Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi: His Early Years (1869-1915), Essay Example

Gandhi was born to a middle class family. His father and grandfather were political figures in his community. He was deeply reserved. His academic record gave no indication of his future greatness. His union with his wife was the product of an arrangement made between their parents. The marriage took place when they were in their early teens and lasted until her death almost 65 years later.

Gandhi studied law in England, living there for three years. He made life choices of vegetarianism and tolerance for all religions. Following his legal training, he returned to India for a brief time. Then, he was offered the chance to journey to South Africa to represent a client in a lawsuit. In Africa, Gandhi felt the racial tensions of the English against the large Indian population, and he personally experienced racial profiling. He formed committees and supervised Indian resistance to British domination and unjust social practices (Toit, 2005). Although he had intended to remain in South Africa for a season, he wound up staying there for more than two decades.

While there, he slowly became less dependent on others. He began to do his own laundry, cut his own hair, and clean his own home. He volunteered in a local hospital. Gandhi taught and practiced what he called “satyagraha,” a term that mirrored closely Thoreau’s “civil disobedience” (Goswami, 2009). He endured periods of incarceration for his leadership of resistance to British rule. Over time, the government yielded to his demands for equal treatment of Indians in South Africa (Dhupelia-Mesthrie, 2006).

In 1915, while in his mid forties, Gandhi felt that his work in South Africa was complete. He turned his attentions to the subjections of his people in the land of his birth. He returned home as a great and respected leader.

References

Dhupelia-Mesthrie, U. (2006). The making of a political reformer: Gandhi in South Africa. South African Historical Journal, 55, 211-213.

Goswami, P. (2009). A re-reading of Gandhi’s satyagrapha in South Africa for contemporary community organizing. Contemporary Development Journal, 44(3), 393.

Toit, A. (2005). Experiements with truth and justice in South Africa: Stockenstom, Gandhi, and the TRC. Journal of South African Studies, 31(2), 419-448.