Gandhi : An Icon Of Social Justice And Nonviolent Resistance Essay

Gandhi is a biopic produced by Richard Attenborough whose lifelong dream was to make the story of the national independence leader’s life into a movie. The movie starts with Mohandas K. Gandhi, played by actor Ben Kingsley, rejecting all material possessions in pursuit of India’s independence. The storyline plays out to highlight important aspect of Gandhi’s life and ends with his assassination, where he utters the famous lines “Oh god.” Critics claim the movie is over exaggerated, however Attenborough does a fine job of bringing a visual of Gandhi’s life into Western eyes. In addition, what could be a bad thing ends up being a good thing for the layman who watches this movie. Attenborough oversimplifies Gandhi’s perspectives and ideas on social justice and religion, which leads to a very simple explanation of Gandhi’s philosophy.

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.

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?

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.

Martin Luther King Jr and Mahatma Gandhi are both great exmples and role models of the nonviolent protest from there very different religious backgrounds. Although the two have different religious beliefs, but the fact that they have the same approach to the nonviolent factor that plays a big role in the world still to this day. Martin Luther King Jr. a black male southern Baptis preacher who was from Atlanta who was born in 1929, then years later assassinated on a hotel balcony in 1968 (fisher 367). Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born October 2, 1869, in Porbandar and was then later assassinated in 1948. But the inspiration and teachings from both Dr. king Jr. and Gandhi, their lives and spiritual teachings live on in the hearts of millions of people throughout the world today.

“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.

Mahatma Gandhi was the leader of the Indian independence movement against British rule. He proposed a speech to all of his followers explaining what his resolution was to gain independence, without using violence. Mahatma Gandhi adopts a subtle and affirmative tone while revealing that non violence and the spreading of love is the way to approach this movement for independence. He also portrays his outline for the movement by appealing to the audience's emotions.

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.

On August 8, 1942 in Bombay, India, Gandhi gave a speech to many individuals in order to call for a peaceful, yet determined, resistance for the independance of India. Gandhi is speaking to influence the people of India to stand up and declare their independence from Great Britain. The idea of a peaceful protest is a main point of Gandhi’s speech. Gandhi was a very influential orator. A major aspect of Gandhi’s speech is the use of ethos and pathos. Although ethos and pathos are very apparent, a lot of his speech is driven by the effective use of logos.

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.

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.

10. What did Gandhi mean that he was not talking about “passive” revolt? Note these events: “In the end, the British will walk out”; 100,000 Englishmen cannot control 350 million Indians if they refuse to cooperate … Note the terms used: The difference between passive aggression (very popular in many personality studies today) and passive non-cooperation--The gamble of inconsistency is most damaging to which?

Events in South Africa had made Gandhi a very well-known man in India and in 1915 he along with family in tow, arrives in Bombay, India which is where the following scene takes place. I immediately noticed that he was no longer wearing a suit, but instead the traditional clothing of the Indian people. Upon returning to India, the film depicts Gandhi taking on the English once again with the backing of millions of Indian supporters seeking independence from Great Britain. This done by once again forming a non-violent protesting organization. From here the film goes on to show violence brought to Gandhi’s followers, supporters, and the non-violent protestors by officials using force with gunfire, batons, etc. Afterwards, Gandhi was again imprisoned several times in India with one occurrence resulting in a six year sentence.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world”. This shows that Gandhi believed in peaceful change. Gandhi was well known in India by many people. People were inspired by his ways and would stand by him in peaceful protesting. A lot of people believed in Gandhi as a hero. Just as well, Percy Jackson from the Lightning Thief is a known hero for stopping world WWIII between the gods. Both Gandhi and Percy Jackson follow the path of the hero 's journey because they 're both trying to complete a task.

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Gandhi, known as Mahatma Gandhi. Also known as Mahatma the great soul, was the "father of modern India". He originally came from Western India, a city called Porbandar. He was born on 2nd October 1869. Gandhi was on of the youngest of the three sons of Karamchand Gandhi, who was a Prime Minister successively in Porbandar, Rajkot and Vankaner States.