1. Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi 1869-1948

2. The good changes Britain made - 
Short History
Great Britain had controlled India since the 1700’s.
The good changes Britain made - 
Abolished slavery
Built railway system

3. The bad changes - 
The British took advantage of India’s huge cotton industry. The Brits would ship India’s cotton back to England… and then sell the cotton back to India!
Millions of Indians were out of jobs.
The British did not treat Indians as equals

4. Mahatma Gandhi was born in Western India, on October 2, 1869 of middle-class parents .

5. 1886 17 years old Gandhi and his brother in typical Indian clothing

6. In the late 1800’s –
Gandhi went to England to study law and was learning about these ideas.
Ideas of Individual rights and self government were spreading around world.

7. 1890 As a student in law school
When, as a 19-year-old, Gandhi arrived in London to study law, he wanted to dress like an Englishman. Gandhi thought English clothes were more civilized.

8. Nonviolence
Gandhi read Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience about nonviolent resistance.
Gandhi found out that there are ways to win wars without using guns.
He believed nonviolent resistance can be more powerful than violence.

9. 1900 29 years old A lawyer in South Africa

10. He arrived in South Africa dressed like a British lawyer except for his turban. In fact, he was ordered by the court to remove the turban, an act he found most humiliating.
Although he stopped wearing a turban, he registered his protest with the press, and he began to experiment consciously with the symbolic power of his clothing.
He worked as a lawyer in South Africa for twenty years trying to improve the lives of Indians living there.

11. 1906 35 years old Still a lawyer in South Africa

12. 1913 Dressed for a protest in South Africa
His 1913 clothing was a "sign of mourning," a symbolic way to identify with the suffering of the Indians who were oppressed in South Africa.

13. 1915 Gandhi and his wife returning from South Africa, dressed like an Indian peasant
By the time he returned to India in 1915, Gandhi knew that clothing could convey important messages, and he consciously chose to dress like an Indian peasant. The strong reactions his clothing elicited from the Indians who met him further convinced him of the symbolic importance of clothing.

14. In 1915 he returned to India at the age of 45 and several years later he began to work for Indian independence.
Gandhi realized that many upper class, Western-educated Indians were committed to working for independence, but that one of the greatest challenges was to bring the rest of the country into the struggle.
Many were very poor, illiterate, and divided by regional and religious differences.

16. 1921
In September 1921 he decided to wear the Indian loincloth for at least six weeks, and it became his standard dress from that time forward.
Gandhi debated for a long time whether he should wear a loincloth. He knew it could be taken as a sign of primitiveness or even indecency. On the other hand, it was a way of identifying with the poorest Indians. He insisted he was not trying to express "saintliness" even though many people identified it with the way Hindu ascetics dressed.

17. "In Gandhi's own perception, the loincloth was a sign of India's dire poverty and of the need to improve its wealth through swadeshi [things produced at home] and through a wholesale rejection of European civilization.
It was a rejection not only of the material products of Europe, but also of the European value system with its criteria of decency. It was better for the poor to wear scanty loincloths than to clothe themselves in garments from abroad.

18. Boycotts Form of nonviolent resistance
Gandhi stopped wearing western-style clothing or buying British-made cloth.
Millions joined this boycott and British lost $$$ and changed their policies. Gandhi told Indians to spin their own cloth and to make their own clothes.

19. Mohandas’ name was changed to Mahatma, which means “Great Soul”

20. 1930 Salt Acts
Another item Gandhi focused on were the British “Salt Acts,” which made it a crime for anyone in India to purchase salt from anyone but the British Government.
It was a monopoly on a substance needed to survive by both humans and animals in the hot climate.
It was illegal to make your own salt, too. Gandhi planned to use intentional violation of that law to put pressure on the British.

21. March To The Sea
Gandhi and about 75 followers marched to the sea, about 250 miles in 24 days. They were welcomed in villages and Gandhi addressed the crowds.
On April 5th, 1930, they reached the sea, Gandhi picked up some of the salt that had dried from the salt spray -- he had broken the law.
This began an insurrection without arms, villagers everywhere went to the sea with a pan, and made salt.
Within a month sixty thousand were behind bars -- there was no Indian violence, Gandhi was also arrested.

23. 1932
Gandhi starves himself to protest Britain’s treatment of the poorest people in India.
These people were known as “The Untouchables.”
Gandhi almost died from starvation. He urged more boycotts of British goods.

24. 1940 Wearing loincloth and shawl

25. 1942
Gandhi is arrested for all of his protests…
Although Gandhi practiced nonviolent resistance and urged everyone to do the same, some still practiced violence and 100’s were killed or hurt in violent demonstrations.

26. “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”

27. 1942 Wearing only his loincloth

28. 1944
Gandhi’s released from jail after spending a total of 2,338 days (over 6 years) in his lifetime.

29. 1947
World sympathy eventually forced Britain to give India their independence after 200 years of British rule.
While this is a major victory for Gandhi's nonviolence movement, Gandhi opposes the Congress's decision to accept the partition of the country into India and Pakistan.

30. Happy ending?
A Hindu fanatic murdered Gandhi on January 30, 1948.

31. For his dedication to the Indian Independence movement, Ghandi is often called the “Father of the Nation”.

32. Gandhi’s friend, Nehru, became the first president after Gandhi was killed.