By supporting the British government, Gandhi hoped to gain full citizenship for Indians in South Africa, a goal he did not achieve. Gandhi served in and lead an Ambulance Corps Unit in both the Boer War 1899-1892 and the Zulu War of 1906. These events were a turning point in his life, awakening him to social injustice and influencing his subsequent social activism. Traveling farther on by stagecoach he was beaten by a driver for refusing to travel on the foot board to make room for a European passenger. He was thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg after refusing to move from the first class to a third class coach while holding a valid first class ticket.

In South Africa, Gandhi faced discrimination directed at Indians. His time in London, the Imperial capital, was influenced by a vow he had made to his mother in the presence of the Jain monk Becharji, upon leaving India, to observe the Hindu precepts of abstinence from meat, alcohol, and promiscuity. On 4 September 1888, less than a month shy of his 19th birthday, Gandhi traveled to London, England, to study law at University College London and to train as a barrister. In 1885, when Gandhi was 15, the couple's first child was born, but survived only a few days In May 1883, the 13-year old Mohandas was married to 14-year old Kasturbai Makhanji in an arranged child marriage, as was the custom in the region. He had his schooling in nearby Rajkot, where his father served as the adviser or prime minister to the local ruler. Gandhi was born into the second highest caste in Hindu society – the Ruler-Warrior Caste. His father, Karamchand Gandhi (1822–1885), who belonged to the Hindu Modh community, was the diwan (Prime Minister) of Porbander state, a small princely state in the Kathiawar Agency of British India.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on 2 October 1869 in Porbandar, a coastal town in present-day Gujarat, India.

Autobiography of gandhiji