Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869 – 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to campaign for civil rights. 

Born and raised in India, Gandhi studied in London to be a lawyer. After a couple of years trying unsuccessfully to start a law business in India, he moved to South Africa in 1893 to represent an Indian merchant in a lawsuit. He stayed for 21 years as a legal agent for Indian merchants in Natal and the Transvaal. Gandhi raised a family in South Africa. Between 1906 and 1909, in protest against a Transvaal registration law requiring Indians to carry passes, he first employed his methods of nonviolent resistance. He returned to India in 1915 to lead a successful campaign for their independence from British rule. 

It was while in South Africa he was given the honourable title of “Mahatma”, meaning great-souled or venerable.