India, Sept. 29 -- Another October rolls around, and with it, another birth anniversary of the Mahatma. Which gives us the perfect opportunity to talk about him; specifically, to tell the story of how, and when, Gandhi first visited Bangalore.

On January 21, 1914, the Gandhi-Smuts Agreement, which settled the long struggle over the rights of Indian immigrants in South Africa, was signed, bringing a satisfactory end to Gandhi's unconventional, non-violent, 20-year resistance against the South African government. Six months later, on June 26, the Indian Relief Act became part of South African law, allowing Gandhi to finally heed his mentor, the Indian political leader and social reformer Gopal Krishna Gokhale, and return home to join the I...