How did Mahatma Gandhi seek to identify with the common people?
Mahatma Gandhi believed in simple living and high thinking. He did the following to identify himself with the common people of India:
(i) He did not behave like a professional or an intellectual. Rather he mixed with thousands of peasants, workers and artisans.
(ii) He dressed himself like the common men. He also lived like them and spoke their language. He wore simple dhoti or loin-cloth. He did not like to stand apart from the common people. He liked to mix with them, sit and talk with them.
(iii) He worked on the Charkha (spinning wheel) everyday. He also encouraged other nationalists to do the same. In fact he favoured synthesis between mental and manual labour.
(iv) He did not believe in the traditional caste system.
(v) He often spoke in the mother-tongue.
