On this day 64 years ago, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was assassinated. Born in 1869, he was married at the age of 13. He was an average student, but managed to complete the matriculation examination and then travelled to England to study law and train as a barrister. He then accepted a one-year contract to a position in the Colony of Natal, South Africa. The one year turned into twenty-one years.
In South Africa Gandhi faced racial prejudice and injustice against Indians because of the colour of their skin, and he campaigned against a bill which denied Indians the right to vote. While protesting against injustice in South Africa, Gandhi developed his ideas of non-violent resistance, urging Indians to defy the law and suffer the punishments for doing so. Thousands of Indians were jailed and beaten, but the government was eventually forced to compromise.
After returning to India in 1915, Gandhi joined the Indian National Congress and soon began the long campaign for India to achieve independence from Britain. Gandhi organised large-scale non-violent protests against the British government, and eventually in 1947 India became independent. Less than a year later, at the age of 79, he was shot dead by a Hindu nationalist who thought he was too sympathetic to Muslims.