This Day in History:, Gandhi Is Assassinated.<br />January 30, 1948.<br />The political and spiritual leader <br />of the Indian independence <br />movement was assassinated <br />in New Delhi by a Hindu fanatic.<br />Known as Mahatma, or “the great soul,” <br />Gandhi’s methods of civil disobedience influenced <br />leaders of civil rights movements around the world.<br />He organized his first campaign of satyagraha, <br />or mass civil disobedience, in 1906 while <br />working as a lawyer in South Africa.<br />Five years after returning to India, <br />Gandhi launched a new satyagraha in 1919 in <br />protest of Britain’s mandatory military draft of Indians.<br />For the next two decades, he led fasts, marches, <br />worked for India's poor and was often imprisoned.<br />In 1942, Gandhi launched <br />the “Quit India” movement, <br />which called for a total <br />British withdrawal from India.<br />On August 15, 1947, Britain <br />agreed to create the two new independent <br />states of India and Pakistan.<br />When he was killed, Gandhi was on <br />a vigil to heal the religious strife between <br />Hindus and Muslims in his country
