Civil Disobedience Research Paper

Excusing a few violent outbreaks they willingly and routinely put themselves in the way of violence without striking back because “Real suffering, bravely borne melts even a heart of stone”, it’s sayings like this that allowed him to grab and hold the attention of his followers. “A Satyagrahi obeys the laws of society intelligently and of his own free will, because he considers it to be his sacred duty to do so”, Gandhi made it their duty to be good like Garvey made it his followers’ duty to be proud of themselves. Gandhi managed this by instructing his people to live in Ashram’s, where living at a high standard meant they all lived at the same low level, eating at the same table and doing the same chores, Gandhi himself participated. Through Gandhi they learned how to be high class dignified citizens by losing worldly possessions and living in what one might call the slums.

Civil disobedience is defined by the Merriam Webster Online Dictionary as "a refusal to obey governmental demands or commands especially as a nonviolent and usually collective means of forcing concessions from the government." The most popular example in U.S. history when this was used was during the Civil Right Movement in the 1960's. The Jim Crow laws at the time restricted African Americans from being able to attend public schools or use public restrooms that were designated as "white only." Despite the fact that they had paid taxes like anybody else, these types of segregation laws targeted minorities and made them second rate citizens. It is evident that the Jim Crow Laws were imperfect as the humans that created them. Martin Luther King, who was sincere in exposing the government's wrongdoings,

India is no different, the Sepoy Rebellion was one of the main stands the Indians took to defend their beliefs. With the British's complete disregard of Hindu and Muslim practices, Indians broke into outrage when asked to bite off the ammunition cartridge greased with pork and beef fat. How could they not? Their entire belief system itself was being threatened. Although out of this gruesome cultural war Gandhi emerged with a new way of thinking, without violence. With Gandhi’s defiance, a salt taxation was released which gave even more control to the British Raj. Although stopping Gandhi’s way of thinking was helpless and the Indians took yet another stand with the 1930’s Salt March. Though there were some laws that Gandhi could not take a stand too. Some of the government released laws were careless and did not seem to have any purpose but to irk the Indian people. Being treated as second class citizens in their own home is what the people came to know, racist attitude also dominated around the country of India.

Man, he traveled to England to receive his college education and law degree. Upon returning to India he set out to change how the West was colonizing and industrializing his country, and set life to a new sort of technique that would change India, and give a new perspective, and shed light on Indian culture, and civilization. His techniques revolved around passive and calm responses instead of wild and violent responses to the British. His term "satygraha" meant "truth and firmness" which was a method of passive resistance to provoke a response. This is how Gandhi received respect and honor from his followers, and the people of Indian civilizations. He

Gandhi, a wise and pacifist leader, dedicated his life to promote racial equality because he experience first-hand racial discrimination. Gandhi, a wise leader, experienced first-hand racial discrimination, in which he dedicated his life to promote racial equality through pacifist means. Gandhi’s first major encounter with racial discrimination was when he bought a first-class ticket on a train and was later asked to be removed from the first-class section. Gandhi refused to move to the back and was eventually thrown off. Afterwards he made the commitment to himself that he would fight the “deep disease of color prejudice” (“Mahatma Gandhi”). Britain ruled over India at this time, and non-white people were discriminated. Gandhi’s ethnicity was Indian, and therefore officials cast him off the train. Instead of using violence to fight colored prejudice, “Gandhi developed his philosophy of ‘Satyagraha’, or resistance through non-violent civil disobedience” (“‘Satyagraha’: Gandhi’s Legacy”). Gandhi used Satyagraha because he did not believe that violence was the right way to fight. He believed that without peace, no government can exist. An example of how Gandhi used Satyagraha was when Britain passed the British Salt Act in India: an act that “prohibited Indians from collecting or selling salt...and imposed a heavy tax that hit the country’s poorest particularly hard…” (“Mahatma Gandhi”). The Indians were infuriated by its passing. In response to this act Gandhi gathered more than 60,000 Indians and marched 240 miles to the Arabian Sea to get salt instead of buying it (“Mahatma Gandhi”). Even though Gandhi was arrested for breaking the law, other people took

Throughout Gandhi’s life, the biggest idea pushed for was peaceful protest. In his speech “Quit India”, Gandhi stated, “Ours is not a drive for power, but purely a non-violent fight for India’s independence” (Quit India Par. 4). Gandhi had good reason to choose a nonviolent act of protesting their rule rather than taking the more aggressive approach that the Americans used during the American Revolution, because at the time, England was far more advanced in almost every field compared to India. Choosing a violent way would only endanger them,

In Gandhi’s early life (30 to early 40’s) he accomplished life changing events that set him on a path that leads to helping all kinds of people. His first major influence was when he fought against racial discrimination in South Africa in 1893. At the time of his arrival he faced common discrimination against people of color. The Natal Assembly was going to make a law that banned voters that were not of European origin. Another influence he had was in 1906 in South Africa. There was a law placed that required all Asian men who were in the Transvaal Province to be fingerprinted and have a form of pass. So Gandhi started the Satyagraha (AKA truth force) campaign of nonviolent resistance. He advised that Indians defy the law and take the punishments that come with the act of rebelliousness. This movement got more serious in 1914 when there was a £3 tax on ex-indentured Indians and the state refused to acknowledge Indian marriages. Satyagraha went on for 7 years, during which thousands of Indians were put into cuffs and

Gandhi is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest leaders of the non-violent movements the world has ever seen. As a pioneer of Satyagraha, which is resistance through non-violence civil disobedience, he became one of the major political leaders of his generation. Many other great leaders, like Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela were inspired by the philosophy of non-violence of Gandhi. Many writers have acknowledged that he was a servant leader. Albert Einstein called Gandhi as a ‘beacon to the generations to come.’ The purpose of this paper is then to argue that Gandhi was an Indian nationalist in a way that he was a servant leader.

Mohandas K. Gandhi was an African philosopher who was also an attorney. During his time, Gandhi challenged the apartheid system. The apartheid system basically was a form of institutionalized racism that put the whites (the Dutch and the British) above the brown (Indian workers) and the black (the descendants of the African natives). In addition, it made brown and black people to be considered “second class-citizens”, even though some of held prestigious jobs. Gandhi was angered by the apartheid system that he constantly protested it. In fact, it is what lead him to develop his non-violent protest philosophy. This philosophy became known as satyagraha, which translates to “Love Force” or “Soul Force”. Gandhi believed that satyagraha was the way to oppose unfair treatment and that violent protest would just leave people wounded or even worse, dead. The Satyagraha chapter in the book states “While in

When one imagines of the early 1940s’ Indian movement of independence, one figure readily clicks into the mind; the popular Mahatma Gandhi, who was an immensely leader in India. He was nicknamed Mahatma by most of his countrymen, a name that meant “The Great Soul”. This leader led to a remarkable change of the world far much beyond his sacrificial and successful struggle that led to the end of the British imperial rule in his nation, India. Gandhi believed in his philosophy of non-violent resistance when illegitimating the authority and the campaigns of mass civil disobedience. This led into a new form of major political struggle that since then has been adopted by many nations all over the world especially in the States of America mainly by the actions of the civil rights movements demanding for their freedom. This paper elaborates in details the aspect of historical context of Indian independence movement, how Gandhi challenged the British rule in India and the impact made on the society by his actions and philosophies.

The sole morality of Satyagraha became the path to gaining independence from the British. Satyagra was the greatest weapon that Gandhi used to defeat the

His “soul force” may have been the only thing that could bring all Indians together and he used it to an amazing effect. British was a liberal empire and they kind of liked Gandhi’s teachings. In 1920's British kind of vaguely agreed for the India’s independence. In 1924, Gandhi devoted himself to “swaraj from within” working to prepare India morally for its independence. He strongly urged that people wore homespun “khadi” when he became President of National Congress in 1925. In 1928 Gandhi made a big decision and returned to his plan for large scale civil disobedience which was drastically inspired by the author Henry David Thoreau. For almost twelve years, the natives of Barodli refused to accept an increase in taxes and held firm despite imprisonment. Government finally gave in and repealed a tax increase. Gandhi came up with a Declaration of Independence in 1930, and then led the Salt March in protest against the British monopoly on salt. This touched off acts of civil disobedience across India, and the British were forced to invite Gandhi to London for a Round-Table Conference. After the failure of Round Table Conference, Gandhi again traveled through India and started his preaching of cleanliness, harmony and love. Gandhi’s slogan was to unify India but to his despair in 1942, British came to a conclusion that they would give independence to India with an option of Muslim

During India’s struggle to gain independence from Great Britain, a revolutionary leader emerged from the chaos. It was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s teachings of Satyagraha that lead the fight for India’s freedom. Satyagraha was not only the practice of non-violence but also the rejection of “every form of violence, direct or indirect…whether in thought, word, or deed” (Dalton 29).Gandhi believed non-violence was an act of “pure love” in the face of hate and his legacy vividly survives through the cultures he inspired. In this essay, I will assess the ways his non-violent teachings influenced other political struggles along with the advantages and disadvantages as a result.

into two on a communal basis. As a result, many riots broke out between the

Mohandas Gandhi, the leader of the Indian independence movement from Britain, once wrote, “Non-violence is the law of our species as violence is the law of the brute. The spirit lies dormant in the brute and he knows no law but that of physical might. The dignity of man requires obedience to a higher law—to the strength of the spirit.” These are the core principles of Satyagraha, the early 1900s non-violent resistance movement established by Gandhi with intent to liberate the Indian state from the grasps of British imperialism. Satyagraha was an effective method of challenging injustice, as not only did it allow the participation of all social, political, and economic class to create a more widespread