The early life and career of Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi was born on the 2nd of October, 1869, in the city of Porbandar, in present-day Gujarat, and was named Mohandas Gandhi.

He came from a Hindu family and his father, Karamchand Gandhi, served as the dewan, or chief minister, of the regions of Porbandar, and later Rajkot.

Gandhi's mother was named Putlibai and was a devout Hindu. It is thought that her influence played a key role in shaping his spiritual outlook as a later adult.

However, as a child, Gandhi was shy and withdrawn. He was also deeply religious, spending hours reading religious texts such as the Bhagavad Gita.

In 1883, at the age of thirteen, Gandhi married 14-year-old Kasturba Makhanji, a young girl who had been selected for him by his parents.

The couple went on to have four children together.

In 1888, Gandhi travelled to England to study law and jurisprudence at University College London, and was simultaneously admitted to the Inner Temple, one of the Inns of Court, to train as a barrister.

The enrollment at the Inner Temple was part of his legal education. It was during this time that he first began to develop his political views. 

He was greatly influenced by the works of thinkers such as John Stuart Mill and Henry David Thoreau. 

While studying in London, Gandhi became an active member of the London Vegetarian Society, where he met like-minded individuals and began exploring the ethical dimensions of food choices.

His childhood shyness and tendency for solitude carried on into his teenage years and after his move to London. 

After returning to India in 1891, Gandhi briefly worked in Rajkot, where he struggled to build a successful legal practice before moving to Bombay (now Mumbai).

However, he was not very successful and found it difficult to fit into the city's Westernised culture.

In 1893, Gandhi accepted a one-year contract to work at Dada Abdulla & Co., a firm of Indian merchants in South Africa, as a clerk and legal representative.

As part of his job, he required to assist with a legal case involving business transactions in order to resolve disputes through arbitration.

It was here that he first experienced racial discrimination himself. 

One incident in particular had a profound impact on Gandhi. In June of 1893, he was travelling by train from Durban to Pretoria when he was ordered to move from first class to third class, purely based upon his race.

When Gandhi refused, he was thrown off the train, and had to spend a night sleeping in Pietermaritzburg train station.

This was a critical point in Gandhi's life. He had always considered himself the equal of any other subject of the British Empire, but this event made him realise that Indians were treated as second-class citizens in South Africa.

This inspired him to begin fighting for the rights of his fellow Indians. The next few years were spent leading various protests and campaigns against the discriminatory laws in South Africa. 

In 1894, he was furious at the report that the Colony of Natal (which became part of South Africa) was proposing a new legislation that would prevent Indians from voting.

Gandhi immediately started a petition against the legislation and managed to get signatures from over 10,000 people.

Although the bill was still passed into law, Gandhi's efforts illuminated the issues of the Indian people in South Africa, and he established the Natal Indian Congress a few months later.

When the Second Boer War began in 1899, Gandhi immediately offered to help the British army.

He recruited a group of Indian volunteers, called the Indian Ambulance Corps, to serve as ambulance drivers and stretcher-bearers to provide medical assistance to British soldiers.

This was a very dangerous job, as they were often targets of enemy fire. However, Gandhi believed that it was important for Indians to show their loyalty to the Empire and prove that they were worthy of equality.

At the end of the conflict, the British gave medals to Gandhi and his stretcher bearers for their brave efforts on the battlefield.

However, in 1903, Gandhi established Indian Opinion, a newspaper that published articles supporting greater civil liberties and rights for Indians in South Africa.

The newspaper's name referred to and articulated his famous idea of 'satyagraha'.

This word translates to 'the force of truth', and it emphasised the significance of non-violent resistance: a concept that would be crucial to his later efforts for Indian independence.

Satyagraha was Gandhi's way of defying the Asiatic Registration Act, which compelled Indians in South Africa to be thumb printed and carry registration papers with them at all times.

He argued that this was an unjust law, as it discriminated against a whole group of people based on their race.

In 1906, Gandhi led a large number of Indians in a mass protest against the act. As a result, he was arrested and sentenced to three months in jail.

It was during his time in prison that Gandhi began to develop his ideas about nonviolent resistance.

He came to believe that violence only begets more violence and that the only way to achieve change is through peaceful means.

After his release from prison, Gandhi continued to lead protests and campaigns against discrimination. 

In 1914, the First World War broke out, and Gandhi once again offered his help to the British army by recruiting soldiers. However, by this time his views had changed considerably.

While Gandhi did have reservations about Indians participating in the war, he also believed that if Indians supported the British war effort, it might help India gain constitutional rights and self-governance. 

In 1915, after more than two decades spent fighting for justice in South Africa, Gandhi returned to India. 

He arrived in Bombay and started touring the country to learn more about the issues facing Indians.

He quickly became involved in the Indian National Congress, a political party fighting for independence from British rule.

Over the next few years, Gandhi would become the most important leader of the independence movement.

His philosophy of nonviolent resistance would inspire millions of people, both in India and around the world.

Thanks to his tireless efforts, India finally gained its independence in 1947.