Ep. 129: Mahatma Gandhi – 6 Achievements

March 17, 2024 Peter Jans

Intro

Hello and Welcome to this episode of the podcast, "The Mnemonic Tree", where we add a single mnemonic leaf to our Tree of Knowledge.

I’m Jans your Mnemonic Man and today's episode will be on a man known as the Father of the Nation of India, Mahatma Gandhi.

Now to be known with this reverence is even more amazing considering Gandhi spent a large chunk of his life in another country which was South Africa. He was born in 1869 in Porbandar India.

Throughout his younger years, Gandhi was actually a shy and withdrawn child who spent hours reading religious texts. His leadership was most likely garnered from his father who was a chief minister of the Porbandar state. Despite being an average student Gandhi studied law in London and then came back to India to start a practice. He found this difficult and ended up going to South Africa where he represented an Indian merchant in a lawsuit.

This is where Gandhi’s philosophy of Satyagraha (truth-force) and Ahimsa (nonviolence) began and after success went back home to fight for social justice and freedom for the nation of India.

Today’s mnemonic will be on Mahatma Gandhi’s six achievements.

So, with that being said, we will begin with a summary from Wikipedia.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mahatma-Gandhi,_studio,_1931.jpg

Wikipedia Summary

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (ISO: Mōhanadāsa Karamacaṁda Gāṁdhī;[pron 1] 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule. He inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahātmā (from Sanskrit 'great-souled, venerable'), first applied to him in South Africa in 1914, is now used throughout the world.

Born and raised in a Hindu family in coastal Gujarat, Gandhi trained in the law at the Inner Temple in London, and was called to the bar in June 1891, at the age of 22. After two uncertain years in India, where he was unable to start a successful law practice, he moved to South Africa in 1893 to represent an Indian merchant in a lawsuit. He went on to live in South Africa for 21 years. There, Gandhi raised a family and first employed nonviolent resistance in a campaign for civil rights. In 1915, aged 45, he returned to India and soon set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest against discrimination and excessive land-tax.

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, and, above all, achieving swaraj or self-rule. Gandhi adopted the short dhoti woven with hand-spun yarn as a mark of identification with India's rural poor. He began to live in a self-sufficient residential community, to eat simple food, and undertake long fasts as a means of both introspection and political protest. Bringing anti-colonial nationalism to the common Indians, Gandhi led them in challenging the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km (250 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930 and in calling for the British to quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned many times and for many years in both South Africa and India.

Gandhi's vision of an independent India based on religious pluralism was challenged in the early 1940s by a Muslim nationalism which demanded a separate homeland for Muslims within British India. In August 1947, Britain granted independence, but the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two dominions, a Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan. As many displaced Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs made their way to their new lands, religious violence broke out, especially in the Punjab and Bengal. Abstaining from the official celebration of independence, Gandhi visited the affected areas, attempting to alleviate distress. In the months following, he undertook several hunger strikes to stop the religious violence. The last of these was begun in Delhi on 12 January 1948, when he was 78. The belief that Gandhi had been too resolute in his defense of both Pakistan and Indian Muslims spread among some Hindus in India. Among these was Nathuram Godse, a militant Hindu nationalist from Pune, western India, who assassinated Gandhi by firing three bullets into his chest at an interfaith prayer meeting in Delhi on 30 January 1948.

Gandhi's birthday, 2 October, is commemorated in India as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Nonviolence. Gandhi is considered to be the Father of the Nation in post-colonial India. During India's nationalist movement and in several decades immediately after, he was also commonly called Bapu (Gujarati endearment for "father", roughly "papa",[2] "daddy"[3]).

Extracted from: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi#:~:text=Assuming%20leadership%20of%20the%20Indian,achieving%20swaraj%20or%20self%2Drule.]

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mahatma_Gandhi_and_Kasturba.jpg

Mnemonic

Mahatma Gandhi – 6 Achievements Mnemonic – FISCAL

(Picture Gandhi as the arbitrator in India as to what is morally and fiscally fair)

1. Fasting for 21 days to protest against war between Muslims and Hindus

2. Independence of India

3. Salt March of 400 kilometres

4. Civil Disobedience movement at Champaran

5. Abolition of Untouchability

6. Lawyer - Successful

Five Fun Facts

1. The 21-day fast was undertaken in order to protest against the violence and tensions between the Hindus and Muslims following the partition. The partition of British India occurred in 1947 and resulted in two independent nations: India, which became a secular state with a Hindu majority and Pakistan with a Muslim majority. Gandhi undertook his fast, right in the midst of the violence in Calcutta and urged mutual respect, non-violence and peace to help ease tensions.

2. The independence of India came in 1947 and marked the end of British rule. The struggle for self-rule took decades and involved many. Gandhi’s non-violent philosophy was a major factor along with The Indian National Congress, under the leadership of figures like Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and many others.

3. The Satyagraha Salt March was started by Mahatma Gandhi on 12th March 1930. It was over the Indians being able to make their own salt rather than be forced to buy it from the British at hugely inflated prices. It started from Sabarmati Ashram near Ahmedabad and covered 400 kilometres before finishing in Dandi in Gujarat. During the march 60,000 people were arrested along with Mahatma Gandhi himself. This was the first movement in the country where women took part and was concluded with Mahatma Gandhi breaking the law and making salt at Dandi Beach.

4. Gandhi’s first victory came at Champaran where he led a non-violent civil disobedience movement against landlords to provide some relief to farmers. Gandhi came to India after successful passive resistance in South Africa. After seeing the appalling conditions farmers were working under coupled with the onerous British oppression, Gandhi started his passive resistance on 10th April 1917. He was jailed for this but eventually ended up on a committee to report on the farmer’s conditions which eventually overturned the unfair Tinkathia system.

5. “Untouchability” was abolished in 1950 and is Article 17, in the constitution of India and it reads.

"Untouchability" is abolished and its practice in any form is forbidden. The enforcement of any disability arising out of "Untouchability" shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law.

Throughout Gandhi’s life, he fought against the caste system and lobbied and educated hard for its abolishment which culminated in Gandhi founding the non-profit organisation Harijan Sevak Sangh in 1932 to eradicate untouchability in India.

6. Gandhi was born in Porbandar, India but studied law in London and later went to South Africa to practice as a barrister. He was central to the formation of the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) in 1894 which aimed to protect the rights of Indians in South Africa. Following this success, he returned back to India with the intention to emancipate his home country from British rule.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mahatma_Gandhi_(5).jpg

Three Question Quiz

Q.1. How many years did Gandhi live in South Africa? Options are 5 years, 11 years, or 21 years

Q.2. What age was Gandhi when he married? Options are thirteen, eighteen, or twenty-one

Q.3. Mahatma Means what?

Bonus Q. What year did Mahatma Gandhi die?

Mnemonic Recap

Mahatma Gandhi – 6 Achievements Mnemonic – FISCAL

(Picture Gandhi as the arbitrator in India as to what is morally and fiscally fair)

1. Fasting for 21 days to protest against war between Muslims and Hindus

2. Independence of India

3. Salt March of 400 kilometres

4. Civil Disobedience movement at Champaran

5. Abolition of Untouchability

6. Lawyer - Successful

Three Question Quiz Answers

Q.1. How many years did Gandhi live in South Africa? Options are 5 years, 11 years, or 21 years

A. 21 years. He arrived back in India in 1915 at the age of 46

Now apparently when he got back, he was a little bit tired of the law so he decided to branch out and open an all you can eat buffet chain. Only thing was he needed a good slogan to get his business going, so after many, many hours of cogitating on the issue, he finally came up with “Gandhi’s – When Hunger Strikes!”

Q.2. What age was Gandhi when he married? Options are thirteen, eighteen, or twenty-one

A. Thirteen to Kasturbai

Q.3. Mahatma Means what?

A. Great soul

Bonus Q. What year did Mahatma Gandhi die?

A. 1948. Shot three times in the chest by Nathuram Godse

Word of the Week

modus operandi

[ moh-duhs op-uh-ran-dee, -dahy ]

noun

one’s usual way of doing something.

Example