Paw Prints Anecdotes: Mahatma Gandhi

Paw Prints Anecdotes

Short, humorous stories about people
in politics, history, and the arts.

Mohandas Karamchand [Mahatma] Gandhi
(1869 –1948)

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi Anecdote...

Gandhi gave a lecture to a select gathering of maharajahs, exhorting them to give up their money and possessions and embrace a life of poverty and simplicity. One by one his distinguished audience slid out until there was nobody left except (as Gandhi afterward said) "God, the chairman, and myself." After another few minutes the chairman himself melted away. "Poor fellow," observed Gandhi, "he must have been very uncomfortable in that strange company."

Biographical Note...

Indian statesman and spiritual leader. He led India's struggle for independence with campaigns of civil disobedience ("passive resistance") against the British raj. His own political power was based on his immense spiritual and moral authority. Among many issues, he campaigned for improvement of the lot of the Untouchables (the downtrodden outcasts of Hindu society), increase of small-scale handicraft industries in the chronically poor rural areas, and reconciliation between the warring Muslim and Hindu factions of India. In the last he failed and was forced to agree to the partition that brought into existence the state of Pakistan. Shortly afterward he was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic.

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