Last year, as part of All Indians Matter’s annual Gandhi series, we detailed the Mahatma’s final years and how pivotal they were – not just to India’s birth but also to the journey the country has travelled since then. This year, we go back to the start. This series, ‘Gandhi: The Beginning’, traces the early years of the Mahatma, starting with his grandfather and father – both great influences on his personality – as well as the family’s journey, Gandhi’s mother, his childhood and teenage, going all the way till the young boy from Porbandar turned into a political personality with his first satyagraha in South Africa. From this, we try to understand the making of Gandhi, the mass leader and Father of the Nation. At every point, we seek to make the conversation contemporary, linking it to present issues and debates. The hope is to peel away the layers of the persona to understand how Gandhi became the man that he came to be. Like every year, this is a series of conversations between Ashraf Engineer, host of the All Indians Matter podcast, and Tushar Gandhi, great grandson of the Mahatma, author and peace activist. This series is based on Volume 1 of Gandhi’s biography written by his secretary Pyarelal. It is called ‘Mahatma Gandhi – The Early Phase’. Pyarelal Ji is no longer with us, but this series is as much a tribute to his labour of love as it is to Gandhi.