ristian friends tried to convince him to convert to Christianity but he kept his faith. He helped the indentured Indian laborers and fought for their rights. After three years in South Africa, Gandhi returned to India in 1896. Gandhi had a lot of shortcomings in his personal life. He was a jealous husband. He was very suspicious and kept an eye on all the movements of his wife, Kasturbai. This resulted in bitter quarrels becoming the order of the day. But in his autobiography, Gandhi says that he did all this because he “wanted to make his wife an ideal wife and make her live a pure life.” Some more of his shortcomings were that at a young age he had started smoking and eating meat in company of a cousin and a friend. He stole money from his servant’s pocket and bought cigarettes. Once they had also planned to suicide by consuming poison, but they did not have the courage to do it. At last he gave up all the malpractices and became a strict vegetarian and stuck to it all his life. He educated his children and the child of his widow sister. He also became a very religious person and was greatly influenced by the “saintliness” of his mother. He practiced Ahimsa (non-violence), Brahmacharya (celibacy) and Aparigraha (non-possession). In his public life, Gandhi was very successful. When he went to South Africa, he came in contact with many people and went through many experiences. He protested against the color bar and helped all those who were neglected. During the Boer War he participated with the British. He and some other people joined to form the Ambulance Corps who took care of the wounded fighters. Gandhi awakened a sense of duty to the motherland in the Indians settled in South Africa, so that they sent money for the famine relief during the famines in India in 1897 and 1899. In 1917, he got the Indentured Emigration from India, abolished. ...
