Who is Gandhi ?

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is a politician who led India to become an independent state in 1947.

Known as "Mahatma”, he is also famous for his non-violence. From 1858, India was a british colony; a territory belonging to Great Britain. That means the British forced their laws on the Indians. Indians had already rebelled against this authority but they’d been arrested by the British Army. 

Gandhi therefore decided in 1922 to use other methods based on nonviolence. So, he asked millions of Indians not to buy english products, for example making their clothes themselves instead of buying them. And as the Indians were forced to pay a tax on salt and didn’t have the right to harvest it…

Gandhi set an example by going to harvest salt water from the ocean to make salt. When World War 2 broke out, he asked Indians not to take part to put more pressure on the British. This is called civil disobedience. Even if Gandhi was sent to prison several times, he and his political movement managed to make the British give in. In 1947, India became independent but one year later, Gandhi was assassinated by a political opponent. His principles of nonviolence inspired other activists, like Martin Luther King, who led the African-American civil rights movement.