Gandhi’s LIfe as a Lawyer Revealed – WV Public Broadcasting
Before he was a leader of India’s independence movement and admired worldwide for his non-violent political resistance, Mahatma Gandhi was a lawyer.
Remarkably, no one had conducted in-depth research of Gandhi’s early life in the law—and how it helped shape his inspiring principles—until WVU Law professor Charles “Chuck” DiSalvo.
Professor DiSalvo is the author of the first definitive biography that explores Gandhi the lawyer: M.K.Gandhi, Attorney at Law: The Man Before the Mahatma (2013, University of California Press). In the book, Prof. DiSalvo illustrates how Gandhi’s experiences as a lawyer in South Africa drove him to take a stand against injustice.
Professor DiSalvo is the Woodrow A. Potesta Professor of Law. An award-winning professor, he teaches one of the few law school courses in the country on civil disobedience—inspired by Gandhi and others. He is also an expert on bioethics and the law, civil procedure, and trial advocacy.Since joining the faculty in 1979, Professor DiSalvo’s passion for public interest law has inspired thousands of students to use the law for the benefit of society. He is co-founder of the West Virginia Fund for Law in Public Interest that raises money to support summer fellowships and other opportunities for WVUlaw students who want to work in public service.
Professor DiSalvo began his legal career at the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund. He earned his J.D. from the University of Southern California, his master’s from Claremont Graduate School, and his bachelor’s degree from St. John Fisher College.
Read the review of Professor DiSalvo’s book in the Asian Review of Books
