To capture the growing up years of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, his sister Raliatbehn had said he was ‘restless like mercury’. He used to either play or roam around in the streets when he was a child.
Mythological-religious tales such as Harishchandra and Shravana had a great impact on Mahatma Gandhi when he was a child. Young Gandhi was deeply influenced by his mother Putlibai who was a proponent of fasting. She would often keep two or three consecutive fasts. Later, during his struggle against the British, Gandhiji successfully employed fasting as means of protest.
Gandhi extensively studied English, arithmetic, history, geography and Gujarati. His teacher wrote in one of the report cards that Gandhi was “good at English, fair in Arithmetic and weak in Geography; conduct very good, bad handwriting”.
His upbringing was amid Jain teachings of mutual tolerance, non-injury to living beings and vegetarianism. Things that stayed with him throughout his life and defined his character. His philosophy of non-violence have influenced non-violent resistance movements to this day.