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Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi
Introduction
Mahatma Gandhi was born at Porbandar on the 2nd October, 1869. His ancestors were Vaishya by caste and profession, but his father, uncle and grandfather were in service. Although his parents were orthodox Vaishnavas, they were enlightened to make all necessary arrangements for giving modern education to their children. Mohandas Kara nichand Gandhi grew in a mixed but balanced set-up. He was initiated into religious and moral traditions, and yet his mind was open to the changing needs of the time.
He was not very good at studies in the beginning. Once he made friendship with a person, who tempted him to evils like meat-eating, smoking etc. In 1888, he was sent to England for the study of law. His father was no more. He received his mother's permission for going abroad only after taking a vow not to touch meat, wine or to keep had company. In England, besides his studies, he also tried to know good things of the West. He returned to India after qualifying as a Bar-at-law. After staying in India for a very brief period, he went to South Africa to work in the case of an Indian merchant there. His bitter experiences of various acts of racial discrimination committed by the white people of that place changed the entire course of his life and action. For the first time, he started his moral experiments of trying to
