Gandhi Ahimsa Or The Way Of Nonviolence

All through history governments and empires have been overthrown or defeated primarily by the violence of those who oppose them. This violence was usually successful however, there have been several situations, when violence failed, that protesters have had to turn to other methods. Non-violent protesting never seemed to be the right course of action until the ideology of Mohandas Gandhi spread and influenced successful protests across the world. Non-violent methods were successfully used, most notably, by Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela.

The essential of Gandhi is anthology of his life. It is separated into two parts. One as Gandhi the man and the other as the Mahatma meaning Great Soul. I was very much well interested in the readings of The Essential Gandhi. What I was most interested in was that he spoke with so much determination and compassion. His firm belief in nonviolence was presented very strongly. “I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent. Gandhi believed strongly in non-violent civil disobedience, so he states that violence provides only temporary relief or satisfaction, but the pain it causes people and societies is much greater. There is so much violence in the world today and some believe you have to fight violence with violence but Gandhi was very successful with his method of not acting upon violence in such of as in a hatred way. He solely helped India become independent with his method of nonviolence. Before I read this story I knew very little details of him, but the main thing that always puzzled me, what gave Gandhi the courage to make such a difference in the world?

How does one free themselves from the hold of another? More importantly, how does one accomplish this without the use of violence? A revolutionary leader whose name was Mahatma Gandhi discovered and implemented a way of how this should be done and did so successfully. His methods included the use of economics to rebel against the British rule while maintaining he religious position. Although Gandhi’s plan of gaining independence for India and all of its people being united was never truly met. He still managed to help India break away from the British and allowed India to gain independence from them. The main principle of Gandhi’s economics was that it required human rights for all and was not about wealth at all. Although Gandhi was successful

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.

You should probably steer clear from this article if you’re into the whole dying for no apparent reason during a war thing, because that basically what Gandhi’s is portraying with his Satyagraha saying in the “Nonviolent resistance”. Where he says like;

“If you make laws to keep us suppressed in a wrongful manner and without taking us into confidence, these laws will merely adorn the statue books. We will never obey them”(1). Mohandas Gandhi expressed this in his writing “On Nonviolent Resistance”. “Civil disobedience” is when people use their voice by protesting, non-violently, to stick up against unjust laws and unjust movements. The truths and values are proven and brought to attention in the writings of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, and Henry David Thoreau. Civil disobedience can be the solution to unjust laws and violence around the world.

"You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean is not." -Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi was a powerhouse, a leader, and an activist. He started the Salt March, which was a movement that created a new light for the people involved in it.

Throughout history, many conflicts have happened, some with resolution, and other without. We often tend to think of solving conflicts with war, since most of our history classes are based around World War I, World War II, and so forth, but many conflicts were fought, and successfully won using nonviolent resistance. Many people would use Gandhi as a well known example. Gandhi’s plan of civil disobedience revolved around this big idea called “satyagraha,” which he explains as, “a satyagrahi should always possess civility and humility, qualities that indicated self-control and an humble approach to truth” (Gandhi 50). He later explains that satyagraha is “truth-force” and that truth is soul and spirit, or “spirit-force.” “It excludes the use of violence because man is not capable of knowing the absolute truth and, therefore, not competent to punish” (51). He used this strategy to fight for indian independence. Many other incidents in the world have been fought using civil disobedience, including Women’s Suffrage.

Throughout history, there have been many unfair rules all over the world. There are people who like the rules and people who dislike the rules. Sometimes everybody dislikes the rule and wants change in them. Whenever there is a request of change of the government, the people find many solutions/methods to make the change. One of the solutions is protesting and this method is commonly used for a change. There are two types of protests, violence, and nonviolence. One example of a violent protest is the Birmingham Civil Rights Protest in 1963 and an example of a nonviolent protest is Gandhi’s nonviolent protest for independence. It is believable that nonviolent protest if the most effective way to protest for society because it leaves a great

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).

Chapter 4 of the book “Gandhi and Beyond” was pretty interesting and fascinating to read and learn about. One of the sections of the chapter that impacted me the most was the section titled Learning about Gandhi found on page 76. In this section, Chavez began to learn about Gandhi and his principles of nonviolence. Chavez admired Gandhi because of his success, his commitment, and his methods of nonviolence such as boycotting and fasting. In Gandhi Chavez found a leader who inspired him to help the poor defeat the rich. Another interesting fact that I learned on this section was that Chavez began to develop nonviolent ideas and believed that in order to practice nonviolent acts one must be prepared for sacrifice. One of the quotes that I really liked on this section was Chavez’s quote found on page 79 which states “Love is the most important ingredient in nonviolent work… Love the opponent… If were full of hatred we can’t do work” (Cortright 79). Using this word Chavez says that in order to become successful and win one must love the opponent. If people begin to use acts of nonviolence against the opponent’s one must not become successful in the movement being created.

Gandhi taught many lessons to his Christian clergyman friend, but the principal was probably that the lesson taught in the bible need it to be implemented in real life, on each act of our life and not only be preach.

We all live in a civil society in a country where we have equal rights and everyone gets the same kind treatment,sounds great right, and it is hard to imagine having all those privileges taken away. But the world wasn't all cheery and great less than 100 years ago the people of India and South Africa were discriminated and unjustly treated by people who were not even native to their region but another one more northern. It sounds dreadful because it was dreadful, but in hardships there are always motivating people like Mahatma Gandhi who liberated India from British rule by motivating a generation and many to come, to stand up for injustices in their life or the life of others.Furthermore, it is people like Nelson Mandela, who worked hard and got jailed for his belief of equal rights for all people no matter the color of their skin.Even if they both are inspirational and had to sacrifice greatly for their respective nation. One person will always come on top of the rest and that position was intended for Mahatma Gandhi.Therefore, you can infer this literary analysis will confirm the thesis that Mahatma Gandhi was the greater civil right activist. For the author for Eulogy For Mahatma Gandhi clearly states, “that man with divine fire, changed us also--and such as we are, we have been molded by him during these years; and out of that divine fire many of us also took a small spark…”, This doesn't make him just a civil rights activist but an inspiration to many people.

The leather sandals slipped from his feet. Mahatma Gandhi's devoted his life mainly to help others, in Ahimsa, non-violence and Hindu - Muslim riots, he was largely inspired by the Gita- the Hindu holy book. Basically he believed everyone should have equal rights. His successes in life were when he studied law in England, got a job in South Africa, when he did the salt march, identified him self with the untouchables- which are India's poorest people.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Nonviolence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being". The book The Essential Gandhi expresses Gandhi’s views on issues like untouchability, religion, nationality, his movements like civil-disobedience are deeply shown in this book. Readers can learn about Gandhi’s childhood, his early married life, his realization and transition in South Africa, and his ways of approach towards attaining Independence in India. The book did a fantastic job in showing the Gandhi’s principles like non-violence with exemplary contexts.