxical for a man who came across as an ascetic someone who renounced worldly things in search of spiritual salvation. But he was a great politician and a great communicator. Can use weapons with civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance the british countered with truncheons. Colonial repression was often brutal presence. Gandhi was jailed 7 times. He started. 8 times serving 9 years. From the beginning to the end the struggle for independence was led by the Indian NationalCongress Party. Gandhi was its guiding light. Its chief organizer. The 2 men shared a deep bond even if they didnt always see eye to eye. Candy from a traditional merchant family now and they said close in a dhoti. Nehru the and dishonest brahman well dressed and elegant with ideas rooted in socialism Something Like their brains socialism in the 1920 s. Gandhi was prepared to tolerate that because he believed that there would always basically be loyal to him. So that he gave narrow sort of certain amount of rope you could say you know to do go his own way but gandhi would always be holding it im able to draw him in whenever he felt you know he was going to to to to create an extreme and there he was you know that he was it was in his interests to keep him with gandhi but he also had a genuine affection for gandhi there is own father had died in. And in many respects you can see gandhi sort of taking over that position of father figure for the area and so they do have a very close relationship despite the differences. The 2 men were very different not least in their views on religion. Narry was a self professed atheist something rare in a country where refusing to express religious belief is a to boot. Gandhi was deeply religious he began each meeting with prayer. Life in india is permeated by the values of hinduism which assigns a persons caste on the basis of birth. But hinduism has been traditionally be guarded as a tolerant religion not given to proselytizing. Islam had expanded under the reign of the moodle empress in northern india to become the countrys 2nd largest religion. In British India muslims accounted for a quarter of the population. After the countrys partition in 1947 that number dropped to 12 percent. Hindus and muslims had long enjoyed a peaceful coexistence until Political Representation was attached to religious identity. The Muslim League emerged as a Political Force in the 930 s. With the aim of protecting the interests of indian muslims. But a new goal in the creation after britons both all from india of a muslim nation pakistan all learned of the pier. The party was led by Mohammad Ali Jinnah weve known gandhi for years. Both. Came from they were good rotten speaking people they were both lawyers have been educated in london received training there so in a way there was that had a lot in common but unfortunately they came into very sharp conflict they are after god returned to india. In 1940 gandhi went to meet jinnah at his private residence in bombay over the course of almost 3 weeks sunday timelessly tried to dissuade from his plan for a muslim pakistan. He assured him that muslims would have an honorable place in a secular and democratic india. He even offered him the post of Prime Minister independent indias 1st government. To jinnah couldnt stand be a faction and i 10 sion he was shunned by. Because like many muslims he viewed it as a patronize ing attempt by hindus to assimilate muslims. Gandhi saw himself as a universalist he didnt want to be seen as hindu but his indian. Yet everything about his style his dress was typically hindu. So museum in room is embrace of renunciate array disciplines and linking of ascetic practice with political aspirations all that created the impression of a quintessential hindu sales. Ive. Shifted out of the summit capital of British India. In the 1946 the leaders of the Muslim League and Indian Congress party met here to discuss ways to implement gandhis vision of a united independent india. Africa. Neris not for diplomacy failed in the face of generous intransigence. After 3 weeks the talks broke down. In june our campaign centered on a single topic congress was a hindu party with a hindu leader and if hindus won the 1st elections after independence muslims would face assimilation and oppression to survive they needed their own state pakistan. So in 146 he decides to take the matter to the streets general had been a strictly constitutional called petition for that and hes been loyal to the british he hadnt ever been involved in civil disobedience campaigns he never adopted the sort of tart tactics that gandhi had to be 946. 00 august 960. 00 decides to take the issue to the streets hes going to show the power of muslims in india and he has a direct action. Jinnahs call for direct action day on aug 16th 946 in support of the demand for pakistan sparked an eruption of harrowing violence in calcutta. 5000 people were massacred and 20000 wounded most of the victims were hinting. That led to retaliatory attacks by hindus against muslims elsewhere reprisal killings spread across northern india entire families were slaughtered. Some hindus now claim their religion was too passive and lacked martial art. To them the hindu value of tolerance was an inexcusable weakness which had for centuries allowed 1st the move and then the British Empire is to enslave the hindu majority. They felt the time had come for hindus to assert themselves and for hindu min to reclaim their progress. For me they wanted to reform hinduism and boost hindus moral and physical strength in every town and village where the movement had a local chapter activists convene mornings and evenings for ideological training and physical drills to prepare to fight muslims who were once again the enemy of the more he saw. In. Well into nationalist. Massacred muslims Muslim League extremists watch it hindus gandhi was horrifying. He began to fast in calcutta which he vowed to continue until the violence stopped. He refused to relinquish his vision of an india where the 2 communities could live in friendship and peace. And gandhi was watching all this he was doing his best he went to bangor he walked around the villages which where the muslims have massacred the landlords and he talked to the muslims he really put his life on the line and he went without any protection just a few of his followers walking on foot and he managed to persuade the muslims that there was not not right to do this as he walked people would throw glass pieces on the floor. In his spot and his answer to that was to even give more of the very simple sandals which he used. In order to walk and start walking barefoot this had a tremendous mortar impact and the fact is that we like to draw is between in the christian tradition the fiction of christ that is suffering for humanity tormenting the fish in order to make the more of a beat and then there is other retaliation by by muslims in east bengal whether in the majority they turn on him attack them massacre many the hindus and. The muslims. And again they do the same in india and then in the punjab we see the muslims retaliating by attacking the 6 and killing a lot of sikhs in march 947. 00 so the whole thing is blowing up in a way thats becoming really completely uncontrollable. In marts 947 lord louis mountbatten arrived in delhi. As the last viceroy of india hed been touched by the british Prime Minister to negotiate an exit deal with indian leaders mountbatten appeared bent on hastening the end of imperial rule and soon came to favor the option of partition. Gandhi said the game and the game in india were narky but dont buy it we will sort it out once you are gone then we will see how to do it but the big b. Said we will go only after you decide who should get what and that is all part and became absolutely inevitable so gandhi went to the extent of saying that. Barbican could only pick platform is dead body. And then of course the Congress Leaders decided that they would accept the partition they felt was able to stir up so much trouble for them that if they didnt concede for a separate nation state of pakistan then he would he would cause terrible disruption within within india after independence and perhaps compromise the integrity of the new Indian Nation state to perhaps collapse. Says several radcliffe was appointed to him and of the Boundary Commission in charge of equitably carving a muslim majority state from British India. He was assisted by to induce and to muslims because he himself knew nothing of india that was why hed been chosen to guarantee objective ety and fairness. Most of indias muslims lived in the north the plan called for the creation of one state with 2 territories east and west pakistan located 2000 kilometers apart. But hindu and muslim communities in bengal and punjab were in extra mixed drawing board is was an exercise in absurdity. On august 15th 947. 00 the partition between india and pakistan was made official. As the clock had approached midnight tomorrow learned there in the 1st Prime Minister of independent india addressed the nation. You know. We did with dick cheney. And now the time. When we showed you the marc rich at the top of the midnight hour when we were live. In darwin all week all night and the. But the very morning after Independence Celebrations hindus in pakistan and muslims in india began to flee their homes muslims headed for pakistan well hindus set up for. India. Enormous convoys of people moving in opposite directions the greatest mass migration in history. 10000000 people were displaced many were attacked by robbers and militants along the way a 1000000 people lost their lives. No one took responsibility for the tragedy but hindu nationalists accused gandhi of allowing muslims to steal parts of the hindu nation. We went to the delhi headquarters of the rightwing hindu most about organization. There we spoke to its then president he maintained that his was the only group that sought to defend indias integrity. Ok got it in the ass of all of us the only one major son in india richard real good with full coverage and explorations there. Really. Do you. Want to name one india the hindu nationalists claim that this was a very section of india and it was something that congress had betrayed the indian people in agreeing to in fact it was very much a part of their own program to have a separate state in the way serve their interests subsequently to have a separate state which is always a. I was always a red representation of. Indias. A few months after independence the new states waged their 1st war over kashmir a province with a muslim majority but a hindu maharajah the 2 sides agreed to a ceasefire along whats known as the line of control it divided the region into with one side and ministered by india and the other by pakistan of the 3 officially declared wars between india and pakistan to have been over kashmir and it remains a flash point to this day. On september the 9th 947 gandhi moved into the delhi home of his friend the industrialist and Congress Party supporter gunshy. In january of the following year gandhi began another indefinite fast saying he would only east if he saw a plan to stop the continuing violence hindus who had fled persecution in pakistan with dumbfounded by gandhis empathy for muslims which was inherent in the 2nd in direct goal of his fasting. Dandies Hunger Strike was also aimed at forcing the Indian Government to release pakistan share of assets from the treasury of British India. With their nick. Garbage. Thats good in. And said that. Straight. I showed i. And the role of should be given then. I believe my last. Moment. Some of you its take me this hour did you die of Hunger Strike. Now. Hindu nationalists found it scandalous that gandhi would fast to ensure india respected the financial clauses of the partition agreement and transfer 550000000 rupees to a country that had launched cross border rates on kashmir. So all on the ground did. There was an attempt. As far as i remember say when i sed. President i defeated me to. The. City. Not end up. Going to. See this myself. The attack of january 20th was botched god save was unable to reach the window from which he planned to buy his gun he hadnt thought of bringing the latter. So hard right from the river and. It goes. On inside so. I mean he throws. Us. Past. Police. Action