History Facts

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was a major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement. He is commonly known around the world as Mahatma and is commemorated in India on a National holiday for his movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. For more information and facts about Ghandi, please keep reading.

Fact #1 - Mohandas Gandhi was born in Porbander, a coastal town in present-day Gujarat, Western India.

Gandhi was raised by his parents and they instilled values into his every day life. These included compassion to sentient beings, vegetarianism, fasting for self-purification, and mutual tolerance between individuals of different creeds. If only parent today took the time to raise their children with these values… the world may be a better place.

Fact #2 - At 13 years old Mohandas was married to 14-year old Kasturba Makhanji in an arranged child marriage, as was the custom in the region.

I can’t imagine having an arranged marriage, but that is the custom in India. Being married at such a young age in America is probably illegal. They had their first child about 2 years later, while his wife was still hardly a teenager. They had four children together.

Fact #3 - In 1888 Mohandas Gandhi traveled to London, England, to study law at University College London and to train as a barrister.

Very few people know that Gandhi was a lawyer. He even tried to establish his own practice in Bombay, but it never picked up.

Fact #4 - He instituted Satyagraha campaign in India to protest the Rowlatt Acts, which deprived all Indians of important civil liberties.

Fact #5 - Gandhi led a march to the sea to collect salt in protest of the British salt tax.

Fact #6 - Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu extremist, an act that prompted riots throughout India.

Why is it that people who try to do good in the word are always assassinated? Gandhi was shot and killed while having his nightly public walk on the grounds of the Birla House in New Delhi. The assassin, Nathuram Godse, was executed for his crime.