Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi Mohandas Gandhi is known as Mahatma or, “great soul” the peaceful leader of the Indian independence movement. Gandhi is considered to be the “Father of the nation.” Gandhi has had a positive influence on the world, because he broadened our horizons on diversity. He was the principle figurehead of the Indian independence movement, while teaching a philosophy of non-violence and peaceful protest. Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869 Mohandas Gandhi was born in Porbandar,India but his family moved to the town of Rajkot when he was only seven years old. He was the youngest of four children in his family. Gandhi was a member of the Hindu religion which meant he wasn't allowed to eat meat or drink wine. Gandhi was simply a mediocre student compared to his siblings and other Indian students of his social status. Gandhi, contrary to what you would think, experimented with eating meat, smoking, and a small amount of stealing. These actions he later regretted due to the fact that all of those actions were against his religion, Hinduism. Gandhi was raised believing in Hinduism, but throughout his childhood he had many opportunities to meet people of all faiths. Including, Christian, Muslim, and became heavily influenced by Jainism. Jainism has the belief of “Ahimsa”, or doing no harm. He took this practice and later developed his own, Satyagraha (truth force) later on in his life. At age 13, Gandhi married Kasturba (also spelled Kasturbai) in an arranged marriage. Kasturba gave Gandhi four sons and supported Gandhi's endeavors until her death in 1944. Gandhi has had a positive influence on the world, because he broadened our horizons on diversity. He was the principle figurehead of the Indian independence movement, while teaching a philosophy of non-violence and peaceful protest (Severance.) In September 1888, at age 18, Gandhi left India, without his wife and newborn son, in order to study to become a lawyer in London. Gandhi took full advantage of this experience in London; he spent his first three months trying to make himself into a perfect Englishman. He did so by purchasing top of the line suits, working on an English accent, taking dance lessons and learning French. After the realization that all of this time he was simply wasting his money and time, he buckled down and spent the remaining three years of his time being a serious student and living within simple means. Also throughout his remaining time in England Gandhi rediscovered his passion for vegetarianism, even though most Indian students, while living in England, ate meat. He did so by remembering his promise to his mother, to not consume meat, and having a mass amount of self control. During this endeavor to stay a vegetarian Gandhi was inducted into the very prestigious London Vegetarian Society. This society consisted of different authors, such as Henry David Thoreau and Leo Tolstoy. It was also through members of the Society that Gandhi began to really read the Bhagavad Gita, an epic poem which is considered a sacred text to Hindus. The new ideas and concepts that he learned from these books set the foundation for his later beliefs. Finally, he successfully passed the bar exam and two days later sailed back to India (Severance.) Gandhi, at age 23 left his family again to sail to South Africa. It was in South Africa that Gandhi transformed from a very quiet and shy man to a resilient and potent leader against discrimination. While traveling through South Africa Gandhi used railway system, from this train rides come the infamous movie scene in which Gandhi is forced to move from first class to third class, refuses, and is thrown off of the train (Feuerlicht.) Gandhi spent the next twenty years working to better Indians' rights in South Africa. During the first three years, Gandhi learned more about Indian grievances, studied the law, wrote letters to officials, and organized petitions. On May 22, 1894, Gandhi established the