BIOGRAPHY OF MAHATMA GANDHI

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948), also known as Mahatma Gandhi, was born in Porbandar in the present day state of Gujarat in India on October 2, 1869. He was raised in a very conservative family that had affiliations with the ruling family of Kathiawad. He was educated in law at University College, London. In 1891, after having been admitted to the British bar, Gandhi returned to India and attempted to establish a law practice in Bombay, without much success. Two years later an Indian firm with interests in South Africa retained him as legal adviser in its office in Durban. Arriving in Durban, Gandhi found himself treated as a member of an inferior race. He was appalled at the widespread denial of civil liberties and political rights to Indian immigrants to South Africa. He threw himself into the struggle for elementary rights for Indians. Resistance to Injustice Gandhi remained in South Africa for twenty years, suffering imprisonment many times. In 1896, after being attacked and humiliated by white South Africans, Gandhi began to teach a policy of passive resistance to, and non-cooperation with, the South African authorities. Part of the inspiration for this policy came from the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, whose influence on Gandhi was profound. Gandhi also acknowledged his debt to the teachings of Christ and to the 19th-century American writer Henry David Thoreau, especially to Thoreau's famous essay "Civil Disobedience." Gandhi considered the terms passive resistance and civil disobedience inadequate for his purposes, however, and coined another term, Satyagraha (from Sanskrit, "truth and firmness"). During the Boer War, Gandhi organized an ambulance corps for the British army and commanded a Red Cross unit. After the war he returned to his campaign for Indian rights. In 1910, he founded Tolstoy Farm, near Durban, a cooperative colony for Indians. In 1914 the government of the Union of South Africa made important concessions to Gandhi's demands, including recognition of Indian marriages and abolition of the poll tax for them. His work in South Africa complete, he returned to India. Campaign for Home Rule Gandhi became a leader in a complex struggle, the Indian campaign for home rule. Following World War I, in which he played an active part in recruiting campaigns, Gandhi, again advocating Satyagraha, launched his movement of non-violent resistance to Great Britain. When, in 1919, Parliament passed the Rowlatt Acts, giving the Indian colonial authorities emergency powers to deal with so-called revolutionary activities, Satyagraha spread throughout India, gaining millions of followers. A demonstration against the Rowlatt Acts resulted in a massacre of Indians at Amritsar by British soldiers; in 1920, when the British government failed to make amends, Gandhi proclaimed an organized campaign of non-cooperation. Indians in public office resigned, government agencies such as courts of law were boycotted, and Indian children were withdrawn from government schools. Throughout India, streets were blocked by squatting Indians who refused to rise even when beaten by police. Gandhi was arrested, but the British were soon forced to release him. Economic independence for India, involving the complete boycott of British goods, was made a corollary of Gandhi's Swaraj (from Sanskrit, "self-governing") movement. The economic aspects of the movement were significant, for the exploitation of Indian villagers by British industrialists had resulted in extreme poverty in the country and the virtual destruction of Indian home industries. As a remedy for such poverty, Gandhi advocated revival of cottage industries; he began to use a spinning wheel as a token of the return to the simple village life he preached, and of the renewal of native Indian industries. Gandhi became the international symbol of a free India. He lived a spiritual and ascetic life of prayer, fasting, and meditation. His union with his wife became, as he himself stated, that of a brother and sister. Refusing earthly possessions, he wore the loincloth and shawl of the lowliest Indian and subsisted on vegetables, fruit juices, and goat's milk. Indians revered him as a saint and began to call him Mahatma (great-souled), a title reserved for the greatest sages. Gandhi's advocacy of nonviolence, known as ahimsa (non-violence), was the expression of a way of life implicit in the Hindu religion. By the Indian practice of nonviolence, Gandhi held, Great Britain too would eventually consider violence useless and would leave India. The Mahatma's political and spiritual hold on India was so great that the British authorities dared not interfere with him. In 1921 the Indian National Congress, the group that spearheaded the movement for nationhood, gave Gandhi complete executive authority, with the right of naming his own successor. The Indian population, however, could not fully comprehend the unworldly ahimsa. A series of armed revolts against the British broke out, culminating in such violence that Gandhi confessed the failure of the civil-disobedience campaign he had called, and ended it. The British government again seized and imprisoned him in 1922. After his release from prison in 1924, Gandhi withdrew from active politics and devoted himself to propagating communal unity. Unavoidably, however, he was again drawn into the vortex of the struggle for independence. In 1930 the Mahatma proclaimed a new campaign of civil disobedience, calling upon the Indian population to refuse to pay taxes, particularly the tax on salt. The campaign was a march to the sea, in which thousands of Indians followed Gandhi from Ahmedabad to the Arabian Sea, where they made salt by evaporating sea water. Once more the Indian leader was arrested, but he was released in 1931, halting the campaign after the British made concessions to his demands. In the same year Gandhi represented the Indian National Congress at a conference in London. In 1932, Gandhi began new civil-disobedience campaigns against the British. Arrested twice, the Mahatma fasted for long periods several times; these fasts were effective measures against the British, because revolution might well have broken out in India if he had died. In September 1932, while in jail, Gandhi undertook a "fast unto death" to improve the status of the Hindu Untouchables. The British, by permitting the Untouchables to be considered as a separate part of the Indian electorate, were, according to Gandhi, countenancing an injustice. Although he was himself a member of an upper caste, Gandhi was the great leader of the movement in India dedicated to eradicating the unjust social and economic aspects of the caste system. In 1934 Gandhi formally resigned from politics, being replaced as leader of the Congress party by Jawaharlal Nehru. Gandhi traveled through India, teaching ahimsa and demanding eradication of "untouchability." The esteem in which he was held was the measure of his political power. So great was this power that the limited home rule granted by the British in 1935 could not be implemented until Gandhi approved it. A few years later, in 1939, he again returned to active political life because of the pending federation of Indian principalities with the rest of India. His first act was a fast, designed to force the ruler of the state of Rajkot to modify his autocratic rule. Public unrest caused by the fast was so great that the colonial government intervened; the demands were granted. The Mahatma again became the most important political figure in India Independence for IndiaWhen World War II broke out, the Congress party and Gandhi demanded a declaration of war aims and their application to India. As a reaction to the unsatisfactory response from the British, the party decided not to support Britain in the war unless the country were granted complete and immediate independence. The British refused, offering compromises that were rejected. When Japan entered the war, Gandhi still refused to agree to Indian participation. He was interned in 1942 but was released two years later because of failing health. Times of India/Kamat's PotpourriMen Carrying Gandhi, Noakhali By 1944 the Indian struggle for independence was in its final stages, the British government having agreed to independence on condition that the two contending nationalist groups, the Muslim League and the Congress party, should resolve their differences. Gandhi stood steadfastly against the partition of India but ultimately had to agree, in the hope that internal peace would be achieved after the Muslim demand for separation had been satisfied. India and Pakistan became separate states when the British granted India its independence in 1947 (see: Tryst with Destiny -- the story of India's independence). During the riots that followed the partition of India, Gandhi pleaded with Hindus and Muslims to live together peacefully. Riots engulfed Calcutta, one of the largest cities in India, and the Mahatma fasted until disturbances ceased. On January 13, 1948, he undertook another successful fast in New Delhi to bring about peace, but on January 30, 12 days after the termination of that fast, as he was on his way to his evening prayer meeting, he was assassinated by a fanatic Hindu. Gandhi's death was regarded as an international catastrophe. His place in humanity was measured not in terms of the 20th century, but in terms of history. A period of mourning was set aside in the United Nations General Assembly, and condolences to India were expressed by all countries. Religious violence soon waned in India and Pakistan, and the teachings of Gandhi came to inspire nonviolent movements elsewhere, notably in the U.S.A. under the civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and in South Africa under Nelson Mandela.

BIOGRAPHY OF barack obama

Barack Obama was born August 4, 1961. His parents were both students at the University of Hawaii . He is biracial. His father, Barack Obama Sr., was a black man from Kenya, and his mother Ann Dunham, a white woman, had grown up in Kansas. Barack's grandfather had been a soldier in the army in World War 2. His parents separated when he was two years old and his father returned to Kenya. After the divorce his mother remarried, this time to a student from Indonesia, and the family moved to Jakarta where Barack was enrolled in an Indonesian school. When he was ten years old he went to live with his grandparents (his mother's parents) who had moved to Hawaii. While attending school in Hawaii he was one of only three black students in the school. He only had contact with his father on one occasion after that, and then for only a month. His father died in a car accident in 1982. After graduating from high school he attended college in Los Angeles and then graduated from Columbia University in New York. In Chicago he worked with low-income families and housing development. Next he attended law school at Harvard and became a civil rights lawyer. He also taught at the University of Chicago Law School. In 1992 he married Michelle Robinson, a young woman who had been his adviser when he started working at the Chicago law firm. Six years later their first daughter Malia Ann was born. Three years after that they had a second daughter, Natasha whom they call "Sasha". Young children have not lived in the White House in over 25 years. Amy Carter was nine years old when her father, Jimmy Carter became President. Barack's mother Ann died of cancer in 1994 at the age of fifty-two. In 1996 he was elected to the Illinois State Senate, and eight years later he was elected to the United States Senate. In 2004, the year John Kerry was nominated to run for President on the Democratic ticket, Obama gave the keynote speech at the Democratic convention. He gave a very impressive speech, and people at that time took note of his leadership ability. In 2007 he announced he would run for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. Hillary Clinton also wanted to be the Democratic nominee. After months of campaigning Obama won the nomination. Then he and John McCain, the Republican candidate, campaigned tirelessly for months. On election day November 4, 2008 an early victory was achieved and Barack Obama became the first African American to ever be elected to the highest office in the land, the presidency. It was a truly historical event in the country. Unfortunately his beloved grandmother,Madelyn Dunham did not live to see her grandson elected. She died on November 3rd, the day before the election. After the election people began naming their newborns after Barack and Michelle. The story of Barack Obama has only begun to be written. The nation and the world watch as he starts to accomplish the goals he has set for the betterment of Americans.

BIOGRAPHY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin in Kentucky to Thomas and Nancy Lincoln. The family moved to Indiana and 8 year old Abe helped his father build another log house. A year later his mother died and the house was very empty. His father remarried and in addition to his sister Sarah, who was 3 years older, there were now 3 more children in the family.Lincoln had less than a year of schooling. Books were scarce and so was paper. He worked his arithmetic problems on a board and cleaned the board with a knife so he could use it again.The family owned a Bible and he spent many hours reading it. He would copy parts of it in order to memorize it. Sometimes he would walk for miles to borrow a book. One of his favorite books was "The Life of George Washington".By the time he was 17, he knew he wanted to be a lawyer. He would walk 17 miles to the county courthouse in order to watch the lawyers work. He sat in the back of the courtroom and watched them as they shook their fists and became red in the face. Then he would go home and think about what he had seen.When he was 21 years old he moved to Illinois and spent a year laboring on a farm. It is said that he and his fellow-laborer split 3,000 rails in that year 1830. He also managed a flat-boat on the Ohio River Every time he got a new job he would try to work on a skill which would help him when he became a lawyer. When he was a shopkeeper he tried to be honest and fair. Once he shortchanged * a woman by 6 cents, and he followed her home so he could give the money back to her.When he was a postmaster, he tried to learn how to get along with people well.When he was a surveyor; * a person who measured land, he tried to always be accurate in his measurements.He still wanted to be a lawyer. He would go without sleep in order to study. He would borrow books from a neighbor in the evening, read them by the light of the fireplace, and take them back in the morning. In 1836 he passed the test and became a lawyer. It was during this time he was he was elected to the Illinois legislature. * by the Whig party. He became good at debating and public speaking. He had many debates with John Calhoun regarding the tariff question. They spoke before large audiences, sometimes as long as four hours. Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas participated in several debates concerning the question of slavery. They had a previous encounter at the State Fair in Springfield, Illinois. Lincoln would lose the senate race, but would win over Douglas in the 1860 presidential race. "The Undecided Political Prize Fight" Once a woman wrote an article containing some ridiculing remarks about General James Shields. The editor spoke to Lincoln about it and Lincoln said, "Tell him I wrote it." That's what he did and Shield challenged Lincoln to a duel with Lincoln's choice of weapons. On the appointed day Lincoln arrived with a sword in one hand and a hatchet in the other. A man, John J. Hardin, stopped the fight before it started. The event possibly changed the course of the nation's history. He was inaugurated * president in March of 1861. Five weeks later the Civil War began. It was a fight about slavery. Lincoln wanted the United States to remain one nation. It was in danger of being divided into two nations; the North and the South. Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C. Photo by David Bjorgen In his 1860 inaugural address, he said: "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." Two years later, President Lincoln wrote: "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union (Letter to Horace Greeley, August 22, 1862)." He quoted from the Bible," A house divided against itself cannot stand." He was able to realize both of his goals. In 1863 he issued the Emancipation * Proclamation freeing the slaves in the Southern states, and the country was able to remain a united nation. Eventually all the slaves in the United States became free. We get an insight into the life of Abraham Lincoln when we read an article which appeared in an Athens, Ohio newspaper June 8, 1860 . On April 14, 1865 President Lincoln and Mrs. Lincoln were attending a play at Ford's Theater in Washington D.C. While there he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, an actor with extremist views concerning politics and slavery. There had been a conspiracy by Booth and his cohorts to not only kill the president, but also William Henry Seward, and Andrew Johnson, the vice-president. The attack on Seward failed and the one on Johnson was never carried out. The president, after being shot, was carried to a house across the street from the theater and died nine hours later. Booth was killed by one of the men trying to apprehend him. Of all the presidents, Abraham Lincoln is the one in whom there is the greatest continuing interest. School children study him, historians debate his life and legacy, and people collect memorabilia about him.