Top 10 Unknown Facts about Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

On this Gandhi Jayanti, Rw Reveals Top 10 things about Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, The Father of Nation. We all know little or more trivial things about him like, when and where he born and died (murdered). But there we, the RTIwala Team gonna release a special report on him.

Also Read: Shri Shailesh Gandhi – An Outstanding CIC India ever had…

All the incidents and facts we are sharing over here with our esteemed readers are based on the Autobiography of Gandhi Ji i.e. The Story of My Experiments with Truth and we’re also providing the details and links to ascertain the authenticity of the content.

1. Kasturba Gandhi was NOT the First choice of Gandhi’s Parents

Yeah! you read it right! Mohan Das Karamchand Gandhi has quoted in his autobiography that:

I was told that two girls chosen for me had died in turn, and therefore I infer that I was betrothed three times.

Now RTIwala Explains what is the ritual Betrothal is all about?

Betrothal is a preliminary promise on the part of the parents of the boy and the girl to join them in marriage, and it is not inviolable. The death of the boy entails no widowhood on the girl. It is an agreement purely between the parents, and the children have no concern with it. Often they are not even informed of it.

2. Mahatma Gandhi wedded at family group marriage

Our Father of Nation, M K Gandhi and Kasturbai Makhanji Kapadia (maiden name of her wife) had group family marriage along with his elder brother and a cousin. Read what was his thought on it.

It will be remembered that we were three brothers. The first was already married. The elders decided to marry my second brother, who was two or three years my senior, a cousin, possibly a year older, and me, all at the same time. In doing so there was no thought of our welfare, much less our wishes. It was purely a question of their own convenience and economy.

Also Read: Unheard, Unread and Unwatched Exposes made by The RTIwala Team!

3. Kasturba Gandhi was 175 days elder to Mahatma Gandhi

Surprised? We too! When RTIwala Team researching about the content we came across this unknown fact! As Kasturbai Mohandas Gandhi was born on 11 April 1869 whereas M K Gandhi born on 2 October 1869 exactly 54,056 days or 148 years ago on today’s date.

Did you know the exact age difference between them? Well here’s this:

It’s total 175 days or 5 months, 22 days including the end date

175 days can also be converted to one of these units:

15,120,000 seconds
252,000 minutes
4200 hours
175 days
25 weeks

4. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was good in academic but a year got wasted

Yeah! Many you have assumed that he wasn’t academic material, well that’s totally wrong! Read what What Gandhi Ji said about his school life:

I was not regarded as a dunce at the high school. I always enjoyed the affection of my teachers. Certificates of progress and character used to be sent to the parents every year. I never had a bad certificate. In fact, I even won prizes after I passed out of the second standard. In the fifth and sixth I obtained scholarships and rupees four and ten respectively, an achievement for which I have to thank good luck more than my merit.

So, What’s the reason then?

Most of you know that Child Marriage was prevalent until late 19th Century until the Sharda Act was passed. But you may not know that due to early child marriage of Gandhi Ji, he has to repeat the same class one more time. Mohandas K Gandhi’s reaction to it:

The eldest brother was in a much higher class, and the brother who was married at the same time as I was, only one class ahead of me. Marriage resulted in both of us wasting a year. Indeed the result was even worse for my brother, for he gave up studies altogether. Heaven knows how many youths are in the same plight as he. Only in our present Hindu society do studies and marriage go thus hand in hand.

5. Mahatma Gandhi was in the Bad Company of Boys!

RTIwala Reveals about how Mahatma Gandhi was in the Bad Company of Boys during his High School Day. And, he was quite aware of that! As quoted by him:

This companion was originally my elder brother’s friend. They were classmates. I knew his weaknesses, but I regarded him as a faithful friend. My mother, my eldest brother, and my wife warned me that I was in bad company. I was too proud to heed my wife’s warning. But I dared not go against the opinion of my mother and my eldest brother. Nevertheless, I pleaded with them saying, “I know he has the weaknesses you attribute to him, but you do not know his virtues. He cannot lead me astray, as my association with him is meant to reform him. For I am sure that if he reforms his ways, he will be a splendid man. I beg you not to be anxious on my account.”

And this company led him to other vices mentioned below.

6. Mahatma Gandhi Ji was a meat-eater in his childhood

Yeah! This time too you read it right. The Idol of Peace and Non-Violence was once a had love for the Non-Vegetarian cuisine which they cook, eat and repeat, very secretly. And, also lied several times to his Mother & Wife.

His unwise friend lured him and his elder brother by comparing meat-eating and healthy habits of Britishers to Pure Vegetarian Vaishnavas and Jains.

A doggerel of the Gujarati poet Narmad was in vogue among us schoolboys, as follows:

Behold the mighty Englishman

He rules the Indian small,

Because being a meat-eater

He is five cubits tall.

On that here’s how Gandhi ponder:

All this had its due effect on me. I was beaten. It began to grow on me that meat-eating was good, that it would make me strong and daring, and that, if the county took to meat-eating, the English could be overcome.

7. Mahatma Gandhi considered himself as Lustful Husband

In Chapter # 4 Playing the Husband, he considered himself as a Lustful Husband. At more than two instances he mentioned his weakness ie no control over thoughts and feelings.

I have already said that Kasturbai was illiterate. I was very anxious to teach her, but lustful love left me no time. For one thing the teaching had to be done against her will, and that too at night. I dared not meet her in the presence of the elders, much less talk to her.

I must confess that most of my efforts to instruct Kasturbai in our youth were unsuccessful. And when I awoke from the sleep of lust, I had already launched forth into public life, which did not leave me much spare time.

I am sure that, had my love for her been absolutely untainted with lust, she would be a learned lady today; for I could then have conquered her dislike for studies. I know that nothing is impossible for pure love.

               8. He kicked-out a prostitute and his flatmate

Maybe it seems as this age story but it was true that he kicked out his partner-cum-flatmate while they were making love. His new cook reported the incident to then young Mahatma Gandhi was in office and asked him to come home urgently without any sound while he was a barrister in Natal, South Africa. Gandhi shared the anecdote in “As a Householder” chapter of his Autobiography.

He took me straight to the upper floor, pointed at my companion’s room, and said, “Open this door and see for yourself.” I saw it all. I knocked at the door. No reply! I knocked heavily so as to make the very walls shake. The door was opened. I saw a prostitute inside. I asked her to leave the house, never to return. To the companion, I said, “From this moment I cease to have anything to do with you. I have been thoroughly deceived and have made a fool of myself. That is how you have requited my trust in you?”

9. Gandhi Ji used to steal & smoke

There’s a dedicated chapter (Part -I, Ch#8) mentioning his unholy acts of childhood when he used to smoke with one of his relatives.

A relative and I became fond of smoking. Not that we saw any good in smoking, or were enamored of the smell of a cigarette. We simply imagined a sort of pleasure in emitting clouds of smoke from our mouths. My uncle had the habit, and when we saw him smoking, we thought we should copy his example. But we had no money. So we began pilfering stumps of cigarettes thrown away by my uncle.

And he also mentioned why and how he used to steal Coopers (say Tobacco packets) and how he consumed that:

The stumps, however, were not always available, and could not emit much smoke either. So we began to steal coppers from the servant’s pocket money in order to purchase Indian cigarettes. But the question was where to keep them. We could not of course smoke in the presence of elders. We managed somehow for a few weeks on these stolen coppers. In the meantime we heard that the stalks of a certain plant were porous and could be smoked like cigarettes. We got them and began this kind of smoking.

10. Mahatma Gandhi Ji was contemplating suicide

Now, our readers will say it’s literally too much! But it’s really 100% true as it has been mentioned in the very same chapter “Stealing and Atonement” of Part I. And we’re putting the exact lines of excerpts from his Autobiography.

But we were far from being satisfied with such things as these. Our want of independence began to smart. It was unbearable that we should be unable to do anything without the elders’permission.At last, in sheer disgust, we decided to commit suicide!

But how were we to do it? From where were we to get the poison? We heard that Dhatura seeds were an effective poison. Off we went to the jungle in search of these seeds, and got them. Evening was thought to be the auspicious hour. We went to Kedarji Mandir, put ghee in the temple-lamp, had the darshan and then looked for a lonely corner.But our courage failed us. Supposing we were not instantly killed? And what was the good of killing ourselves? Why not rather put up with the lack of independence? But we swallowed two or three seeds nevertheless. We dared not take more. Both of us fought shy of death, and decided to go to Ramji Mandir to compose ourselves, and to dismiss the thought of suicide.

I realised that it was not as easy to commit suicide as to contemplate it. And since then, whenever I have heard of someone threatening to commit suicide, it has had little or no effect on me.

With this, we conclude our Super Exclusive report on RTIwala Reveals Top 10 Unknown Facts of M K Gandhi which you won’t get anywhere on the internet! In our next post, we’ll disclose more such unknown and non-classified details of our national leaders.

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