Today on history: Mahatma Ghandi is born in India
Gandhi arrived in Durban in 1893 to serve as legal counsel to a merchant, Dada Abdulla.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born to a Hindu family in Porbandar, Gujarat, in India on 2 October 1869.
His early schooling was in nearby Rajkot, where his father served as the adviser or prime minister to the local ruler.
His father died before Gandhi could finish his schooling and at age 13, the young Gandhi was married to Kasturba [or Kasturbai], also 13 years old.
Gandhi studied law at the University of Bombay for one year, then at the University College London. He arrived in Durban in 1893 to serve as legal counsel to a merchant, Dada Abdulla, who later sent him to Pretoria.
During his stay in Pretoria, Gandhi read about 80 books on religion. He came under the influence of Christianity but refused to embrace it.
Gandhi died on 30 January 1948 at a prayer ground in a large park in Delhi after a young Hindu had fired three point-blank shots from a small automatic pistol aimed at the heart.
Information sourced from: South African History Online.
