In 1947, India, which was part of the British Empire from the Queen Victoria was crowned empress in 1877, became an independent nation. The organizer of the historical process that culminated in the emergence of the new state was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, better known as Mahatma (Sanskrit, "great soul") Gandhi. This slim and short-sighted man, who became a lawyer in England, must have lived for several years in South Africa where he organized campaigns to improve the deplorable situation in which immigrants were Indians in that country. In 1901 he returned to India, where he founded the Congress Party in order to fight for independence. Although Gandhi supported the participation of India for the United Kingdom in the First World War, from 1919 he started the struggle for the emancipation of his country. Many years later, on August 15, 1947, British troops pulled out of India, in a step prior to release. Gandhi was assassinated in 1948, at 79 years of age, by a Muslim fanatic, the first two years of presidential elections in the Republic of India.
In the British-dominated India dominated two religions, Hinduism and Islam. Gandhi was Hindu, but did what was in their power to put an end to the frequent and violent clashes between followers of both faiths.
Peaceful resistance was the key strategy in the struggle of Gandhi, who was to disobey the orders of the British authorities without defending the repression unleashed by them. Gandhi combined these actions and nonviolent protests.