Character scetch of mahatma gandhi when he was a student
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Born Mohandas Gandhi (1869–1948), and later popularly referred to as the ‘Mahatma’ or ‘great soul’, Gandhi became a national hero in the Indian struggle to secure the independence of India from the British Empire. His philosophies of truth and non-violent resistance have inspired many political movements since, and had their roots in traditional Hindu religious beliefs. Despite his greatness as a political leader, Gandhi remained a modest man. ‘I have nothing new to teach the world,’ he once said. ‘Truth and non-violence are as old as the hills.’ Following is a description of an incident from his schooldays in an English-language school in colonial India.
Describing an incident from his school days in South Africa, Mahatma Gandhi illustrates one of the moral aspects of didactic teaching—the importance of getting ‘right’ answers.
There was an incident which occurred at the examination during my first year at the high school and which is worth recording. Mr Giles, the Educational Inspector, had come on a visit of inspection. He had set us five words to write in a spelling exercise. One of the words was ‘kettle’. I had mis-spelt it. The teacher tried to prompt me with the point of his boot, but I would not be prompted. It was beyond me to see that he wanted me to copy the spelling from my neighbour’s slate, for I had thought that the teacher was there to supervise against copying. The result was that all boys, except myself, were found to have spelt every word correctly. Only I had been stupid. The teacher tried later to bring this stupidity home to me, but without effect. I never could learn the art of ‘copying’.
Yet the incident did not in the least diminish my respect for my teacher. I was by nature blind to the faults of elders. Later I came to know many other failings of this teacher, but my regard for him remained the same. For I learnt to carry out the orders of elders, not scan their actions.
Although he only had an elementary education and had previously been a clerk in the state administration, Karamchand proved a capable chief minister.[17] During his tenure, Karamchand married four times. His first two wives died young, after each had given birth to a daughter, and his third marriage was childless. In 1857, Karamchand sought his third wife's permission to remarry; that year, he married Putlibai (1844–1891), who also came from Junagadh,[17] and was from a Pranami Vaishnava family.[18][19][20][21] Karamchand and Putlibai had three children over the ensuing decade: a son, Laxmidas (c. 1860–1914); a daughter, Raliatbehn (1862–1960); and another son, Karsandas (c. 1866–1913).[22][23]
On 2 October 1869, Putlibai gave birth to her last child, Mohandas, in a dark, windowless ground-floor room of the Gandhi family residence in Porbandar city. As a child, Gandhi was described by his sister Raliat as "restless as mercury, either playing or roaming about. One of his favourite pastimes was twisting dogs' ears."[24] The Indian classics, especially the stories of Shravana and king Harishchandra, had a great impact on Gandhi in his childhood. In his autobiography, he admits that they left an indelible impression on his mind. He writes: "It haunted me and I must have acted Harishchandra to myself times without number." Gandhi's early self-identification with truth and love as supreme values is traceable to these epic characters.[25][26]