Francisque poulbot biography of mahatma gandhi

His voice was soft, rather musical, and almost boyishly fresh. I particularly noticed this as we chatted of the little things of my journey and proceeded to his home. The household, I learned, consisted of Mr Gandhi, his wife and three sons, aged eleven, nine and six, a young Englishman engaged in the telegraph service, a young Indian ward of Mr Gandhi's, and Mr Polak.

My addition to the family completed its possibilities of accommodation. Millie: Within a few days, we seemed to have settled into our new life. This piece of work was looked upon as a pleasant, if somewhat arduous morning exercise. Other exercise took the form of skipping, at which Mr Gandhi was adept. Gandhi: Just as I had Indians living with me as members of my family, so I had English friends living with me as members of my family.

I hold that believers who have to see the same God in others that they see in themselves, must be able to live amongst all with sufficient detachment. Not that all who lived with me liked it. But I persisted in having them. Gandhi: Up to now the Europeans living with us had been more or less known to me before. But now an English lady who was an utter stranger to us entered the family.

I do not remember our ever having a difference with the newly married couple, but even if Mrs Polak and my wife had had some unpleasant experiences, they would have been no more than what can happen in the best-regulated homogeneous families. And mine was an essentially heterogeneous family, where people of all kinds and temperaments were freely admitted.

Millie: As Mrs Gandhi did not speak much English, she did not take part in our deliberations. Almost immediately, however, we were thrown together, Mr Gandhi and my husband going to the office, and we soon managed to enjoy some kind of intercourse. In a very short time her English improved, so that later on, when she had lost some of her reserve with me and we went out to visit our few European friends, she would take part in the conversation.

Millie: I don't see that. The East has made her the subject of man. She seems to possess no individual life. Gandhi: You're mistaken; the East has given her a position of worship. Have you not heard the story of Satyavan and Savitri, and how, when Satyavan died, Savitri wrestled with the God of Death for the return of her beloved? Millie: But that seems to me just the point.

In your mythology, woman is made to serve man, even to wrestling with the God of Death for him. Gandhi: And do you think that it is giving to woman a lower or subordinate place in life when it is she who is depicted as the greatest of conquerors, when she is worshipped as the preserver? Millie: That's beautiful in theory, I admit, but I don't find her worshipped.

I find her always waiting on the pleasure of some man. Gandhi: Isn't that because you have not yet understood? In the great things of life she is man's equal or superior. In the lesser things she may serve him, but is it not a privilege of the great to serve the least? Millie: But do men think like that? Does a man really think that his wife is at least his equal when custom requires her to stand behind his chair while he sits and eats?

Gandhi: Do not mistake appearance for reality. Men have not reached the ideal yet, yet nearly all know it in their hearts. Millie: I often think it's more difficult for the man or woman, cut off from vital experience, to be able to advise concerning it. Gandhi: He can concentrate on the perfect. Millie: But concentrating on the perfect won't help him to understand the mere human difficulties.

The priest or teacher who has never known the horror of seeing someone he loves and is responsible for, starving for food, cannot understand the temptation of such a person stealing. Gandhi: It is just because he can stand outside of the temptation that he is able to help. You do not go to the sick to help the sick, but to the strong and well.

Millie: I admit that, but I think I do not like your implied suggestion that it is wrong to produce children. Gandhi: I didn't say it was wrong. Millie: No, you didn't say so. But you did say something to the effect that it was a pandering to the flesh. Gandhi: And is it not? Millie: No; that reduces the production of children to a weakness, if not an evil.

If it's wrong, God himself must be wrong, for it seems to be the only way he has of creating his children, and without it human life would cease on this planet. Gandhi: Would that be so terrible? Millie: I am not at all sure it would be right, until mankind has attained the perfection we believe it has to grow to. Gandhi: But, you do believe that people who have a great mission or work to do should not spend their energy and time in caring for a little family, when they are called to a bigger field of work?

Millie: Yes, I believe that. Gandhi: Then what are you quarrelling with me about? Millie: Only that you are still making me feel that you think it to be a higher condition of life to be celibate than to be a parent. I think it is the height of ignorance to believe that the sexual act is an independent function necessary like sleeping or eating.

Seeing, therefore, that I did not desire more children I began to strive after self-control.

Francisque poulbot biography of mahatma gandhi

There was endless difficulty in the task. We began to sleep in separate beds. I decided to retire to bed only after a day's work had left me completely exhausted. Gandhi: I took the vow of celibacy in I had not shared my thoughts with my wife until then, but only consulted her at the time of making the vow. She had no objection. Judith Brown: It's very much embedded in Hindu tradition this, that your physical state interacts with your spiritual state, so experimentation with celibacy and sexual control is one aspect of that; but also experimentation with different kinds of food, and different foods generate desire or spirituality, so Gandhi is within a long spiritual tradition that sets great store by issues to do with food and daily living.

Getting rid of desire, getting rid of extraneous links with things that would hold you back from the path of truth: so by cutting natural links with his family he's broadening his vision of what the family and the community are. By simplifying life he's getting rid of the things that people would want to keep hold of rather than experimenting with truth.

Millie: Our dietary experiments were many and various. For some time, upon Mr Gandhi's advice, his wife and I cooked without refined sugar. Cooked fruits, puddings or cakes were sweetened with raw cane syrup. When this phase ended we had a salt-less table. Salt, Mr Gandhi contended, was bad not only for health but also for the character. Then he came to the conclusion that onions were bad for the passions, so onions were cut out.

Milk too, Mr Gandhi said, affected the 'passion' side of human life and thereafter milk was abjured likewise. I did not mind the raw onions going, but I questioned the denial of milk Millie: Why is it, if milk stimulates the passions, that it is the best food for babies and young children? Gandhi: The mother's milk is the correct food for babies, but it's not meant for adults.

Millie: I don't mind that, but I cannot see that the same argument can be used against it as a stimulant of the passions. If that were correct, a milk-fed child would be the most unnatural little brute. Think of a little child obsessed with sex because it had had a diet of milk. It's not reasonable. We talk about food probably quite as much as gourmands do.

I'm sure we talk about food more than most people: we seem to be always thinking of the things we either may or may not eat. Sometimes I think it would be better if we just ate anything and didn't think about it at all. Gandhi: Even flesh? Millie: A man shall be judged by what comes out of his mouth, not by what he puts into it. Instead, the final plan called for the partition of the subcontinent along religious lines into two independent states—predominantly Hindu India and predominantly Muslim Pakistan.

Violence between Hindus and Muslims flared even before independence took effect on August 15, Afterwards, the killings multiplied. Gandhi toured riot-torn areas in an appeal for peace and fasted in an attempt to end the bloodshed. Some Hindus, however, increasingly viewed Gandhi as a traitor for expressing sympathy toward Muslims.

In , Gandhi endured the passing of his father and shortly after that the death of his young baby. A second son was born in India Kasturba gave birth to two more sons while living in South Africa, one in and one in Godse knelt before the Mahatma before pulling out a semiautomatic pistol and shooting him three times at point-blank range. The violent act took the life of a pacifist who spent his life preaching nonviolence.

Godse and a co-conspirator were executed by hanging in November Additional conspirators were sentenced to life in prison. Satyagraha remains one of the most potent philosophies in freedom struggles throughout the world today. Martin Luther King. Winston Churchill. Nelson Mandela. We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us!

Who Killed JFK? Martin Luther King Jr. Malcolm X. A History of Presidential Assassination Attempts. The French neologism poulbot refers to illustrations representing Parisian " titis ": street children. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. Although his campaigns were met with much resistance, they did go a long way to changing century-old prejudices.

At the age of 78, Gandhi undertook another fast to try and prevent the sectarian killing. After 5 days, the leaders agreed to stop killing. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth. Gandhi said his great aim in life was to have a vision of God. He sought to worship God and promote religious understanding. He sought inspiration from many different religions: Jainism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and incorporated them into his own philosophy.

On several occasions, he used religious practices and fasting as part of his political approach. Gandhi felt that personal example could influence public opinion. Supplication, worship, prayer are no superstition; they are acts more real than the acts of eating, drinking, sitting or walking. It is no exaggeration to say that they alone are real, all else is unreal.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan. Last updated 1 Feb Interesting and unusual facts about Mahatma Gandhi. Hindus — Famous Hindus from the era of the Mahabharata to modern day India. Indians of the Independence Movement. He stood out in his time in history. Non violence as he practised it was part of his spiritual learning usedvas a political tool.

I just dipped into this ti find out about the salt march. Gandhi was a lawyer who did not make a good impression as a lawyer. His success and influence was mediocre in law religion and politics. He rose to prominence by chance. He was neither a good lawyer or a leader circumstances conspired at a time in history for him to stand out as an astute leader both in South Africa and in India.