Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi Or Bapu, as he was
lovingly addressed by all, was born on 2 October 1869 in Porbandar, a coastal
town on the Kathiawar Peninsula. Mohandas Gandhi was the last child of his
father (Karamchand Gandhi) and his father's fourth wife (Putlibai). Karamchand
Gandhi (1822-1885), served as the diwan (chief minister) of Porbander state.
His mother, Putlibai, was from a Pranami Vaishnava family. Mohandas has his
schooling in nearby Rajkot. During his youth, Mohandas Gandhi was shy,
soft-spoken, and only a mediocre student at school. His father died before
Gandhi could finish his-schooling.
In 1888 Gandhi set sail for England, where he
had decided to pursue a degree in law. Though his elders objected, Gandhi could
not be prevented from leaving. In London he studied law at University College
London, where he studied Indian law and jurisprudence and trained as a
barrister at the Inner Temple. His time in London was influenced by a vow he
had made to his mother upon leaving India, in the presence of a Jain monk, to
observe the precepts of abstinence from meat and alcohol as well as of
promiscuity.
When in 1915 Gandhi returned to India after his
stint in South Africa he brought an international reputation as a leading
Indian nationalist, theorist and organizer. He joined the Indian National
Congress and was introduced to Indian issues, politics and the Indian people
primarily by Gopal Krishna Gokhale.
He spent his remaining years working diligently to
both remove British rule from India as well as to better the lives of India's
poorest classes.
Gandhi's first major achievements came in 1918
with the Champaran and Kheda agitations of Bihar and Gujarat. Pursuing a
strategy of non-violent protest, Gandhi took the administration by surprise and
won concessions from the authorities. He had a firm belief in and asked his
followers to employ non-co-operation, non-violence and peaceful resistance as
their "weapons" in the struggle against the British Raj. His wide
popularity among both Hindus and Muslims made his leadership possible; he even
convinced the extreme faction of Muslims to support peaceful non-co-operation.
