Mohandas Gandhi was born in Porbandar in the present state of Gujarat, India, on October 2, 1869. After completing his initial schooling he went to England where he earned a law degree from UniversityCollege in London in 1891. He then returned to his native land and established a law practice in Bombay, but his lack of success led him to accept an invitation to go to South Africa to work for political rights for Indian immigrants in that land. He was appalled to discover the widespread denial of human rights and to realize that he was considered a member of an inferior race. He felt compelled to respond to this injustice. Thus, he remained in South Africa twenty years and was imprisoned several times for his views and verbal protests. Influenced by the Russian novelist, Leo Tolstoy, and th…