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Chronology of Events of Mahatma Gandhi

This page follows the major events in the life of Mahatma Gandhi in chronological order — from his birth in Porbandar to his years in London, his transformation in South Africa, his leadership in India, and the final phase of his life in the years of freedom and Partition. It is meant to help readers follow the sequence of events clearly and return to the larger story with better orientation.

Explore The Gandhi Ideology

A chronological view of a life in public history

1869 to 1893 : Birth, schooling, marriage, and the road to England

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on 2 October 1869 at Porbandar in Kathiawar. In the following years he moved with his family to Rajkot, attended school there, and married Kasturbai while still young. After passing matriculation and briefly attending Samaldas College at Bhavnagar, he left for England on 4 September 1888 to study law. In London he kept to a vegetarian diet, read widely, and qualified for the Bar in 1891 before returning to India. After an uncertain start in legal practice at Bombay and Rajkot, he accepted work that took him to South Africa in 1893.

South Africa marks the decisive turning point in Gandhi’s life. Soon after arriving there in 1893, he encountered racial discrimination and chose to remain and resist it rather than simply complete his assignment and leave. In 1894 he helped found the Natal Indian Congress, and in the years that followed he became steadily more committed to the cause of Indians in South Africa. These were also years of reading, institution-building, and experiment: Indian Opinion began publication, Phoenix Settlement was founded, and later Tolstoy Farm became another important centre of shared discipline and work.

This phase also saw the growth of the method that would define much of Gandhi’s later public life. In 1906 the passive resistance movement began against discriminatory legislation in the Transvaal. Over the next several years Gandhi faced repeated arrests, negotiations, imprisonments, and campaigns, while also writing Hind Swaraj in 1909. The struggle continued into 1913 and 1914, including the miners’ strike and the Great March, before an agreement with Smuts and the passing of the Indian Relief Act marked the close of this long South African chapter.

Gandhi returned to India on 9 January 1915. Soon afterward he founded the Satyagraha Ashram at Ahmedabad, and in the first years after his return he travelled widely, observing the country closely. By 1917 and 1918 he had begun taking up concrete public struggles in India: Champaran, the Ahmedabad mill workers’ dispute, and the Kheda satyagraha. These campaigns brought him into closer relation with peasants, workers, and local grievances, and they established him in Indian public life in a new way.

The year 1919 became a major dividing line. Gandhi signed the satyagraha pledge against the Rowlatt Bills, launched the all-India satyagraha movement, and then faced the violence that followed, including the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. The chronology records both his role in initiating agitation and his decision to suspend it after what he called a grave misjudgment. It also notes that he took over the editorship of Navajivan and Young India in the same year.

In the early 1920s Gandhi moved firmly to the centre of national politics. The chronology records his role in pressing the Khilafat question, surrendering his medals, and advancing the programme of Non-Cooperation. It also notes the founding of Gujarat Vidyapith and the Congress adoption of swaraj by legitimate and peaceful means as its object. During these years he linked political action with spinning, boycott, membership-building, and constructive work on a mass scale.

In February 1922, after the Chauri Chaura incident, Gandhi abandoned the proposed satyagraha campaign. Soon afterward he was arrested and sentenced for sedition. The chronology then moves through his imprisonment, his release following surgery in 1924, and his 21-day fast for Hindu-Muslim unity later that year.

From the mid-1920s onward, the chronology shows Gandhi moving between constructive work and major political interventions. It records the founding of the All-India Spinners’ Association, the beginning of his autobiography, and later the Congress shift toward complete independence. By 1930 the sequence leads directly to the Salt campaign: Gandhi’s letter to the Viceroy, the march from Sabarmati to Dandi, the symbolic breaking of the Salt Law, and his arrest. The following year includes his release, the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, and his visit to London for the Second Round Table Conference.

The early 1930s also include his fast against separate electorates for Harijans, the founding of the weekly Harijan, another 21-day fast, and the gradual winding down of the Civil Disobedience movement. By 1934 the chronology notes his decision to step back from politics in order to give greater attention to village industries, anti-untouchability work, and education through craft

The final stretch of the chronology is dominated by the crisis surrounding freedom and Partition. Gandhi took part in discussions around the Cabinet Mission, travelled widely, and continued his anti-untouchability and Hindustani work. The chronology then turns toward the communal violence of 1946, including Calcutta, Noakhali, and Bihar, and records Gandhi’s efforts to move directly into disturbed areas rather than remain at a distance from events.

In 1947 the entries move through the mounting debate over Partition, Gandhi’s resistance to communal division, and the difficult months around independence. The chronology notes that while India became free in August 1947, Gandhi remained occupied with peace efforts in Calcutta and later Delhi. In January 1948 he undertook his final fast for communal peace in Delhi, broke it after a peace pledge, and on 30 January 1948 was assassinated on his way to evening prayer.