Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Ruzbihan Baqli, The Unveiling of 

Secrets: Diary of a Sufi Master. Translated by Carl W. 

Ernst (Chapel Hill, N.C.: Parvardigar Press, 1997); F. 

E. Peters, A Reader on Classical Islam (Princeton, N.J.: 

Princeton University Press, 1994), 51–53, 65–66; Abu 

Ishaq Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Thalabi, 

Arais al-Majalis fi Qisas al-Anbiya, or “Lives of the 

Prophets.” Translated by William M. Brinner (Leiden: 

E.J. Brill, 2002).

Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand

 

(1869–

1948)  political and spiritual leader of Indian 

nationalist movement for independence from British 

colonial rule

Known as Mahatma (Sanskrit, “great soul”), Gan-

dhi was instrumental in the successful struggle for 

Indian independence from British imperial rule 

through his methods of nonviolent resistance. 

Gandhi was born in the Indian state of Gujurat in 

1869 into the vaishya caste (merchants, traders, 

and farmers) and was influenced by a variety of 

Indian religions, including Jainism. From 1888 

to 1891, he studied law in London, where he was 

exposed to the Theosophical movement and influ-

enced by the writings of Leo Tolstoy (d. 1910). 

In 1893, he began practicing law in South Africa, 

where he was deeply influenced by the political 

oppression of Indians by the British and, as a 

result, began developing his unique strategies of 

pacifist tactics based on the Indian religious prin-

ciples of satyagraha (Skt., truth-force) and ahimsa 

(Skt., nonharm, nonviolence). Gandhi returned 

to  i

ndia

 in 1914 and garnered mass support for 

the independence movement’s political party, the 

Indian National Congress. Through his Satyagraha 

campaigns of 1920–22 and 1927–34 and in other 

strategies of nonviolent noncooperation such as 

the Salt March in 1930, in which he mobilized a 

diversity of Indians and brought their struggle for 

independence to the world’s attention, Gandhi’s 

methods of passive resistance exposed the moral 

untenability of British colonial rule in India. Gan-

dhi remained formally affiliated with the Congress 

Party only through the mid-1930s but continued 

to serve as the independence movement’s sym-

bolic leader up through India’s independence in 

August 1947.

Gandhi saw each of India’s religious tradi-

tions as encompassing similar truths and believed 

that each religious community of India deserved 

political representation in a future independent 

India. Nonetheless, he articulated his political 

vision for an independent India in Hindu sym-

bolism, which cultivated distrust among India’s 

largest religious minority, its Muslims, who were 

represented politically by the Muslim League led 

by  m

Uhammad

  a

li

 J

innah

 (1876–1948). Unlike 

Jinnah, who represented the position that Mus-

lims were a unique cultural, religious, and social 

entity deserving of political autonomy in a future