His peaceful efforts to free India from British rule earned him the title of Father of Nation.
Mahatma Buddha was the one who invent a non-violent form of civil disobedience. He organized boycotts against British institutions, an action that could be used to impact the entire world.
Famously, the spiritual and political leader staged 17 hunger strike during his lengthy freedom campaign. This was the longest-running 21 day period.
Gandhi was killed by Hindu extremist Nathuram Godse just a year later, when he finally was able to enjoy independence from Britain in 47.
After having led his multi-faith prayer meeting in New Delhi for many years, he was just 78 when he was killed and shot in New Delhi.
Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi at Porbandar in the western Indian state of Gujarat.
His parents married him to Kasturba Makanji in 1883 when he was just 13 years old. Four children were born to them.
Gandhi, who was born in 1888 but died in 1891 in South Africa, studied law in London between 1891 and 1892.
Mahatma Gandhi is pictured, right, alongside Pandit Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India
By 1913, he had carried out his first non-violent action in the country – the Transvaal march, a protest against the ban on Indian immigration.
Gandhi became the principal moral authority for the Indian National Congress party and would call for civil disobedience to the British colonial power over the course of the next ten years.
This was the reason he was detained for subversion.
Gandhi was released in the 1930 Salt March, which was a peaceful protest against the state saltmonopoly. He marched 217 miles, starting at Ahmedabad in northwest India and ending at the Indian Ocean.
Gandhi was again in prison two years later and went on one the many hunger strikes against segregation of the “untouchables” – a term that is used to describe people outside of the Indian caste system.
Mahatma Gandhi, the inventor of non-violent civil resistance was responsible for organizing boycotts of British institutions. This tactic would have a significant impact on the rest of the world.
Gandhi made his famous Quit India speech, which he delivered in Mumbai in 1942. He called for an international strike to make the British leave India. However, Gandhi was arrested again and sentenced to prison until 1944.
But, his dream came true in 1947 when India declared its independence.
His struggle for peace did not end there, and he fought in vain against the partition of Hindus and Muslims into two separate states, India and Pakistan.
His usual prayer group, which was multi-faith, in New Delhi, had just been held on January 30, 1948. This happened less than one year after India gained independence.
This day in India is known as Martyrs Day. Two million Indians attended Gandhi’s funeral, marking the sixth attempt to end his life.
He was shot by Nathuram Vidayak Godse (a Hindu nationalist) who claimed that Gandhi was a fraud and had not stood up for Hindus being persecuted during independence struggle.
Godse and a accomplice were each sentenced by hanging to their deaths.