October 2, 1869: ·Birth of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
1883: ·Gandhi and Kasturbai are married.
1885: ·Death of Karamchand Gandhi, Gandhi's father
September 4, 1888: ·Gandhi leaves for England to study law.
June 10, 1891: ·Gandhi passes the bar exam in England.
1891-1893: ·Gandhi fails as a lawyer in India.
April 1893: ·Gandhi accepts commission to spend a year in South
Africa advising on a lawsuit.
Spring 1894: ·Gandhi elects to stay on South Africa, and founds
the Natal Indian Congress.
Spring 1896: ·Gandhi returns to India to collect his wife and children.
December 1896: ·Gandhi returns to South Africa with his family.
October 1899: ·Outbreak of Boer War (1899-1901) in South Africa.
Gandhi organizes an ambulance corps for the British.
1901: ·Gandhi returns to India to attend the Indian National
Congress. G.K. Gokhale introduces him to nationalist leaders.
1901-1906: ·Gandhi struggles toward Brahmacharya,
or celibacy, finally ending his sexual activity in 1906.
1904: ·Nationalists found the magazine the Indian
Opinion, and soon print it on Gandhi's farm, the "Phoenix
Settlement."
July 31, 1907: ·The Boer Republic Transvaal, now under the control
of the British, attempts to register all Indians as members; Gandhi
and others refuse to register. Their resistance efforts mark the
first use of nonviolent non-cooperation by the Indian minority in South
Africa, soon calledsatyagraha, or "soul-force."
January 11, 1908: ·Gandhi is arrested and sentenced to two months in
prison.
October 10, 1908: ·Gandhi is arrested again, spends a month in jail.
1909: ·Gandhi travels to London, pushing for rights of South
African Indians. The Transvaal registration law is repealed.
November 13, 1913: ·Indians in Natal and Transvaal, under Gandhi's leadership, march
peacefully in protest of a racist poll tax and marriage laws. The
marches continue through the winter.
June 30, 1914: ·Gandhi and Smuts, the Prime Minister of the Transvaal,
reach an agreement, ending the protests.
July 18, 1914: ·Gandhi sails to England.
August 1914: ·Gandhi arrives in England, just at the outbreak of World War I(1914-1918).
January 9, 1915: ·Gandhi returns home to India, and receives a hero's
welcome.
May 25, 1915: ·Gandhi and his followers found Satyagraha
ashram, the religiously-oriented communal farm where Gandhi,
his family, and his followers will live.
April 6, 1919: ·Nationalists hold a hartal, or day
of fasting and prayer, in protest of the Rowlatt Act, which drastically
curtails civil liberties in India.
April 13, 1919: ·Amritsar Massacre; Under General Dyer, British troops slaughter
Indian protesters.
August 1, 1920: ·Gandhi calls for a period of non-cooperation across
India.
March 10, 1922: ·Gandhi is arrested for sedition.
March 1922-January 1924: ·Gandhi remains in prison.
1924-1928: ·Gandhi avoids politics, focusing his writings on the improvement
of India.
1925: ·Despite his long absence from politics, Gandhi becomes President
of the Indian National Congress.
February-August 1928: ·Residents in the district of Bardoli protest high
rents using methods of non-cooperation inspired by Gandhi.
January 26, 1930: ·Gandhi publishes the Declaration of Independence of
India.
March 2, 1931: ·Gandhi warns the Viceroy of his intention to break
the Salt Laws.
March 12-April 6, 1931: ·Gandhi leads his Salt March to the sea.
May 5, 1931: ·Gandhi is arrested for violating the Salt Laws; non-cooperation movements
break out across India.
January 1931: ·British government yields to protests, releases all
prisoners, invites a Congress representative to Britain for a Round
Table Conference (the Congress asks Gandhi to be this representative).
Autumn 1931: ·Gandhi participates in the Round Table Conference
in Britain.
December 28, 1931: ·Gandhi returns to India.
January 4, 1932: ·Gandhi is arrested for sedition, and held without
a trial.
September 20-25, 1932: ·Gandhi fasts in prison to protest the treatment of
untouchables.
1934-38: ·Gandhi avoids politics, travels in rural India.
1935: ·Government of India Act passes British Parliament
and is implemented in India; it is the first movement toward independence.
September 1939: ·World War
II begins, lasting until 1945.
March 22, 1942: ·Sir Stafford Cripps arrives in India, presenting to
the Indian National Congress a proposal for Dominion status (autonomy within
the British Commonwealth) after the War.
August 8, 1942: ·The Indian National Congress rejects the Cripps proposal,
and declares it will grant its support for the British war effort
only in return for independence.
August 1942: ·Congress leaders are arrested; Gandhi is imprisoned
in the Aga Khan's palace.
February 10 to March 2, 1943: ·Gandhi fasts while imprisoned, to protest British
rule.
February 22, 1944: ·Death of Kasturbai
May 6, 1944: ·Gandhi is released from the Aga Khan's palace.
Summer 1944: ·Gandhi visits Muhammed Ali Jinnah in Bombay, but is
unable to work out an agreement that will keep India whole.
May 16, 1946: ·British Cabinet Mission publishes proposal for an
Indian state, without partition; Jinnah and the Muslim League reject
the proposal.
March 1947: ·Lord Mountbatten arrives in India and hammers out
agreement for independence and partition.
August 15, 1947: ·Indian independence becomes official, as does the
partition into two countries, India and Pakistan.
August-December 1948: ·India dissolves into chaos and killings, as Hindus
and Muslims flee for the borders of India and Pakistan.
January 30, 1948: ·Gandhi is assassinated by Nathuram Vinayuk Godse,
a Hindu nationalist.