Mahatma Gandhi's Childhood and Early Life
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, also known as Mahatma Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869 in Porbander, India, in what is now Gujarat, India. Karamchand Gandhi was his father and his mother was named Putliba. They took the last name Gandhi because in Gujarati, Gandhi means "grocer", which was his fathers occupation.
Mahatma had a relatively easy childhood as he was born into the Bania caste, a subcaste of the Vaisya(merchant) caste. A caste is the social status you are born into based on wealth, occupation and economic position. Castes can not interact with each other, they must stay with their caste and not mingle.
In India, there are four main castes; the highest is the Brahman (priests), then the Kshatriya (soldiers), the Vaisya (merchants) and the Shudra (workers). The lowest people were called "untouchables" and they did the worst jobs that no one else would do.
Karamchand was a diwan, a prime minister of the Rajkot State and hoped that Mahatma would follow in his footsteps. India was under British rule throughout most of Mahatma's life. Mahatma went to middle school and high school at Rajkot and once, his teacher kicked him for not copying off anothers slate when he couldn't spell kettle correctly. His father died before Gandhi turned 13.
At this age, Mahatma married a young girl, Kasturba who was about ten years old. They had four sons together during their marriage, and they were expecting their first when Gandhi was only 16. Mahatma went to London to study to become a barrister, or lawyer.He tried practicing law in India, but failed miserably.