My Leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, also known as Mahatma Gandhi, was born in October 2, 1869 in Porbandar, India to Karamchand Uttamchand Gandhi and Putlibai Gandhi. He was the fourth child and last child to the couple. The only girl that Karamchand, also known as Kaba, and Putlibai had was their eldest child, Raliatbehn who was born in 1862. Gandhi had two brothers, the oldest was Laxmidas, who was born 1863 and the younger of the two was Karsandas, who was born 1866. When Kaba and Putlibai got married, Kaba had already been married three times and had a daughter with each of his first two wives, however, all three of his wives had died and when Kaba met Putlibai, he was forty and she was thirteen.

The couple lived with their six kids in a three-story house that had been in the family since 1777.

Gandhi’s mom was very religious and took all six of her children to the Vaishnava Hindu temple next to the house daily, she also brought her children with her to help look after the ill and lower castes. The woman loved to learn about different events in the world and was a key source of information and advice for many of the town’s women. Kaba however had a job in the government, he was a court official. Part of his job included advising the royal family of Porbandar and he also hired new government officials and even though he had a good job, Kaba never earned that much money, his income barely managed to pay the household bills. According to customs, Gandhi’s marriage was arranged when he was thirteen, he married Kasturbai Makhanji who was fourteen at the time.

On September 4, 1888 Mahatma traveled to London in order to attend law school and he began studies at the University College London, once there he joined the Vegetarian Society and studied Indian law. Due to his beliefs, Gandhi never ate meat or drank alcohol his entire life. He continued in school until June 1891, by then he returned to India in order to get a career as a lawyer, but he was always too shy to become a lawyer so he worker other jobs in legal firms. After two years, Gandhi travels to South Africa in order to work for a Muslim law firm, he went because he agreed to help a Muslim Indian Law firm with a lawsuit, but he was shocked by the racial discrimination that he finds there. He was not allowed to travel in first class on the train and the trip ended up being a turning point in Gandhi’s life.

After he worked on some anti-government projects in South Africa, Gandhi traveled back to Bombay in order to get his children and wife in order to bring them to South Africa with him, but when their ship reached Port Napal in South Africa, an angry mob of white men refused to let his family into the country. Gandhi’s family left the ship safely thanks to the help of a local police officer, however, the officer still refused to press charges against the mob.

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