Mahatma Gandhi
(Mohandas Karamchand)
“Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever walked upon this earth in flesh and blood”.
-Albert Einstein
Throughout history most national heroes have been warriors, but Gandhi was a passive and peaceful preacher of morals, ethics, and beliefs. He was an outsider who ended British rule over India without striking a blow. Moreover, Gandhi was not skillful with any unusual artistic, scholarly, or scientific talents. He never earned a degree or received any special academic honors. He was never a candidate in an election or a member of government. Yet when he died, in 1948, practically the whole world mourned him. Einstein said in his tribute, “Gandhi demonstrated that a
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Gandhi’s life was devoted to a search for truth. He believed that truth could be known only through tolerance and concern for others, and that finding a truthful way to solutions required constant attention. He dedicated himself to truth, to nonviolence, to purity, to poverty, to scripture-reading, to humility, to honesty, and to fearlessness. He called his autobiography, My Experiments with Truth. Gandhi overcame fear in himself and taught others to master fear. He believed in Ahimsa (nonviolence) and taught that to be truly nonviolent required courage. He lived a simple life and thought it was wrong to kill animals for food or clothing.
In his religious studies, he happened upon Leo Tolstoy’s Christian writings, and was inspired. It stated that all government is based on war and violence, and that one can attack these only through passive resistance. This made a deep impression on Gandhi.
Gandhi developed a method of direct social action, based upon principals of courage, nonviolence, and truth, which he called Satyagraha (holding on to truth). In this method, the way people behave is more important than what they achieve in life. Satyagraha was used to fight for India’s independence and to bring about social change.
In 1884, he founded the Natal Indian Congress to fight for Indian’s rights and he used and perfected the tool of satyagraha (nonviolent resistance) in demanding and protecting the rights of the Indian
Mohandas Gandhi was born in 1869 in the Indian coastal city of Porbandar (Background Essay). He then studied law in London, where he noticed that Indians were expected to imitate their rulers, the Englishmen (Background Essay). Gandhi wanted all people to live free, even those imposed by India’s caste system so he decided to take action in a peaceful manner (Background Essay). By doing so he was able to gain India’s independence in 1947 (Background Essay). This caused Gandhi to be known as “ Mahatma” or “ Great Soul” because he was able to do it without violence (Background Essay). Gandhi’s nonviolent movement worked because he accepted the consequences to his actions, strived for fairness to all mankind, and didn’t think of the British as enemies.
Mohandas Gandhi was the first recorded individual to adopt a non-violent method based form for change. His primary objective was for people of all ethnicities and social class to live freely amongst each other, even those inflicted upon by India’s ancient caste system.
Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, politician, social activist and writer who would lead the independence movement of India to free the country of British rule (“Mahatma Gandhi,” 2017). He would prove that a single person could change the course of history and take on the entire British Empire. Gandhi’s principles of nonviolence and civil disobedience are attributed to his success in gaining independence for India. The act of passive resistance allowed Gandhi to generate more support for his movement for independence while making it difficult for the British to find reasons to arrest them. He argued that although violence could be more effective than peaceful
He was considered the beacon of hope for the oppressed and is to thank for India’s freedom today
British rule was tough on many Indians. Gandhi, an Indian born lawyer, believed in freedom and peace for his people. He once experienced racism when he was kicked out of a train in Europe. He changed people’s point of view without breaking the law, which was tough for him. Gandhi made his nonviolent movement work through the use of determination, peaceful civil disobedience, and being a powerful leader.
Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi was a spiritual leader from India. Dr. King was inspired by Gandhi after hearing a delivery by Dr. Mordecai Johnson president of Howard University. His words about Gandhi inspired King to want to learn more about him. He purchased all the books he could find and grew more passionately about Gandhi’s beliefs. Gandhi believed in non-violence. Gandhi tested various methods of non-violence. He felt that having high standards and morals did not make one weak. Gandhi felt that good should prevail over evil.
He outed the moral and political philosophy of satyagraha, or nonviolent resistance, which he had developed while in South Africa. His message to Indians was simple: develop your own resources and control the instincts and activities that encourage membership in colonial economy and government, and you shall achieve swaraj or self-rule. Faced with Indian self-reliance and self-control pursued nonviolently, Gandhi claimed, the British eventually would have to leave. When the Depression struck India in 1930, Gandhi asked for his people not to use salt showing his new way of civil disobedience. Salt symbolized tasked the Indians' defeat to an alien government. To break the colonial government's control, Gandhi began a 240-mile march from western India to the coast to gather sea salt for free. With him were seventy-one followers representing different regions of India. Thousands of people met around and encouraging them to hold independence from British rule. (Pollard, Rosenberg, Tignor 2015 Pages
M.K. Gandhi was an Indian who protested successfully against Britain and ultimately influenced future events around the world. Gandhi’s most successful tactic to gain Indian independence was “Satyagraha” or passive resistance because the majority of society would disagree with the opponent, they will continue to protest no matter what, and it was successfully used in the Salt March. Firstly, using this tactic, about 80 Indian citizens were publically brutalized by British authorities which greatly influenced the world against them because an eyewitness wrote and sent thousands of newspapers, talking about British police brutality, around the world. For example, in Source 3 the text says, “Webb Miller’s eyewitness account was published in over a thousand newspapers around the world.”
Born in Porbandar, India, Gandhi studied law and organized boycotts against British institutions in peaceful forms of civil protest. He was killed in 1948.Even after Gandhi’s assassination, his commitment to nonviolence and his belief in simple living,making his own clothes, eating a vegetarian diet and using fasts for self-purification as well as a means of protest have been a beacon of hope for oppressed people throughout the world. Gandhi’s actions inspired future human rights movements around the
By using the principle of individual autonomy, rather than civil disobedience, Gandhi created “Satyagraha”, a nonviolent resistance to unfair laws.
civil disobedience – refusal to follow laws as a way to form a peaceful political protest in order for change satyagraha – the Hindu term for the practice of nonviolent resistance, as advocated by Mohandas Gandhi; “hold fast to the truth” partition – the action of dividing a country by separating different areas of the government 1. Why were colonial elites just as likely to support imperialism as oppose it? Colonial elites were just as likely to support imperialism as to oppose it due to their Western education and lifestyle. These Western influences led them to be influenced by the belief that they needed to adopt some aspects of Westernization in order to form a successful independence.
Gandhi was always an active member in equality for the Indian people especially after he was denied to keep studying law in England and was kicked off the first class train so he stayed in India and decided to practice hinduism. He lived the rest of his life out telling people to follow the nonviolent disobedience and “on January 30, 1948, he was on one such prayer vigil in New Delhi when he was fatally shot by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist who objected to Gandhi’s tolerance for the Muslims” (History.com Staff).
Gandhi was a human rights activist who enacted change by peacefully protesting racial discrimination. In the article Satyagraha: Gandhi’s Legacy it says, “Gandhi developed his philosophy of ‘Satyagraha’, or resistance through non-violent civil disobedience to defend his rights and the rights of all Indians and non-whites.” Gandhi was so devoted to gaining and defending rights for his people, he dedicated his life to protesting peacefully for their rights. The article also says that although Gandhi had many goals including: protesting unfair taxes and oppressive discrimination, alleviating poverty, helping in the women’s liberation movement, and ending discrimination between social classes in India, his main goal was to help the Indian people
Gandhi is considered by many around the world as the father of the Indian independence movement. Gandhi spent over 20 years in South Africa working to fight discrimination. It was in South Africa that he developed his concept of Satyagraha, a non-violent way of protesting against discrimination. The first time Gandhi used Satyagraha was in South Africa beginning in 1907 when he organized opposition to the Black Act. In 1907, the Black Act was passed, requiring all Indians to keep registration documents on them at all times.
Aroused by the massacre of Amritsar in 1919, Gandhi devoted his life to gaining India’s independence from Great Britain. As the dominant figure used his persuasive philosophy of non-violent confrontation, he inspired political activists with many persuasions throughout the world (Andrews 23). Not only was Mahatma Gandhi a great peacemaker, but also his work to achieve freedom and equality for all people was greatly acknowledged. Gandhi’s unconventional style of leadership gained him the love of a country and eventually enabled him to lead the independence movement in India.