My First Look at Ghandi and His Youth (Entry # 2)

From the biography I've read of Gandhi by Olivia Coolidge, first tells us to look on Gandhi as a human being, like any of the saints. He is an imperfect man with his own flaws and faults, capable of hate, jealousy, love, and guilt.

She starts from his childhood, and quickly progresses to his late youth. I was amazed as to how Gandhi was, and his life as a child. He was born to a devout Hindu family, vegetarian (I would have never guessed), and to say the least, didn't show the personalities traits one would have to stand up to someone or something. He was a timid, emotional boy, who's emotional distresses grew worse when he was married off to a girl at 13 years of age. Sex was a new thing and fun for them to experience, but like the teens of today, they don't look at the emotional and psychological toll it takes on one, and becomes very distraught.

He would mature, as the years roll on, but his schooling was affected by his emotional troubles, and couldn't succeed at much, but his emotions were smaller issues compared to education being taught in English by Indians, who don't have the proper qualifications on the subject or the language.

His father dies before he turns 19 and his brother Laxmidas will inherit his father's positions as counsel to the many princes of India, but in order to secure Gandhi's future as well, he must be qualified to take his brother's role, in case anything happens. So he is shipped off to England to earn a degree in Law. It'll certainly be a tough journey for the young Gandhi, an alien, in and alien country, with an alien tongue. Things couldn't be worse...