How Thoreau influenced Gandhi. Henry David Thoreau was born July 12,1817 in Concord, Massachusetts. He began writing nature poetry in 1840. Ralph Waldo was his mentor and best friend and taught him about transcendentalism. He later went on to be the leader of the transcendentalist. He went to Harvard College (now known as Harvard University). Mahatma Gandhi was born October 2 1869 in porbandar, India. He was a very rebellious child he smoked, eat meat (which was against his religion), and stole. He was the leader India’s independence movement. During his study to become a lawyer he went to Africa where he was asked to remove his turban and when refused he left. His first act of civil disobedience was when he was asked to move to the back of