On January 30, 1948, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who led the Indian nationalist movement and became known around the world for his philosophy of nonviolent resistance, was assassinated at age 78. He was gunned down in New Delhi by a Hindu extremist five months after India gained its independence from British rule. Check out some interesting facts about the man referred to as Mahatma (“great soul”) and the father of his country. 1. Gandhi was a teenage newlywed. At 13, Gandhi, whose father was the “diwan,” or chief minister, of a series of small princely states in western India, wed Kasturba Makanji (1869-1944), then also a teen and the daughter of a merchant. It was an arranged marriage, and Gandhi had been engaged to Kasturba since he was seven. The couple went on to have four sons. Even when Gandhi took a vow of celibacy in 1906 for reasons of spirituality, self-discipline and commitment to public service, his wife remained married to him until her death at age 74. She died a...
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