Abstract This paper details the life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, born in 1869 in Porbandar, India. It looks at how Mahatma Gandhi is known as one of strongest symbols of non-violence in the 20th Century due to his activist role and religious leadership. It examines how he greatly influenced the world in many ways by practicing and teaching throughout his life. Gandhi was a thinker, a philosopher, a wise statesman and a man of action and his teachings remain relevant to a new generation that has been typically been driven to cynicism and despair by the chaos and dishonesty of the politics of our times.
From the Paper "Gandhi was inspired by his religious mother. She belonged to a branch of Hinduism that taught non-violence and tolerance between religious groups was very important. Gandhi spent his life searching for truth and harmony with nature. He believed truth could be known only through tolerance and concern for others and that finding a truthful way to solutions required constant testing. He even titled his autobiography My Experiments with Truth. Gandhi overcame fear and taught others to master fear. His belief in nonviolence guided his teachings that to be truly nonviolent required courage. He lived a simple life and thought it was wrong to kill animals for food or for clothing. "Gandhi found materialism to be the main characteristic of modern civilization, in which spirituality seemed to be undervalued" (Ishii, 2001)."
