Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869–1948) was an Indian lawyer who became the leader of the Indian Independence Movement against British rule and the twentieth century's best-known practitioner of nonviolent resistance, satyagraha. Thrown off a first-class carriage in Pietermaritzburg in 1893, he spent two decades in South Africa organising the Indian community before returning to India in 1915. He led the Champaran and Kheda satyagrahas, the Rowlatt protests of 1919, the noncooperation movement of 1920–22, the Salt March of 1930, and the Quit India Movement of 1942, spending years in prison and fasting to end communal violence. He was never awarded the Nobel Peace Prize despite twelve nominations, and was assassinated by Nathuram Godse on 30 January 1948, months after India won independence through a partition he opposed. Gandhi Jayanti, his 2 October birthday, is a national holiday in India and the UN's International Day of Non-Violence.