Mahatma Gandhi: Little known facts most of us don’t know about him
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Today is 2nd October the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, father of the nation or Bapu as he was lovingly called in India. This day is the third and the last national holiday in India (the 26th January - the Republic day and 15th August- the Independence day are the other two).
A debate on the relevancy of Gandhi in today’s time has become a routine affair on every 2nd October. For some people Gandhi is still relevant today whereas some think that India (& the world at large) has changed so drastically that there is no role of Gandhi in it.
No matter what exactly the truth is, the biggest truth of all is that if you go to any corner of earth and ask any stranger to name two Indians he has heard of in his lifetime; the answer in all likelihood will be (1) Gautam Buddha and (2) Mahatma Gandhi.
Among all Indians born during the span of last 2600 years, these two mans are the most popular, most loved and worshiped by millions. There is some kind of charisma in them which simply fails to fade.
I reserve my thoughts on Buddha for one of my future posts. Today, on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, I would like to share some little known facts about him which most of us don’t know.
(1) He had a set of false teeth, which he carried in a fold of his loin cloth. He put them in his mouth only when he wanted to eat. After his meal, he took them out, washed them and put them back in his loin cloth again.
(2) Mahatma Gandhi spoke English with an Irish accent, for one of his first teachers was an Irishman.
(3) During the freedom struggle, he wore nothing but a loin cloth , but for years he lived in London and used to wear a silk hat and spats and carried a cane.
(4) He was educated at London University and became an attorney. But the first time he attempted to make a speech in court, his knees trembled, and he was so frightened that he had to sit down in confusion and defeat.
(5) As a lawyer in London, he got nowhere at all. He was practically a failure there. Years before, when he first came to England, his Irish teacher made him copy the Sermon on the Mount, over and over again, purely as an exercise in English. Hour after hour, Gandhi wrote “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. . . . Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God,” and these words made a profound impression on him.
(6) Later, he was sent to South Africa to collect some huge debts; and he tried to apply there the philosophy of the Sermon on the Mount. And it worked. Clients flocked to Gandhi because he settled their claims peacefully out of court and saved them time and expense.
(7) His income during those days in South Africa touched fifteen thousand dollars a year! Something still a dream for most Indians !
(8) However, despite this worldly success he was not happy. On seeing the untold misery of millions of his fellow countrymen; on seeing thousand of them dying of starvation; the worldly success seemed cheap and unimportant to him. He gave up all his money and ‘took the vow of poverty, and since that time, he consecrated his life to helping the poor and the downtrodden.
(9) On seeing the hopeless condition of one tenth of India which was living in a hungry and half-starved state, Mahatma Gandhi pleaded with them to cease bringing children into a world filled with so much misery and want.
(10) Mahatma Gandhi experimented with diets to see how cheaply he could live and remain healthy. He started living principally on fruit and goats’ milk and olive oil.
(11) Mahatma Gandhi got inspiration of Civil Disobedience by reading a book of an American ! He had been greatly influenced by the teachings of an American by the name of David Thoreau. Thoreau was graduated from Harvard University ninety years ago, and then spent twenty-eight dollars building a cabin for himself on the lonely shores of Walden Pond, in Massachusetts. He lived there like a hermit, and refused to pay taxes; so he was thrown into jail. He then wrote a book on Civil Disobedience, saying that no one ought to pay taxes. People didn’t pay the slightest attention to his book then; but, seventy-five years later, Gandhi read that book, away out in India, and decided to use Thoreau’s tactics. He felt that England had not kept her promise to give India self-government; so, in order to punish England, Gandhi urged the people of India to go to jail rather than pay taxes, and he also urged his followers to boycott English goods. When the British placed a tax on salt, Gandhi led his follower to the sea and they made their own salt.
(12) Mahatma Gandhi never visited the US, but he had many American fans and followers. One of his more unusual admirers was Henry Ford. Gandhi sent him an autographed charkha (spinning wheel) through a journalist emissary. During the darkest days of the Second World War, Ford, who was struck by the charkha’s “mechanical simplicity and high moral purpose,” would often spin on “the symbol of economic independence that Gandhi had sent.
(12) Mahatma Gandhi inspired millions of people world over to take the path of non-violence and civil disobedience. 5 world leaders who got Noble Peace prize viz. Martin Luther King Jr. (USA), Dalai Lama (Tibet), Aung San Suu Kyi (Myanmar), Nelson Mandela (S. Africa) and Adolfo Perez Esquivel (Argentina) have acknowledged the fact that they were influenced by the philosophy of Gandhi. Yet, Mahatma Gandhi; the man who inspired these Nobel Peace Prize winners, never got a Noble Prize !
I think it is a loss for the Noble - the prize; not for Gandhi - the man who is above all prizes.
(13) The great Scientist Albert Einstein once said about Gandhi :
“Generations to come will scarcely believe that such a one as this (Gandhi) walked the earth in flesh and blood.”
He also once said,
” I believe that Gandhi’s views were the most enlightened of all the political men in our time. We should strive to do things in his spirit: not to use violence in fighting for our cause, but by non-participation in anything you believe is evil.”
The more I read about Gandhi, the more I become humble to the greatness of this man who was seeking nothing for himself but was willing to die in order that others may live.
Sources of my article : Little known facts about well known people; by Dale Carnegie, The Times of India, some article on Internet and some books from my collection.
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Chrisitne Martell said,
Wrote on October 2, 2007 @ 12:07 pm
Eklavya,
I love your stories. Keep telling us about the amazing people from India. We need to know more about the wisdom coming from there.
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Suhail said,
Wrote on October 3, 2007 @ 2:39 am
reading about Gandhi is always inspiring… Thanks for the post mate…
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Logesh said,
Wrote on October 12, 2007 @ 9:14 am
Really very interesting.
I Really amazed on hearing the (5)th and (7)th points…
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anonnymous said,
Wrote on December 1, 2007 @ 3:05 pm
hmm i dunno wat 2 say but gandhis just great n im doin a project on him!!!
all im goin 2 say is that ive found alot about him!!!
xxxxxxxxx annonymous xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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maneesh said,
Wrote on January 27, 2008 @ 5:10 am
hey eklavya…
hope you are doing good…
I don’t know if this right on my part to say this.. but you have got some of these facts wrong…
like.. he used to follow the european way of dressing not only in england but even in south africa.. it was not until his second stint there that he chose to discard such an attire.. which brings me to the second part.. as far as i know he never took a vow of poverty.. indeed his mission was to help people out of it.. during his lifetime Gandhi took many vows. the fact that he gave up a lot of physical comfort was his quest (not vow) for simplicity.. perhaps inspired by many reading or a natural fallout of the man that he was he opined that man should be as frugal in his existence as what is necessary to survive.. hich brigns me to the third point
that while it is true that he experimented with his diet quite a lot.. it did’t consist of goat’s milk.. in fact he stroe hard to keep milk away from his diet.. his view was that humans should only have their mother’s milk and so should not have milk once they grow up from being a toddler.. the goat’s milk diet was used only for sometime during an illness where he couldn’t refuse the doctor’s word (though he did it many times) and thought taking goat’s milk was an alternate option to drinking cow’s milk.. there are two reasons here.. one that he had vowed not to touch cow’s milk (for the above reason) and secondly he deplored the cruelty meted to cows and buffaloes in India under the name of dairy farming..
having said all this.. I got to know quite a lot fo things because of your post and I thank you deeply for the same… I hope you don’t take my intrusion in this regard in the wrong manner.. it wasn’t to put you in a bad light…
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Eklavya said,
Wrote on January 27, 2008 @ 8:01 am
Thanks Maneesh for coming here and giving your views on the above post. I am not doing much blogging for quite sometime. In this time of inactivity, it’s nice to find that old friends are still coming to this blog.
Now the points raised by you :
(1) Yes. Mahatma Gandhi was following the European way of dressing in S. Africa also. Where in the post I have mentioned he was not doing that.
(2) When I say he took the vow of poverty, I mean it only literally. There is no official record telling us that he took any vow of poverty. What I only want to say that he decided to identify himself with the poorest of the poor of India and started living like them to show their solidarity with them. You must be aware of his love for the third class compartment of trains.
(3) He has some initial hesitation in drinking goat’s milk owing to his vow for not drinking animal’s milk. However, on the insistence of Kasturba he started taking it and he continued taking Goat’s milk for 30 years.
See: mahatma gandhi lived mostly on goat milk for more than 30 years.
(http://pets.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1773204.cms)
Also see :
For Gandhi, food was not something that just satiated hunger. It was an integral part of shaping the human consciousness. Which is why he carried out a number of experiments to find the perfect diet. Though Gandhi is associated with vegetarianism and milk, he actually abstained from milk for a period of six years, considering it an animal product.
In 1917, when he was bed-ridden, doctors compelled him to take milk. He, however, did not want to break his vow of not consuming cow’s milk. Thus began his now-famous goat-milk diet. And the idea seems to be catching on.
(http://www.lifepositive.com/Spirit/masters/mahatma-gandhi/diet.asp)
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john frame said,
Wrote on February 21, 2008 @ 8:35 am
i like men
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Natural Male Enhancement said,
Wrote on March 8, 2008 @ 7:42 am
Thanks for very interesting article. btw. I really enjoyed reading all of your posts. It’s interesting to read ideas, and observations from someone else’s point of view… makes you think more.
So please keep up the great work. Greetings.
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Leonk said,
Wrote on March 31, 2008 @ 10:59 am
Hello brother
Gandhi is not worshiped, and those who do have no idea of worshiping, only God is to be worshiped, and God doesn’t die(like Gandhi did), he was a mere human. I don’t think elevating any human to level of God is a good idea. He might be a great man for many a ppl, but not me!
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Spencer said,
Wrote on April 7, 2008 @ 9:12 pm
I loved your facts, but your typing and editing need some work.
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rahul Dadlani said,
Wrote on May 20, 2008 @ 12:09 am
I love Mahatma Gandi.
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nupur said,
Wrote on July 12, 2008 @ 11:10 pm
I think worship is not rite word to describe wat many feel bout the mahatma, But yes many like can say for sure that some of his philosophy still is valid,
The truest one for me is truth. The meaning I got form his writing is that “truth to urself is at times more important” …. Helped me better my self and my work.
His diet (from his book) or rather my version of his diet helped me to stay fit, and enjoy much better. I mean I look better , play with my dog more, feel much much better.
I think its more important that u understand the sprit of his writing , and evolve a version most acceptable to you.
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Tolaram Suthar said,
Wrote on July 28, 2008 @ 7:20 am
Love Gandhi Ji, his nature, ideas, his personality….
Tolaram Suthar, Hyd, Sindh, Pakistan.
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Ravi said,
Wrote on September 5, 2008 @ 4:41 am
he made india great
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Ravi Kumar said,
Wrote on September 29, 2008 @ 8:52 am
Hi,
Its very interesting to know about great personalities and that too about some little known facts.
Thank you friend. Keep up the good work.
Proud to be an INDIAN.
Jai Hind.
Ravi Kumar.
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laxmi said,
Wrote on October 1, 2008 @ 7:16 am
he is great men and i alwys recpect him.
gandi ji aap nhi to kya mger apka naam to aje bhi
bhoolo ki treh mehkta hai. i love gandiji
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Sulthi said,
Wrote on October 5, 2008 @ 4:04 am
Gandhi is a perfect man to look up to. I really like him as ha is the best man in India!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Nagaraj pr said,
Wrote on October 19, 2008 @ 12:49 am
Hi
It is happy to see persons like u here ur thinking is quite simple
Thanks for ur material
PLs keep in touch with me
PR Nagarj
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Eklavya Reply:
October 19th, 2008 at 5:34 am
Thanks for your nice comments
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Indian said,
Wrote on October 20, 2008 @ 4:13 pm
Hey Eklavya…
U seem to have gone through “My Experiment with Truth” and the another book (I forgot it’s name) of Mr MK Gandhi.
Hehehehehe…not alleging you of plagiarism just wanted to confess that I liked the way you are spreading knowledge about extincting things and simultaneously able to keep live the current topics.
Good job done buddy!!!
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Eklavya Reply:
October 21st, 2008 at 12:10 am
Hello friend,
To be honest, I have not read any of the book written by Mr Gandhi himself. I have already quoted my sources at the bottom of the post. So there is no question of plagiarism. I am glad that you liked the post.
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Harshawn said,
Wrote on November 2, 2008 @ 11:34 am
I think you should talk about ‘Shaheed Bhagat Singh’, because my mum was telling me about him. I found out how great he was.
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ahsiek said,
Wrote on November 26, 2008 @ 3:47 pm
I’m also doing a project on gandhi and all i can say is that he’s a wonderful person and i hope the family of the man who killed gandi is so ashamed of their son but anyway even though i’m not indian i wish i was born during gandhi’s time and followed his marches exspcially the march to the arabian sea.
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Asha said,
Wrote on December 5, 2008 @ 4:37 am
Dear Eklavya
I never believe man can be God but I believe God lives in every man, eventhough many never realizes the presence of Gon in themselves. May be Gandhiji was one of the person who realized the God in himself and made his way according to the way “God wanted him to”. You “knowledge-sharing article” was very good. Keep up the good work in future with other such posts.
Congragulation
Have a nice day!
Asha
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