Gandhi Auto-bio

Autobiography of Mahatma Karamchand Gandhi

by Henry Sanders

My name is Mahatma Karamchand Gandhi. I was born in a small town called Porbandar on October 2 1869. This town is far away from many major cities. However, there are many very kind, smart, and hard working people who live in Porbandar. In fact, my dad (Karamchand Gandhi) was the Mayor of Porbandar for a short period of time.

In the year 1888-when was 19 years old-I travelled to London, to study law at University College London. There I studied Indian law and jurisprudence and trained as a barrister at the Inner Temple. What I learned from being a lawyer was that in order to truly move people you must move them with your words. I started out my training as a shy man who lost most of his sessions due to the fact that I was too scared to speak up. I eventually ended my training in the 1918, three years after I came back to India. The training that I had received over the years granted me the ability to solve the independence crises in a calm and educated manor.

Between England and India, I lived for in South Africa from the years 1893 to 1914. For those 21 years, I led a well-organized political campaign for Indians in Africa. This campaign is called The National Indian Congress. In fact, the reason I use the word is-not was- is because the National Congress Party is still in power to this day.

I returned to India for the first time in many years with nothing but the ideas of independence and nonviolence. It wasn’t until i stepped foot in India that I found out about the harsh taxing of the Indian people.

First of all, England was placing heavy taxes on everything in the market place. They were taxing cloth. They were taxing salt. They were taxing food. To combat these taxes, I came up with a personal slogan: be the change you want to see in the world. To beat back the taxes on cloth, I made my own and also wore very little of it. To combat the food taxes, I every once and a while would hold a fasting. These fastings were where I would refuse to eat for an amount of time-almost like a protest. To discontinue the salt tax, I led a protest called the “salt march.” Some called this march the crowning achievement of my career.

In the year 1947 was when it happened. I had already been living in India for 32 years and I had been the “#1” man in the congress party for 26 years. I had held countless meetings, rallies, demonstrations, fastings, marches and served seven years in jail when on August 15 India finally gained its independence. It was a tremendous day for India as a nation and I knew that this day would go down in History as one of the most important days of all time. However, something was still bothering me-except this time it was with in the nation. For many many years the Hindus and Muslims weren't getting along. It was starting to feel like they weren't able to live in the same nation together. Things had gotten so bad between the two religions that the compromise for indian independence was the partition of muslim and hindus. The Hindus would continue to live in India while the muslims were to break off and create their own nation called pakistan. This partition seemed to negate everything about the independence of india. My utmost goal wasn't simply independence but independence while creating a land where both Muslims and Hindus could live peacefully together. I failed

So here I am, on the thirtieth of January 1948 and I am writing this paper right before my ten am open prayer. This is where people from all over come to receive my blessing. I have a bad feeling about today. But let me tell you this much. I am not afraid to die, and when I do, I will do so smiling. Over the years I have received several awards-one of which is the “Man of the Year awards by time Magazine. But i hope that those awards to not make me any less humble.