Mahatma Gandhi
Gandhi is the central figure in Orwell's essay. Gandhi is known for his effective use of non-violent resistance, Satyagraha, that he deployed against the British as he led India in its struggle for independence. Gandhi was born in the state of Gujarat, in northwestern India, in 1869. He was raised in as a Hindu but was attracted to Jainism. In his early adult years Gandhi moved to England, where he trained as a lawyer. It was in South Africa, while practicing as a lawyer, that Gandhi first deployed his tactics of nonviolent civil disobedience in attempt to secure rights for disenfranchised Indians. Upon returning to India in 1915, he developed the concept of Satyagraha as a political tool that he then used to organize widespread resistance against British rule. As Orwell notes, the philosophy behind Satyagraha is fundamentally of a religious (Hindu/Jain) nature. For Gandhi it entailed a ethic of asceticism and self-sacrifice. In 1947, Indian independence was achieved by nonviolent means; however the partitioning of India between Muslim and Hindu regions incited mass violence. Gandhi was assassinated in 1948 by a Hindu nationalist who opposed Gandhi's philosophies of religious pluralism.
