7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7

welfare. He lost the election to the Democratic candidate,
Woodrow Wilson.
Roosevelt died in early January 1919, less than three
months after his 60th birthday.

mohandas KaramChand Gandhi
(b. Oct. 2, 1869, Porbandar, India—d. Jan. 30, 1948, Delhi)

M

ohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the leader of the
Indian nationalist movement against British rule
and is considered to be the father of his country. Known as
Mahatma (“Great-Souled”), he is internationally esteemed
for his doctrine of nonviolent protest to achieve political
and social progress.

Early Years and Education in England

Gandhi was born in Porbandar, near Bombay (Mumbai) in

1869. His family belonged to the Hindu merchant caste
      Vaisya, and his father had been prime minister of several
      small native states. Gandhi grew up in a home steeped in
      Vaishnavism—worship of the Hindu god Vishnu—with a
      strong tinge of Jainism, a morally rigorous Indian religion,
      whose chief tenets are nonviolence and the belief that
      everything in the universe is eternal. Thus he took for
      granted ahimsa (noninjury to all living beings), vegetarian-
      ism, fasting for self-purification, and mutual tolerance
      between adherents of various creeds and sects.
      Gandhi was married when he was only 13 years old.
      When he was 19, he went abroad to study law at University
      College London. Gandhi took his studies seriously. But,
      during the three years he spent in England, his main pre-
      occupation was with personal and moral issues rather than
      with academic ambitions. The transition from the half-