Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born October 2, 1869. He was the youngest of six children. His fathers name was Kaba Gandhi, he worked as a minister to the British for the maharaja of Porbandar. Mohandas's mother, Putlibai, was a devout Hindu who prayed and fasted continuously.

In 1893 an opportunity came to Gandhi. Gandhi was asked to represent an Indian company on a civil suit in South Africa, another British colony, Gandhi jumped at the chance. He left India to go to the city of Durban in the Providence of Natal, the center of Indian culture in South Africa. He was to be gone a year.

Gandhi quickly learned that the Indian people were treated more unfair in Colonial South Africa than they were in Colonial India. Gandhi arrived in Pretoria by stagecoach, after having been forced to sit outside the carriage on the coachman's footboard, next to the driver. Angry by what happened, he decided to fight back, legally. Overcoming his natural shyness, Gandhi sued the railroad that had denied him his rightful seat, and won a great victory! The law was changed so that all Indians could sit in the seat to which their tickets said they had. Provided they wore English-style clothing. Word of this victory spread quickly, and soon Gandhi became a champion of Indian rights in South Africa and, indirectly, a spokesman for all the powerless nonwhites there.

Gandhi continued his fight for Indian Civil Rights, but by 1904, the white controlled government had still not righted the wrongs against the Indians of South Africa. He continued to sue the government for it's injustices while personally caring for the poor and sick of every color.

Between 1907 and 1914, Gandhi and his followers , the Satyagruhis- "ancestors on truth and love"-were repeatedly put in jail as they peacefully refused to follow the wrongful laws. By 1914, more than one hundred thousand Indians were either in jail or on strike.

Annoyed with prejudice from the whites, Gandhi returned to the plain, loose fitted wrap around garments of his Hindu life. His clothing became both a symbol of his gong against white culture and an image that brought him closer to his own people.

Although the struggle for Civil Rights was far from over, Gandhi's long fight for Indian's freedom had been won.

For more information about Gandhi visit these sites:
http://www.comptons.com/encyclopedia/ARTICLES/0050/00715264_A.html#P2
HTTP://www.bangalorenet.com/system1/pooch/index.html
http://www.meadev.gov.in/Gandhi/intro.htm