Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi  (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial activist and political ethicist who employed non-violent resistance  to lead the successful campaign for India’s independence from British Rule. He inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific ‘Mahatma’  (from Sanskrit, meaning great-souled, or venerable), was first applied to him in South Africa in 1914, but today it is used worldwide.Gandhi is noted as the greatest figure of modern India. In 1999, Gandhi was also declared "Asian of the century" and in a 2000 BBC poll, he was voted as the greatest man of the Millennium