The Childhood and Youth:

Mahandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, at Porbandar, on the western coast of India, which was then one of the many princely states in Kathiawar, now better known as Saurashtra, in Gujrat. Mahandas was born in a middle class family of Vaishya or the trading caste. The ancestors were said to have been originally grocers, but the family had steadily risen in social status and Mohan's grandfather, Uttamchand and father Karamchand occupied the highest office of Dewan (Chief Minister) of Porbandar. Mohandas's mother Putlibai was deeply religious, gentle and devout, and unrelenting in her observance of the prescribed ritual of fast and prayer. She left a deep impress on the mind of her son who almost worshipped her.
Young Mahandas' school career was undistinguished. He did not shine in the classroom or in the playground. He did not mind being rated as a mediocre student but was proud of the fact that he had never told a lie to his teachers or classmates; the slightest aspersion on his character drew his tears. While still in school at the age of thirteen he was married to Kasturabai who was also of the same age.
Mohandas Gandhi passed the matriculation examination of Bombay University in 1887. When a friend of the family, Mavji Dave, suggested he should go to England to qualify at the Bar Mohandas was very excitted. His mother was reluctant to let her son sail to an alien land and the Modh Bania caste, to which he belonged, threatened to excommunicate the whole family if its injunction on foreign travel was infringed. All these hurdles were however, successfully overcome by Mohan's determination to go abroad, and in September 1888, at the age of 18, he set sail for England.

Study in London:

The first few days were miserable. "I would constantly think of my home and country....everything was strange...there was the additional inconvenience of vegetarian vow.....dishes I could eat were tasteless and insipid."
During the early period of his stay in England Gandhi went through a phase which he has described as aping the English gentlemen. He got new clothes made, purchased an expensive silk hat, wasted lot of money on an evening dress suit made in Bond Street and flaunted a double watch-chain of gold. But he soon realized - and here is foreshadowed the real Gandhi - that if he could not become a gentlemen by virtue of his character, the ambition was not worth cherishing.
Vegetarianism, which had been a source of embarrassment to him, soon became an asset. 'Plea of Vegetarianism' by Henery S. Salt made a great impression on him and soon it was not an obligation but a mission. It was the starting point of a disipline of body and mind, which was to transform his life. The immediate effect of vegetarianism was to give a new poise to young Gandhi. And draw him out of his shell. He made his first venture into journalism by contributing nine article to 'Vegetarian'.
Having passed the examinations Gandhi was called to the Bar on June 10, 1891, and sailed for India two days later.

Leo Tolstoy:

While in South Africa Gandhi first became acquainted with Tolsoy by reading his book Kingdom of God is Within You.. Tolstoy became his favorite author and in the coming years he read many of his books. Tolstoy's ideas exercised a profound influence on Gandhi's mind and there was an exchange of letters between the two.

The Revolutionaries:

Mahatma Gandhi undoubtedly was the most significant leader of the freedom struggle (against the British) and his non-violent satyagraha a unique contribution to the world. But the struggle against the British Empire was unidimensional; it had many strands. Side by side with the Gandhian movement, and often embedded within its fold, were those who believed in an armed struggle to overthrow alien rule. The men and women who belonged to this stream believed that to attain freedom they must 'do and die' and not just 'die and do'. They unhesitatingly sacrificed their youth and gave up their lives for this cause, and their martyrdom inspired and galvanized thousands of others who became mesmerized by the dream of freedom.

Historic Dandi March : The Salt Satyagraha

The Congress declared as its objective the attainment of Purna Swaraj (complete independence) in 1929. A little later, Gandhiji launched Sataygraha involving disobedience of the salt law. The denial of free use of natural salt affected the poorest in the land; the salt sataygraha symbolized the Congress pledge to win freedom for the toiling masses. On March 12, 1930, at 6:30 am ., Gandhiji started from Subarmati with seventy-eight followers. The historic Dandi March had begun.

NOAKHALI:

The "Direct Action" Day call given on August 16 1946 by the Muslim League resulted in unprecedented communal riots in parts of the country, especially in Bengal. Calcutta and Noakhali were the worst affected. Profoundly disturbed by this fraternal strife, Gandhiji decided to visit Noakhali via Calcutta. Reaching Noakhali in November 1946, he walked barefoot from village to village, spending the nights in mud huts, 'wiping tears from every eye" and bringing courage to the affected.

The END of the Great Soul:

In January 1948, before three pistol shots put an end to his life, Gandhi had been on the political stage for more than fifty years. He had inspired two generations of Indian Patriots, shaken an empire and sparked off a revolution which was to change the face of Africa and Asia. To millions of his own people, he was the Mahatma- the great soul- whose sacred glimpse was a reward in itself. By the end of 1947 he had lived down much of the suspicion, ridicule and opposition which he had to face, when he first raised the banner of revolt against racial exclusiveness and imperial domination. His ideas, once diminished as quaint and utopian, had begun to strike answering chords in some of the finest minds in the world. "Generations to come, it may be", Einstein had said of Gandhi in July 1944, "will scarcely believe that such a one as this ever lived in flesh and blood walked upon earth".
Though his life had been a continual unfolding of endless drama, Gandhi himself seemed the least dramatic of men. It would be difficult to imagine a man with fewer trappings of political eminence or with less of a popular image of a heroic figure. With his loin cloth, steel-rimmed glasses, rough sandals, a toothless smile and a voice which rarely rose above a whisper, he had a disarming humility. He used a stone instead of soap for his bath, wrote his letters on bits of paper with little stumps of pencil which he could hardly hold between his fingers, shaved with a crude country razor and ate with a wooden spoon from a prisoner's bowl. He was, if one were to use the famous words of the Buddha, a man who had "by rousing himself, by earnestness, by restraint and control, made for himself an island which no flood could overwhelm".