Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Summary
This is an introductory lesson about Mohandas Gandhi and his philosophy.

Objectives
• to describe and discuss the life of Gandhi;

• to explain some of Gandhi?s philosophy in fighting for equality;

• to list some different forms of passive resistance.

Suggested Grades
5th Grade
6th Grade
7th Grade

Excerpt
Gandhi is known as a national leader, a statesman, a spiritual leader, and a thinker. Indians called him the ?Mahatma,? which means the ?Great Soul.? He is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential leaders of the 20th century. Gandhi was born October 2,1869, at Porbandar, India. At the age of 13, as was the tradition of the time in India, he got married to a girl of the same age.

At the age of 19, Gandhi went to London to study Law at University College, and in 1891, he passed the bar exam and returned to India to practice law in Bombay. In 1893, an Indian legal firm that had work in South Africa hired Gandhi. At the time, both India and South Africa were under British rule, which means that Britain occupied both these countries.

Gandhi moved to South Africa, but he soon realized that his rights were not respected, and that Indians were treated in a cruel and unequal way by white people in South Africa. He stayed in South Africa for 21 years, fighting for justice and working to ensure that Indians were treated fairly and had equal rights. He was imprisoned many times by the government of South Africa.

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