Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) was an Indian civil rights activist who led the movement to free India from British colonial rule throughout the first half of the twentieth century. A notable supporter of nonviolent civil disobedience, Gandhi staged several hunger strikes and other peaceful demonstrations throughout his life to protest British control of India. He strongly opposed the United Kingdom’s 1947 partition of India into the two nations of India and Pakistan. His attempts to negotiate with Pakistan’s Muslims led to his assassination in 1948 by a Hindu extremist. After his death, Gandhi was remembered around the world for his support for peace as a means of producing change. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, in the northwestern...