The Genesis of Mahatma Gandhi the Teacher Though most people know him as a political leader, he was more a teacher than a politician. Gandhi devoted most of his energy in teaching people self-reliance, community building and developing a sound, moral character. Mahatma Gandhi taught by his living example. Starting with one elemenatary school, Gandhi built hundreds of schools and colleges throughout India, designed their curriculum, trained the staff and closely monitored the quality of educaiton in each school.

Gandhi was also an excellent student.
Besides teaching English and basic hygiene to the illiterate Indian laborers in South Africa, and serving the sick and the wounded, Gandhi also learned how to do most of his work himself - including washing, ironing and cutting his own hair. More on the Growth of Mahatma Gandhi, the Teacher Gandhi learned and taught how to build homes, run a printing press, publish a newspaper and so on. While in jail in South Africa, he learned how to make leather slippers and gave a pair to General Smuts as a parting gift. To make a good use of the long voyages on the ships those days, Gandhi learned new languages (particularly Urdu and Tamil).

In India Gandhi spent more than 90 per cent of his energy trying to teach people self-reliance. Gandhi constantly maintained that "The English people are ruling us not because they are strong (physically) but because we need them. The day that we can prove to them that we can run our schools without them, courts without them, the railway without them, the administration without them etc., they will find no use for themselves and will walk out of India voluntarily." Mahatma Gandhi Quotation

"My life is my message." – Mahatma Gandhi

"True knowledge gives a moral standing and moral strength." – Mahatma Gandhi

A presentation by Shall Sinha Although Mahatma Gandhi is no longer with us, it is possible to bring his characterization back. Shall Sinha is a leading scholar on the Life and Works of Mahatma Gandhi, and he also does an Extraordinary Impersonation of Gandhi. He appears dressed exactly like Mahatma Gandhi - with bald-head, steel-frame glasses, home-spun loin clothes, tire-sandals and a bamboo walking staff. Throughout the presentation he stays in Gandhi's character and describes events specifically relevant to the audience and the occasion. Using his personal library that contains over 50,000 pages of collected works of Mahatma Gandhi, Shall Sinha draws all his supporting materials from Gandhi's actual life and leaves his audience inspired - feeling good about themselves and their work and also with a zest for new challenges. Shall Sinha is the author of "Words of Wisdom from Mahatma Gandhi".

See a nutshell biography of Mahatma Gandhi