Mahatma Gandhi by Jennifer H. Pikul Continued......

[Sharon A. Kattke]

Satyagraha prisoners learned crafts and practical principles of self-sufficiency and self-discipline. Ahmadabad Textile Labor Association protested with Satyagraha, and became a model for Indian trade unions.

Gandhi went nationwide with Satyagraha. It was a political downfall. A massacre occurred killing hundreds of Indians and wounding over a thousand. Gandhi called off the civil disobedience. He usually was released from jail because of his fasting which made him ill.

Gandhi dressed very poorly wearing a loincloth and a shawl. He lived on vegetables, fruit juices, and goat's milk. Sri Paramahansa Yogananda went to visit Mahatma Gandhi in his Ashram in India. In addition to self-control, the renunciants kept silence for one day out of the week and practiced Satyagraha. The members of Gandhi's ashram were brahmacharyas and brahmacharinis. Indians thought that Gandhi was a saint. He was one of the famous political leaders along with Martin Luther King, Jr. in the U.S.A. and Nelson Mandela in South Africa.

Gandhi was for a constitutional reform. The civil disobedience was brought forth. He again was imprisoned. Libraries, clinics and Congress were declared illegal. Gandhi stopped civil disobedience in the Summer of 1933. In 1939, the Viceroy declared war against India. Gandhi called the individuals to do Satyagraha. The Congress and about 10,000 Indians went to jail. All of India did a mass Satyagraha along with Gandhi. He went on a 21 day fast. He was released again. Finally, Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, gave India their independence on June 1948. The new Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten invited Gandhi for talks. Gandhi chose Mountbatten's plan for peace. He went on his last fast. On the 6th day of this fasting in Delhi, Godse fired at Gandhi and the Mahatma died praying for his assailant.