Special Event - Gandhi Jayanti Celebration - Creative Writing by Rajita Jana

Mahatma Gandhi - A Fighter Born

It was May , 1893, the court of Durban had just filled in with the people when the magistrate pointed a plump finger at a “coloured” man and ordered him to remove his turban. Instead of taking off his turban, which was a mark of him being an Indian, the “coloured man” walked out of the court in a huff. This man was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi whom we all know as the father of our Nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

In our country, in fact, in the entire world which person, literate and illiterate alike, does not know who Mahatma Gandhi was and what he did? From hunger strikes to civil movements, he did everything but following non-violence and satyagraha. But do we know how Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi became Mahatma Gandhi?

Since, his childhood, Moniya, as he was lovingly called by his friends and family was wholeheartedly devoted to the idea of nonviolence. Whenever his brothers or friends would teasingly hit him, he would go running to his mother and complain. His mother used to ask him why he didn’t hit back. His prompt reply used to be “How can you teach me to hit someone? Why should I hit my brother? Why should I hit anyone?”. His parents arranged his marriage at the age of thirteen to a girl of the same age. Thus, the idea of responsibility entered Moniya’s head from an early age. As a young man he did quite a number of things which was considered outrageous for an orthodox Hindu family of the early 19th century, however he soon gave up as he realized his mistakes. As he grew up he decided to study law and enrolled in the Inner Temple, London. He started a small practice in Bombay which was quite unsuccessful. After, two uncertain years, he moved to South Africa in 1893 to represent an Indian Merchant in lawsuit. However, while he was travelling via train to Pretoria he was thrown out of the First-class train carriage because the “white man” did not want to sit in the same compartment with a “ coloured man ” and was left in the station when he refused to move. It was on that train station waiting-room did Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi resolve to stand up for justice, it was there Mahatma Gandhi was born.