Who Is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi?

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) was an Indian political and religious leader. After studying law in London, he went to South Africa, where he campaigned for rights for Indians living there.

On his return to India, he took up the cause of independence for his country, which he wanted to achieve by non-violent means.

The British imprisoned him on various occasions for civil disobedience, and he played a prominent part in the various conferences held to discuss India’s future.

A saintly man, he campaigned on behalf of the untouchables (the lowest Indian class) and tried to reconcile Hindus and Muslims. A Hindu fanatic assassinated him.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on 2 October 1869 in Porbandar, a coastal town that was then part of the Bombay Presidency, British India. He was born in his ancestral home, now known as Kirti Mandir, Porbandar.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s father, Karamchand Gandhi (1822–1885), who belonged to the Hindu Modh community, served as the diwan (a high official) of Porbandar state, a small princely state in the Kathiawar Agency of British India.

His grandfather was Uttamchand Gandhi, fondly called Utta Gandhi. His mother, Putlibai, who came from the Hindu Pranami Vaishnava community, was Karamchand’s fourth wife, as the first three wives had apparently died in childbirth.

Growing up with a devout mother and the Jain traditions of the region, the young Mohandas absorbed early the influences that would play an important role in his adult life; these included compassion for sentient beings, vegetarianism, fasting for self-purification, and mutual tolerance among individuals of different creeds.

The Indian classics, especially the stories of Shravana and Maharaja Harishchandra, greatly impacted Gandhi in his childhood.

In his autobiography, he admits that they left an indelible impression on his mind. He writes: “It haunted me and I must have acted Harishchandra to myself times without number.” Gandhi’s early self-identification with Truth and Love as supreme values traces back to these epic characters.

In May 1883, the 13-year-old Mohandas married 14-year-old Kasturbai Makhanji (her first name was usually shortened to “Kasturba,” and affectionately to “Ba”) in an arranged child marriage, according to the custom of the region.

Recalling the day of their marriage, he once said, “As we didn’t know much about marriage, for us it meant only wearing new clothes, eating sweets, and playing with relatives.”

However, as was also the custom of the region, the adolescent bride spent much time at her parents’ house, away from her husband. In 1885, when Gandhi was 15, the couple’s first child was born but survived only a few days, and earlier that year, Gandhi’s father, Karamchand Gandhi, died.

Mohandas and Kasturba had four more children, all sons: Harilal, born in 1888; Manilal, born in 1892; Ramdas, born in 1897; and Devdas, born in 1900.

At his middle school in Porbandar and high school in Rajkot, Gandhi remained an average student. He passed the matriculation exam for Samaldas College at Bhavnagar, Gujarat, with some difficulty. While there, he felt unhappy, in part because his family wanted him to become a barrister.

Content for this question contributed by Omkar Suri, resident of New Delhi, India