Gandhi Essays

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.

In ancient times it was a common belief that religion is a matter of individual experience. But modern psychology has shown that there is no such thing as a merely individual experience, which is absolutely cut off from the society. There is an important element of truth in the views of Durkheim and other members of the French Sociological school, who maintain that religion, is essentially a social phenomenon. The views of Jesus: "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's" did not find much favour in Gandhi. Rather his view was more in accordance with the writings of H.G. Wells, according to whom "the doctrine of the kingdom of heaven as Jesus preached it, it was no less than a bold and uncompromising demand for a complete change and cleansing of the life of our struggling races an utter cleansing without and within." (2) . Gandhi's religion was spiritual humanism because he declared that the service of the poor whom he called "Daridranarayana" is a true service of God. In other words, Gandhi found God amidst his creation; this creation

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.

In 1757, Great Britain extended its empire into India. This occupation would not fully end until 1947. In the time between, there were many movements by the Indian people to gain independence from the British. The movement that finally succeeded in winning India’s independence was led by one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Gandhi’s methods for fighting against the occupation of the British were very different from those of any of the freedom movements before. And that was why it worked. Gandhi did not agree with the general reasoning of the time: that conflicts could be solved through negotiation and forceful resistance.1 Rather, his faith led him to go

To start, Mohandas Gandhi's goal was to March peacefully and without violence.” My ambition is no less than to convert the British people through non-violence, and thus make them see the wrong they have done to India... but if you cannot see your way to deal with this evils and if my letter makes no appeal to your heart... to

To begin with, in the middle of Gandhi's speech, he attempts to prove non violence is the most effective way to approach the movement and he does this by appealing to the audience's emotions using abstract diction. He exclaims, “In a violent struggle, a successful General has been often known to effect a military coup and to set up a dictatorship.” He first announces “ In a violent struggle” , which can trigger the audience's curiosity and make them want to hear his reasoning on why violence is not right. Taking this a little further, he uses the word “struggle” to extract the audience’s pain and sorrow, two emotions they would like to avoid. When Gandhi associates violence and struggle, he is making the audience remove themselves from harming others, by not participating in harmful day to day acts or year long movements. Audience members want to disassociate themselves from

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.

This experience in his time in South Africa prepared him to lead India’s independence movement because it helped him become aware of the racial prejudice and exploitation of Indians in South Africa. By him witnessing the racial prejudice in South Africa, he then organized the Indian émigrés in order to protect their interests. As a result, Gandhi developed a basic understanding and experience on how to organize masses of people under a single goal of liberating themselves from foreign oppression that existed in both South Africa and India. This experience in addition to his knowledge on law would aid him to become a respectful leader as he took part in an active independent movement based on nonviolent

Gandhi was an important leader in India and his goal was to get rid of the British from his country. He wanted his followers to protest

As I talked about earlier in this paper Gandhi was immersed in his culture and in his family traditions. They played a huge part in the journey of his life and in even planning significant parts of his journey like his marriage, career path and moral development. His life experiences also played a big role in how he developed his moral reasoning such as when he encountered prejudice on the train and as a result

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.

There were many way causes which led Gandhi to become a leader this is one of them. Gandhi wanted to get rid the British out of the way, without using violence at all. An example of this was when he brought all of the reporters, to India and tried to burn the passbooks.

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.