Eventually Gandhi’s protest efforts paid off, as the British Parliament enacted the Government of India Act in 1935. This established self-rule at a local level and allowed some democratic elections. Muslims, however, feared majority Hindu rule and requested a separate state for Muslims. The Muslim League endorsed the creation of a new country called “[[Pakistan]]” for the predominantly [[Muslim]] population of that region. India and Pakistan are fully independent today.
[[Image:Gandhi3.jpg|thumb|280px|1947 U.S. editorial cartoon ridicules Gandhi for creating chaos in India]]
Gandhi was a vegetarian and would go on fasts for causes of peace. He was assassinated by Hindu ultra-nationalists on 20 January 1948, shortly after Indian independence.
==Religion==
Gandhi's understanding of religion and Indian culture was the key to understanding his public life. While his religion was grounded in the Hindu beliefs he had been taught as a child, Gandhi fashioned for himself a humanist religious philosophy on which he based his theory of nonviolence as a political method as well as his economic theories. Gandhi was eclectic in seeking and using insights from other religions, especially Christian pacifism. He rejected the assertion that the Christian gospel was the necessary path for all humankind to follow. Gandhi's mixed attitude toward Islam had more direct political consequence. He rejected Islamic claims of universal validity, but political realities led him in the 1920s to support the anti-British Khilafat movement, which was based on an appeal that Islam was in danger because of the British role in overthrowing the [[Ottoman Empire]]. Some historians argue that there were unintended consequences in his support for this pan-Islamic movement, because it brought religion into politics in a highly divisive way, leading to Partition of Pakistan as a separate nation in 1947. Nanda (2002) argues that Gandhi and the Indian National Congress did not see that their vision of nationhood was not shared by the Muslim leadership. Two incopatible nationalisms were contending for living space in the same territory.
==Famous quotes==
He was called the Mahatma, or the Great Soul
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==Bibliography==
* B. R. Nanda. ''In Search of Gandhi: Essays and Reflections.'' (2002).
===Primary sources===
* Mahatma Gandhi. ''Selected Writings of Mahatma Gandhi'' ed. by Ronald Duncan (1951) [http://www.questia.com/read/54615149?title=Selected%20Writings%20of%20Mahatma%20Gandhi full text online]
== See also ==