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This Day in History: Gandhi Is Assassinated. January 30, 1948. The political and spiritual leader of the Indian independence movement was assassinated in New Delhi by a Hindu fanatic. Known as Mahatma, or “the great soul,” Gandhi’s methods of civil disobedience influenced leaders of civil rights movements around the world. He organized his first campaign of satyagraha, or mass civil disobedience, in 1906 while working as a lawyer in South Africa. Five years after returning to India, Gandhi launched a new satyagraha in 1919 in protest of Britain’s mandatory military draft of Indians. For the next two decades, he led fasts, marches, worked for India's poor and was often imprisoned. In 1942, Gandhi launched the “Quit India” movement, which called for a total British withdrawal from India. On August 15, 1947, Britain agreed to create the two new independent states of India and Pakistan. When he was killed, Gandhi was on a vigil to heal the religious strife between Hindus and Muslims in his country. THIS VIDEO MUST NOT BE EDITED FOR LENGTH TO COMBINE WITH OTHER CONTENT