Thread by @ainvvy

Gandhi at 150. Incredible man. We all know what he accomplished. How he got there is less known and more interesting.

1869 was a good decade after the first war of independence and a century into British rule.

It was also a most important year in Science: Mendeleev formally presented his Periodic Table on 6th March. This changed Science forever. (This is also the 150th year of the periodic table.)

A few months later, a child was born who would be a Messiah of Peace.

Kasturba was a few months older to Gandhi. She was born in 1869 too. It is her 150th year too.

They got married in 1882. They were married for 62 years. She died on Gandhi's lap. At her cremation, he waited until the flames eventually ebbed and extinguished. Poignant.

Gandhi had a fairly ordinary childhood. There was a phase where he took to smoking. And stealing, to smoke. He eventually seems to have realised that stealing was not the right thing. So he wrote a letter to his father, what he calls a clean confession - without any excuses.

Whereas he expected his father to react with anger, he was surprised his father was in tears. And serene. He was forgiven!

It was probably the first time he realised there was something else going on here. His first experiment with truth.

Gandhi left to study law in 1888 at London, 3 months after the birth of their child Harilal. This is when he realises that he is so tongue-tied that he can't speak in public!

There is one event that had a great influence on him, when he was in the Vegetarian society.

This is where he met Allinson (Allinson flour bread can still be bought). It so happened that Allinson had some "immoral" views about birth control and use of contraceptives which was not liked by the Hills, president of the society.

Hills wanted to throw Allinson out. Gandhi differed. It was very clear to him this move was not just. No muddled thinking here -- he kept things simple.

He thought he should defend Allinson, wrote down his thoughts and froze when it came to reading it! But he knew he had done something right. He had found his inner voice - the right to dissent.

This inability to speak in public could not have been easy at all. He tried many times but failed again and again.

Like all great people, he converted this shyness to his strength. Never a word uttered in haste.

In 1891 he finished his Law and came back to Bombay to practice law, only to find he couldn't ... er ... cross examine even a witness!

And then to doze off in court since he couldn't follow what was happening ... this was Gandhi at 22, with whom we can all relate to :)

With no career in Bombay, he went to Rajkot to be with his brother who was also a lawyer to help him with some drafting work.

Before long, he was out of job again and had no idea what to do next. He was like any another 24 year old - lost in the world.

All this was set to change in 1893 when he set sail to South Africa.

Gandhi got an offer worth 105 pounds for less than a year's work. He took it.

Within the first week, he took a journey from Natal to Pretoria; he was thrown out of a train despite having a first class ticket, and then boxed by an Englishman in a coach!
(Apparently, Indians were addressed as "Sami" ... a Tamil word as many indentured were Tamil.)

Now physical violence is something that scares us humans into submission. Not Gandhi. He had learnt to stand his ground for what he considered right and just.

In a single journey, he had three incidents, twice in a train and once in a coach. All incidents were connected to his colour.

Most of us would have "adjusted." But Gandhi was stubborn.

In the coming days, Gandhi met with the small Indian community there. Few things stand out. Indian was not Hindu. He had in the mean time learnt to talk and his first public talk seems to have gone off well. He got a response from the railways.

At the end of one year, he was to leave for India. Instead he found out that the Indians in Natal were to be disenfranchised. Quickly, what was to be a farewell dinner became the start of a political movement. The Natal Indian Congress was setup in 1894.

For a person search for just a stable job at 24, to find his calling at 25 is remarkable. All it took was living a life of a minority without privilege. He found it strange he wouldn't be treated as an equal and desired to be treated such.

In 1896, he comes to India to bring his family to SA. He now has a group of people to work with and a cause to work on. The next big event is in 1907 when after winning the Boer war, there is an attempt to register all Indians with fingerprints.

Nowadays, we are of course happy to give fingerprints of all ten finger and the big toe if asked -- all in the name of biometric and modernisation.

Gandhi fought against registration.

He initially called it "passive resistance" and eventually renamed it "Satyagraha" (after a contest). "Sadagraha" was the winner which Gandhi changed to "Satyagraha."

Hosken, a well wisher addressed a gathering thus. Gandhi had no doubt that passive resistance was not his philosophy and he didn't think much about it.

This movement went on for several years in South Africa. Eventually, in 1915, Gandhi returned to India.

He was 46. At an age, when most people would be thinking of a cozy post-retired life. He started his freedom struggle.

The rest as they say is history.

The events in Gandhi's life were similar to the events in Buddha's life. Who hasn't seen the aged and the dead. They are ordinary and unremarkable. What is remarkable is the way these two reacted to the ordinary.

This is what sets up apart. Gandhi was not destined to greatness by virtue of his brilliance. Circumstances and his stubborn sense of just, and therefore his reaction to events about him made him different, very different.

He spent a good 15 years in his lab (SA) before he could transport his convictions to India. It takes time. It requires patience. Nobody had it in such abundance as Gandhi.

Let me stop here. On his 150th, there is much to learn from him. Especially in India today.