Mahatma Gandhi Timeline

With his book Hind Swaraj, published in Gujarati in 1909, Gandhi, aged 40, declared that British rule was established in India only through Indian co-operation. It became 'the intellectual blueprint' for India's independence movement.

Image source: Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule

At the request of Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Gandhi returned to India in 1915, bringing lessons from South Africa. Aged 45, he soon organised peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest against discrimination and excessive land tax.

Gandhi's first major achievement came in 1917 with the Champaran agitation in Bihar, where he championed oppressed farmers and demonstrated the power of nonviolent protest against exploitative practices.

Image source: Champaran Satyagraha

In 1918, Kheda was hit by floods and famine and the peasantry demanded relief from taxes. After five months, by the end of May 1918, the government gave way on important provisions and relaxed tax conditions until the famine ended.

Image source: Kheda Satyagraha of 1918

In April 1918, the Viceroy invited Gandhi to a War Conference in Delhi. Unlike earlier ambulance work, this time he attempted to recruit combatants, writing 'Appeal for Enlistment'. By July 1918 he admitted he could not persuade even one individual to enlist.

In February 1919, Gandhi cautioned the Viceroy that the Rowlatt Act would result in civil disobedience. In 1919 he sought Muslim co-operation by supporting the defeated Ottoman Empire, launching the Khilafat Movement.

Image source: Rowlatt Act

The first formulation of satyagraha as a political principle occurred in 1920, when Gandhi tabled his 'Resolution on Non-cooperation' before a session of the Indian Congress. In 1921 he assumed leadership of the Indian National Congress, leading campaigns for easing poverty, women's rights, religious amity, ending untouchability, and swaraj.

Image source: Non-cooperation movement

Gandhi was arrested on 10 March 1922, tried for sedition, and sentenced to six years' imprisonment. The Khilafat Movement collapsed following the end of the non-cooperation movement and his arrest. After release in 1924, he continued pursuing swaraj.

Gandhi pushed through a resolution at the Calcutta Congress in December 1928 calling on the British government to grant India dominion status or face further non-cooperation.

Gandhi led Congress in a celebration on 26 January 1930 of India's Independence Day in Lahore, escalating demands until the Indian National Congress declared the independence of India.

Gandhi launched a new Satyagraha against the British salt tax in March 1930, condemning British rule in a letter to the viceroy. Leading common Indians, he challenged the salt tax with the 400 km (250 mi) Dandi Salt March. On 5 May, he was interned under a regulation dating from 1827.

Image source: Salt March

The Gandhi–Irwin Pact was signed in March 1931. During the Round Table Conferences over 1931–32, Gandhi sought constitutional reforms preparing for the end of colonial British rule. The Second Round Table conference was the only time he left India between 1914 and his death in 1948.

In 1934, Gandhi resigned from Congress party membership, though he returned to active politics in 1936 with the Nehru presidency and the Lucknow session of the Congress.

Gandhi clashed with Subhas Chandra Bose, who had been elected Congress president in 1938 and had previously expressed a lack of faith in nonviolence as a means of protest.

Image source: Subhas Chandra Bose

In August 1942, Gandhi explicitly called for the British to quit India in a speech in Mumbai and urged complete non-co-operation. The British imprisoned him and tens of thousands of Congress leaders. He was released on 6 May 1944 due to failing health and necessary surgery.

Image source: Quit India Movement

Gandhi and Jinnah corresponded extensively and met several times in September 1944, but Jinnah rejected Gandhi's proposal and called for Direct Action Day on 16 August 1946 to press Muslims to support partition of the subcontinent.

In August 1947, Britain granted independence but partitioned the British Indian Empire into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan, terms Gandhi disapproved. On 15 August 1947 he spent the day fasting and spinning in Calcutta rather than celebrating, appealing for peace.

Image source: Partition of India

Gandhi's final fast took place from 13–18 January 1948, begun in Delhi on 12 January when he was 78, appealing for peace among countrymen just days before his assassination.

On 30 January 1948, while walking with grandnieces in the garden of Birla House on his way to a prayer meeting, Nathuram Godse, a militant Hindu nationalist from Pune, assassinated Gandhi by firing three bullets into his chest at close range.

Image source: Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi

Most of Gandhi's ashes were immersed at the Sangam at Allahabad on 12 February 1948, but some were secretly taken away. Trial of his assassin began on 27 May 1948, concluding with Justice Atma Charan's final order on 10 February 1949.

In the years after black South Africans gained the right to vote in 1994, Gandhi was proclaimed a national hero in South Africa with numerous monuments honouring his legacy there.

In 1997, Tushar Gandhi immersed the contents of one urn of Gandhi's ashes, found in a bank vault and reclaimed through the courts, at the Sangam at Allahabad. On 30 January 2008, contents of another urn were immersed at Girgaum Chowpatty.

In August 2026, a collection of handwritten notes by Gandhi, reported to be rare, was auctioned in Mumbai for USD 1.69 Million, reflecting enduring global interest in his legacy.