Author: Hugh Chisholm
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Encyclopedias and dictionaries
Languages : en
Pages : 1090
Book Description
This eleventh edition was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time and it is considered to be a landmark encyclopaedia for scholarship and literary style.
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Author: Hugh Chisholm
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Encyclopedias and dictionaries
Languages : en
Pages : 1090
Book Description
This eleventh edition was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time and it is considered to be a landmark encyclopaedia for scholarship and literary style.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Encyclopedias and dictionaries
Languages : en
Pages : 1090
Book Description
This eleventh edition was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time and it is considered to be a landmark encyclopaedia for scholarship and literary style.
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Autobiography
Author: Mahatma Gandhi
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781684117239
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 480
Book Description
"My purpose," Mahatma Gandhi writes of this book, "is to describe experiments in the science of Satyagraha, not to say how good I am." Satyagraha, Gandhi's nonviolent protest movement (satya = true, agraha = firmness), came to stand, like its creator, as a moral principle and a rallying cry; the principle was truth and the cry freedom. The life of Gandhi has given fire and fiber to freedom fighters and to the untouchables of the world: hagiographers and patriots have capitalized on Mahatma myths. Yet Gandhi writes: "Often the title [Mahatma, Great Soul] has deeply pained me. . . . But I should certainly like to narrate my experiments in the spiritual field which are known only to myself, and from which I have derived such power as I possess for working in the political field." Clearly, Gandhi never renounced the world; he was neither pacifist nor cult guru. Who was Gandhi? In the midst of resurging interest in the man who freed India, inspired the American Civil Rights Movement, and is revered, respected, and misunderstood all over the world, the time is proper to listen to Gandhi himself -- in his own words, his own "confessions," his autobiography. Gandhi made scrupulous truth-telling a religion and his Autobiography inevitably reminds one of other saints who have suffered and burned for their lapses. His simply narrated account of boyhood in Gujarat, marriage at age 13, legal studies in England, and growing desire for purity and reform has the force of a man extreme in all things. He details his gradual conversion to vegetarianism and ahimsa (non-violence) and the state of celibacy (brahmacharya, self-restraint) that became one of his more arduous spiritual trials. In the political realm he outlines the beginning of Satyagraha in South Africa and India, with accounts of the first Indian fasts and protests, his initial errors and misgivings, his jailings, and continued cordial dealings with the British overlords. Gandhi was a fascinating, complex man, a brilliant leader and guide, a seeker of truth who died for his beliefs but had no use for martyrdom or sainthood. His story, the path to his vision of Satyagraha and human dignity, is a critical work of the twentieth century, and timeless in its courage and inspiration.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781684117239
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 480
Book Description
"My purpose," Mahatma Gandhi writes of this book, "is to describe experiments in the science of Satyagraha, not to say how good I am." Satyagraha, Gandhi's nonviolent protest movement (satya = true, agraha = firmness), came to stand, like its creator, as a moral principle and a rallying cry; the principle was truth and the cry freedom. The life of Gandhi has given fire and fiber to freedom fighters and to the untouchables of the world: hagiographers and patriots have capitalized on Mahatma myths. Yet Gandhi writes: "Often the title [Mahatma, Great Soul] has deeply pained me. . . . But I should certainly like to narrate my experiments in the spiritual field which are known only to myself, and from which I have derived such power as I possess for working in the political field." Clearly, Gandhi never renounced the world; he was neither pacifist nor cult guru. Who was Gandhi? In the midst of resurging interest in the man who freed India, inspired the American Civil Rights Movement, and is revered, respected, and misunderstood all over the world, the time is proper to listen to Gandhi himself -- in his own words, his own "confessions," his autobiography. Gandhi made scrupulous truth-telling a religion and his Autobiography inevitably reminds one of other saints who have suffered and burned for their lapses. His simply narrated account of boyhood in Gujarat, marriage at age 13, legal studies in England, and growing desire for purity and reform has the force of a man extreme in all things. He details his gradual conversion to vegetarianism and ahimsa (non-violence) and the state of celibacy (brahmacharya, self-restraint) that became one of his more arduous spiritual trials. In the political realm he outlines the beginning of Satyagraha in South Africa and India, with accounts of the first Indian fasts and protests, his initial errors and misgivings, his jailings, and continued cordial dealings with the British overlords. Gandhi was a fascinating, complex man, a brilliant leader and guide, a seeker of truth who died for his beliefs but had no use for martyrdom or sainthood. His story, the path to his vision of Satyagraha and human dignity, is a critical work of the twentieth century, and timeless in its courage and inspiration.
Mohandas K. Gandhi
Author: Patricia Cronin Marcello
Publisher: Greenwood
ISBN: 0313333947
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Recounts the life of the Indian leader who helped gain independence for his country through passive resistance and non-violence.
Publisher: Greenwood
ISBN: 0313333947
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Recounts the life of the Indian leader who helped gain independence for his country through passive resistance and non-violence.
The South African Gandhi
Author: Ashwin Desai
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804797226
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 442
Book Description
A biography detailing Gandhi’s twenty-year stay in South Africa and his attitudes and behavior in the nation’s political context. In the pantheon of freedom fighters, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi has pride of place. His fame and influence extend far beyond India and are nowhere more significant than in South Africa. “India gave us a Mohandas, we gave them a Mahatma,” goes a popular South African refrain. Contemporary South African leaders, including Mandela, have consistently lauded him as being part of the epic battle to defeat the racist white regime. The South African Gandhi focuses on Gandhi’s first leadership experiences and the complicated man they reveal—a man who actually supported the British Empire. Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed unveil a man who, throughout his stay on African soil, stayed true to Empire while showing a disdain for Africans. For Gandhi, whites and Indians were bonded by an Aryan bloodline that had no place for the African. Gandhi’s racism was matched by his class prejudice towards the Indian indentured. He persistently claimed that they were ignorant and needed his leadership, and he wrote their resistances and compromises in surviving a brutal labor regime out of history. The South African Gandhi writes the indentured and working class back into history. The authors show that Gandhi never missed an opportunity to show his loyalty to Empire, with a particular penchant for war as a means to do so. He served as an Empire stretcher-bearer in the Boer War while the British occupied South Africa, he demanded guns in the aftermath of the Bhambatha Rebellion, and he toured the villages of India during the First World War as recruiter for the Imperial army. This meticulously researched book punctures the dominant narrative of Gandhi and uncovers an ambiguous figure whose time on African soil was marked by a desire to seek the integration of Indians, minus many basic rights, into the white body politic while simultaneously excluding Africans from his moral compass and political ideals. Praise for The South African Gandhi “In this impressively researched study, two South African scholars of Indian background bravely challenge political myth-making on both sides of the Indian Ocean that has sought to canonize Gandhi as a founding father of the struggle for equality there. They show that the Mahatma-to-be carefully refrained from calling on his followers to throw in their lot with the black majority. The mass struggle he finally led remained an Indian struggle.” —Joseph Lelyveld, author of Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India “This is a wonderful demonstration of meticulously researched, evocative, clear-eyed and fearless history writing. It uncovers a story, some might even call it a scandal, that has remained hidden in plain sight for far too long. The South African Gandhi is a big book. It is a serious challenge to the way we have been taught to think about Gandhi.” —Arundhati Roy, author of The God of Small Things
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804797226
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 442
Book Description
A biography detailing Gandhi’s twenty-year stay in South Africa and his attitudes and behavior in the nation’s political context. In the pantheon of freedom fighters, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi has pride of place. His fame and influence extend far beyond India and are nowhere more significant than in South Africa. “India gave us a Mohandas, we gave them a Mahatma,” goes a popular South African refrain. Contemporary South African leaders, including Mandela, have consistently lauded him as being part of the epic battle to defeat the racist white regime. The South African Gandhi focuses on Gandhi’s first leadership experiences and the complicated man they reveal—a man who actually supported the British Empire. Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed unveil a man who, throughout his stay on African soil, stayed true to Empire while showing a disdain for Africans. For Gandhi, whites and Indians were bonded by an Aryan bloodline that had no place for the African. Gandhi’s racism was matched by his class prejudice towards the Indian indentured. He persistently claimed that they were ignorant and needed his leadership, and he wrote their resistances and compromises in surviving a brutal labor regime out of history. The South African Gandhi writes the indentured and working class back into history. The authors show that Gandhi never missed an opportunity to show his loyalty to Empire, with a particular penchant for war as a means to do so. He served as an Empire stretcher-bearer in the Boer War while the British occupied South Africa, he demanded guns in the aftermath of the Bhambatha Rebellion, and he toured the villages of India during the First World War as recruiter for the Imperial army. This meticulously researched book punctures the dominant narrative of Gandhi and uncovers an ambiguous figure whose time on African soil was marked by a desire to seek the integration of Indians, minus many basic rights, into the white body politic while simultaneously excluding Africans from his moral compass and political ideals. Praise for The South African Gandhi “In this impressively researched study, two South African scholars of Indian background bravely challenge political myth-making on both sides of the Indian Ocean that has sought to canonize Gandhi as a founding father of the struggle for equality there. They show that the Mahatma-to-be carefully refrained from calling on his followers to throw in their lot with the black majority. The mass struggle he finally led remained an Indian struggle.” —Joseph Lelyveld, author of Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India “This is a wonderful demonstration of meticulously researched, evocative, clear-eyed and fearless history writing. It uncovers a story, some might even call it a scandal, that has remained hidden in plain sight for far too long. The South African Gandhi is a big book. It is a serious challenge to the way we have been taught to think about Gandhi.” —Arundhati Roy, author of The God of Small Things
Soul Force
Author: Mohandas Karmchand Gandhi
Publisher: Tara Publishing
ISBN: 9788186211854
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 468
Book Description
This book historicizes Gandhi s earnest and provocative writings, showing his ideas maturing over time into a unique model of public action.
Publisher: Tara Publishing
ISBN: 9788186211854
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 468
Book Description
This book historicizes Gandhi s earnest and provocative writings, showing his ideas maturing over time into a unique model of public action.
Gandhi
Author: Rajmohan Gandhi
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520255708
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 762
Book Description
The author, the grandson of Mohandas Gandhi, describes the life of the Indian leader as well as the history of India during Gandhi's time.
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520255708
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 762
Book Description
The author, the grandson of Mohandas Gandhi, describes the life of the Indian leader as well as the history of India during Gandhi's time.
Gandhi
Author: Demi
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0689841493
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 40
Book Description
Exploring the life of an idealist, a thinker, his philosophy of nonviolence, his political activism by carrying out peaceful protest who eventually won India's independence from British rule.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0689841493
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 40
Book Description
Exploring the life of an idealist, a thinker, his philosophy of nonviolence, his political activism by carrying out peaceful protest who eventually won India's independence from British rule.
Gandhi Before India
Author: Ramachandra Guha
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 038553230X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 544
Book Description
Here is the first volume of a magisterial biography of Mohandas Gandhi that gives us the most illuminating portrait we have had of the life, the work and the historical context of one of the most abidingly influential—and controversial—men in modern history. Ramachandra Guha—hailed by Time as “Indian democracy’s preeminent chronicler”—takes us from Gandhi’s birth in 1869 through his upbringing in Gujarat, his two years as a student in London and his two decades as a lawyer and community organizer in South Africa. Guha has uncovered myriad previously untapped documents, including private papers of Gandhi’s contemporaries and co-workers; contemporary newspapers and court documents; the writings of Gandhi’s children; and secret files kept by British Empire functionaries. Using this wealth of material in an exuberant, brilliantly nuanced and detailed narrative, Guha describes the social, political and personal worlds inside of which Gandhi began the journey that would earn him the honorific Mahatma: “Great Soul.” And, more clearly than ever before, he elucidates how Gandhi’s work in South Africa—far from being a mere prelude to his accomplishments in India—was profoundly influential in his evolution as a family man, political thinker, social reformer and, ultimately, beloved leader. In 1893, when Gandhi set sail for South Africa, he was a twenty-three-year-old lawyer who had failed to establish himself in India. In this remarkable biography, the author makes clear the fundamental ways in which Gandhi’s ideas were shaped before his return to India in 1915. It was during his years in England and South Africa, Guha shows us, that Gandhi came to understand the nature of imperialism and racism; and in South Africa that he forged the philosophy and techniques that would undermine and eventually overthrow the British Raj. Gandhi Before India gives us equally vivid portraits of the man and the world he lived in: a world of sharp contrasts among the coastal culture of his birthplace, High Victorian London, and colonial South Africa. It explores in abundant detail Gandhi’s experiments with dissident cults such as the Tolstoyans; his friendships with radical Jews, heterodox Christians and devout Muslims; his enmities and rivalries; and his often overlooked failures as a husband and father. It tells the dramatic, profoundly moving story of how Gandhi inspired the devotion of thousands of followers in South Africa as he mobilized a cross-class and inter-religious coalition, pledged to non-violence in their battle against a brutally racist regime. Researched with unequaled depth and breadth, and written with extraordinary grace and clarity, Gandhi Before India is, on every level, fully commensurate with its subject. It will radically alter our understanding and appreciation of twentieth-century India’s greatest man.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 038553230X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 544
Book Description
Here is the first volume of a magisterial biography of Mohandas Gandhi that gives us the most illuminating portrait we have had of the life, the work and the historical context of one of the most abidingly influential—and controversial—men in modern history. Ramachandra Guha—hailed by Time as “Indian democracy’s preeminent chronicler”—takes us from Gandhi’s birth in 1869 through his upbringing in Gujarat, his two years as a student in London and his two decades as a lawyer and community organizer in South Africa. Guha has uncovered myriad previously untapped documents, including private papers of Gandhi’s contemporaries and co-workers; contemporary newspapers and court documents; the writings of Gandhi’s children; and secret files kept by British Empire functionaries. Using this wealth of material in an exuberant, brilliantly nuanced and detailed narrative, Guha describes the social, political and personal worlds inside of which Gandhi began the journey that would earn him the honorific Mahatma: “Great Soul.” And, more clearly than ever before, he elucidates how Gandhi’s work in South Africa—far from being a mere prelude to his accomplishments in India—was profoundly influential in his evolution as a family man, political thinker, social reformer and, ultimately, beloved leader. In 1893, when Gandhi set sail for South Africa, he was a twenty-three-year-old lawyer who had failed to establish himself in India. In this remarkable biography, the author makes clear the fundamental ways in which Gandhi’s ideas were shaped before his return to India in 1915. It was during his years in England and South Africa, Guha shows us, that Gandhi came to understand the nature of imperialism and racism; and in South Africa that he forged the philosophy and techniques that would undermine and eventually overthrow the British Raj. Gandhi Before India gives us equally vivid portraits of the man and the world he lived in: a world of sharp contrasts among the coastal culture of his birthplace, High Victorian London, and colonial South Africa. It explores in abundant detail Gandhi’s experiments with dissident cults such as the Tolstoyans; his friendships with radical Jews, heterodox Christians and devout Muslims; his enmities and rivalries; and his often overlooked failures as a husband and father. It tells the dramatic, profoundly moving story of how Gandhi inspired the devotion of thousands of followers in South Africa as he mobilized a cross-class and inter-religious coalition, pledged to non-violence in their battle against a brutally racist regime. Researched with unequaled depth and breadth, and written with extraordinary grace and clarity, Gandhi Before India is, on every level, fully commensurate with its subject. It will radically alter our understanding and appreciation of twentieth-century India’s greatest man.
Great Soul
Author: Joseph Lelyveld
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307389952
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 450
Book Description
A highly original, stirring book on Mahatma Gandhi that deepens our sense of his achievements and disappointments—his success in seizing India’s imagination and shaping its independence struggle as a mass movement, his recognition late in life that few of his followers paid more than lip service to his ambitious goals of social justice for the country’s minorities, outcasts, and rural poor. “A revelation. . . . Lelyveld has restored human depth to the Mahatma.”—Hari Kunzru, The New York Times Pulitzer Prize–winner Joseph Lelyveld shows in vivid, unmatched detail how Gandhi’s sense of mission, social values, and philosophy of nonviolent resistance were shaped on another subcontinent—during two decades in South Africa—and then tested by an India that quickly learned to revere him as a Mahatma, or “Great Soul,” while following him only a small part of the way to the social transformation he envisioned. The man himself emerges as one of history’s most remarkable self-creations, a prosperous lawyer who became an ascetic in a loincloth wholly dedicated to political and social action. Lelyveld leads us step-by-step through the heroic—and tragic—last months of this selfless leader’s long campaign when his nonviolent efforts culminated in the partition of India, the creation of Pakistan, and a bloodbath of ethnic cleansing that ended only with his own assassination. India and its politicians were ready to place Gandhi on a pedestal as “Father of the Nation” but were less inclined to embrace his teachings. Muslim support, crucial in his rise to leadership, soon waned, and the oppressed untouchables—for whom Gandhi spoke to Hindus as a whole—produced their own leaders. Here is a vital, brilliant reconsideration of Gandhi’s extraordinary struggles on two continents, of his fierce but, finally, unfulfilled hopes, and of his ever-evolving legacy, which more than six decades after his death still ensures his place as India’s social conscience—and not just India’s.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307389952
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 450
Book Description
A highly original, stirring book on Mahatma Gandhi that deepens our sense of his achievements and disappointments—his success in seizing India’s imagination and shaping its independence struggle as a mass movement, his recognition late in life that few of his followers paid more than lip service to his ambitious goals of social justice for the country’s minorities, outcasts, and rural poor. “A revelation. . . . Lelyveld has restored human depth to the Mahatma.”—Hari Kunzru, The New York Times Pulitzer Prize–winner Joseph Lelyveld shows in vivid, unmatched detail how Gandhi’s sense of mission, social values, and philosophy of nonviolent resistance were shaped on another subcontinent—during two decades in South Africa—and then tested by an India that quickly learned to revere him as a Mahatma, or “Great Soul,” while following him only a small part of the way to the social transformation he envisioned. The man himself emerges as one of history’s most remarkable self-creations, a prosperous lawyer who became an ascetic in a loincloth wholly dedicated to political and social action. Lelyveld leads us step-by-step through the heroic—and tragic—last months of this selfless leader’s long campaign when his nonviolent efforts culminated in the partition of India, the creation of Pakistan, and a bloodbath of ethnic cleansing that ended only with his own assassination. India and its politicians were ready to place Gandhi on a pedestal as “Father of the Nation” but were less inclined to embrace his teachings. Muslim support, crucial in his rise to leadership, soon waned, and the oppressed untouchables—for whom Gandhi spoke to Hindus as a whole—produced their own leaders. Here is a vital, brilliant reconsideration of Gandhi’s extraordinary struggles on two continents, of his fierce but, finally, unfulfilled hopes, and of his ever-evolving legacy, which more than six decades after his death still ensures his place as India’s social conscience—and not just India’s.
Mahatma Gandhi
Author: Charles River Charles River Editors
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781983752834
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 102
Book Description
*Includes pictures *Includes Gandhi's own quotes about his life and career *Includes footnotes and a bibliography for further reading "In judging myself I shall try to be as harsh as truth, as I want others also to be." - Gandhi "I am not pleading for India to practice nonviolence because it is weak. I want her to practice nonviolence being conscious of her strength and power." - Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, or Mahatma Gandhi as he is more popularly known, was called "Mahatma," or "Great Soul" not only because of his extraordinary achievements as leader of the Indian independence movement, but also because of his beliefs, practices, and principles that demonstrated to the world the depths that one's soul could have. Widely considered the father of India, the preeminent leader of the Indian struggle against British imperialism, and one of the most influential minds of the 20th century, Gandhi emerged to become one of the greatest advocates of peace and nonviolent resistance that the world has known. By leading a life of austerity and integrity, Gandhi became one of those rare leaders who preached through his own practices, motivating millions of people - rich and poor, men and women, adults and children, Hindus, Muslims, and Christians - to follow his principles of freedom and peace. Gandhi saw with his own eyes the negative impact of British colonialism on the Indian economy, culture, and identity, as did millions of other Indians. What made Gandhi unique was the fact that he also saw the enormously negative impact the diversity of the Indian population had on the struggle for Indian independence; divisions were rife between Hindus, Muslims, and dozens of other faiths, and the population was divided into hundreds of different ethnic groups, each with its own traditions and culture, and each unwilling to unite with other groups for the common cause of a free India. The caste system in India, as a long-standing social stratification system that placed severe and often permanent social restrictions on individuals according to which social classes they were born into, also played a large role in dividing Indian society. Gandhi recognized that these divisions were what weakened India's chances to effectively oppose British imperialism and establish independence. As nationalism and independence movements began forming and spreading in the mid and late 1800s, Gandhi was able to unite these various ethnic groups, religious groups, and social groups and lead a unified Indian independence movement. The impact that Gandhi made was lasting, and his legacy can still be seen today. Gandhi was not a theorist or scholar in the traditional sense, and never professed to be one; he prided himself on instead being a reformer and a true activist, for he famously stated that "I am not built for academic writings...Action is my domain." And yet, the action that Gandhi spoke of was not the violent and terror-invoking action that many other resistance movements took elsewhere in the world; Gandhi was guided by strict values, principles, and ideas of peace and nonviolence that remained remarkably enduring throughout his life. Mahatma Gandhi: The Life and Legacy of the Father of India chronicles the life and career of the man who shaped civil disobedience in the 20th century and led his country to independence. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Gandhi like never before, in no time at all.
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781983752834
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 102
Book Description
*Includes pictures *Includes Gandhi's own quotes about his life and career *Includes footnotes and a bibliography for further reading "In judging myself I shall try to be as harsh as truth, as I want others also to be." - Gandhi "I am not pleading for India to practice nonviolence because it is weak. I want her to practice nonviolence being conscious of her strength and power." - Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, or Mahatma Gandhi as he is more popularly known, was called "Mahatma," or "Great Soul" not only because of his extraordinary achievements as leader of the Indian independence movement, but also because of his beliefs, practices, and principles that demonstrated to the world the depths that one's soul could have. Widely considered the father of India, the preeminent leader of the Indian struggle against British imperialism, and one of the most influential minds of the 20th century, Gandhi emerged to become one of the greatest advocates of peace and nonviolent resistance that the world has known. By leading a life of austerity and integrity, Gandhi became one of those rare leaders who preached through his own practices, motivating millions of people - rich and poor, men and women, adults and children, Hindus, Muslims, and Christians - to follow his principles of freedom and peace. Gandhi saw with his own eyes the negative impact of British colonialism on the Indian economy, culture, and identity, as did millions of other Indians. What made Gandhi unique was the fact that he also saw the enormously negative impact the diversity of the Indian population had on the struggle for Indian independence; divisions were rife between Hindus, Muslims, and dozens of other faiths, and the population was divided into hundreds of different ethnic groups, each with its own traditions and culture, and each unwilling to unite with other groups for the common cause of a free India. The caste system in India, as a long-standing social stratification system that placed severe and often permanent social restrictions on individuals according to which social classes they were born into, also played a large role in dividing Indian society. Gandhi recognized that these divisions were what weakened India's chances to effectively oppose British imperialism and establish independence. As nationalism and independence movements began forming and spreading in the mid and late 1800s, Gandhi was able to unite these various ethnic groups, religious groups, and social groups and lead a unified Indian independence movement. The impact that Gandhi made was lasting, and his legacy can still be seen today. Gandhi was not a theorist or scholar in the traditional sense, and never professed to be one; he prided himself on instead being a reformer and a true activist, for he famously stated that "I am not built for academic writings...Action is my domain." And yet, the action that Gandhi spoke of was not the violent and terror-invoking action that many other resistance movements took elsewhere in the world; Gandhi was guided by strict values, principles, and ideas of peace and nonviolence that remained remarkably enduring throughout his life. Mahatma Gandhi: The Life and Legacy of the Father of India chronicles the life and career of the man who shaped civil disobedience in the 20th century and led his country to independence. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Gandhi like never before, in no time at all.