Gandhi

The word Mahatma means great soul. This name was not given Gandhi at birth by his parents, but many years later by the Indian people when they discovered they had a Mahatma in their midst.

Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, in Porbandar, a tiny state in western India. He was named Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. The word Gandhi means grocer, and generation earlier that had been the family occupation. But Gandhi's grandfather, father, and uncle had served as prime ministers to the princes of Porbandar and other small Indian states, and though lower caste; the Gandhi’s were middle-class, cultured, and deeply religious Hindus.