katharnak Posted October 2, 2010 Report Posted October 2, 2010 As today is the birth anniversary of the father of India, Mahatma Gandhi, newsofap.com joins prayers with millions of Indians in remembering him. On this day we bring to you some interesting facts about Mahatma Gandhi.INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT MAHATMA GANDHI----------------------------------------------------------------------------1) Gandhi first employed non-violent civil disobedience in South Africa not India2) Many people might not know that Mahatma Gandhi worked as an editor for newspapers! For decades he edited several newspapers including Harijan in Gujarati, Hindi and English; Indian Opinion while in South Africa and, Young India, in English, and Navajivan, a Gujarati monthly.3) Do you know that Mahatma Gandhi used to speak English with Irish (Ireland) accept? It is because one of his teacher was Irish, who greatly influenced him.4) He has a set of false teeth which he used to carry in his khadi cloth. After meals he used to remove it again.5) When he was in London, he used to wear a silk hat, which he later despised after he came to India.6) After becoming a barrister after completing studies in the London university, he was supposed to give a speech. But he was so frightened that he just sat down in confusion and admitted his defeat!7) As a lawyer in London, he got nowhere at all. He was practically a failure there. Years before, when he first came to England, his Irish teacher made him copy the Sermon on the Mount, over and over again, purely as an exercise in English. Hour after hour, Gandhi wrote “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. . . . Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God,” and these words made a profound impression on him.8) Later, he was sent to South Africa to collect some huge debts; and he tried to apply there the philosophy of the Sermon on the Mount. And it worked. Clients flocked to Gandhi because he settled their claims peacefully out of court and saved them time and expense.9) His income during those days in South Africa touched fifteen thousand dollars a year! Something still a dream for most Indians !10) He indirectly asked Indians to not to have children! On seeing the hopeless condition of one tenth of India which was living in a hungry and half-starved state, Mahatma Gandhi pleaded with them to cease bringing children into a world filled with so much misery and want.11) Mahatma Gandhi experimented with diets to see how cheaply he could live and remain healthy. He started living principally on fruit and goats’ milk and olive oil.[b]12) We might think that it was Gandhi's idea of Civil Disobedience. But many people do not know that he got this idea from an American![/b]He had been greatly influenced by the teachings of an American by the name of David Thoreau. Thoreau was graduated from Harvard University ninety years ago, and then spent twenty-eight dollars building a cabin for himself on the lonely shores of Walden Pond, in Massachusetts. He lived there like a hermit, and refused to pay taxes; so he was thrown into jail. He then wrote a book on Civil Disobedience, saying that no one ought to pay taxes. People didn’t pay the slightest attention to his book then; but, seventy-five years later, Gandhi read that book, away out in India, and decided to use Thoreau’s tactics.
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