Mahatma Gandhi And Civil Disobedience

How might Mohandas K. Gandhi advise someone to respond to an unjust law? “There are two ways of countering injustice. One way is to smash the head of the man who perpetrates injustice and to get your own head smashed in the process.” It is important for people to take a stand on issues of justice in society. It teaches society to work and resolve their issues, it encourages social advancement, and it helps the people who are directly affected by the situation, and can give them assistance.

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.

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

“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.

Civil disobedience is where one civilly breaks the law. Stated in Doc B it says, “On March 12, 1930, Mohandas Gandhi led a march down to the Arabian sea known as “The Salt March”, in protest of British corner on salt. Each day the march got increasingly larger, while passing many towns hundreds of people joined the march, they saw what Gandhi was doing, and they saw he was right. The Salt March ended on April 6, 1930 when the protesters reached the sea and started picking up salt.” The British put taxes on salt; therefore, the Indians couldn't afford the salt. So Gandhi civilly disobeyed the law, hence the Salt March. And the Indians got their

Throughout history, violent reformation movements were traditionally used, but non-violence has been proven just as effective. Gandhi was one of the first to use peaceful resistance and civil disobedience to successfully change India. Civil Disobedience is the active refusal to obey laws set by the government with Nonviolent resistance and respectful disagreement. He used this concept to fight off not only the colonial rule but also racial discrimination and social divisions such as the untouchables in society. Mohandas Gandhi was born in India in 1869. At the age of 19 he went to London to study Law and he was impressed by English laws.His ambition to gain India's independence of all class, wealth, and educational distinction was successful.

During his confinement in Birmingham city jail, Martin Luther King Jr., a man of patience and virtue, wrote, “…we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive” (Ali-Dinar). Throughout his life, King led peaceful protests to further equality and justice in the African American community; many were opposed with police brutality and fierce discrimination. Had it not been for the media, which broadcasted to Americans nationwide, the eyes of the public and the President would have remained shut to the continuing unequal treatment of the law and violent oppression that many African Americans faced. Despite attempts to halt their movement, the protesters

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.

Mahatma Gandhi is renowned all over the world for his nonviolent philosophies and impact upon civil rights. He was the primary leader of India’s move towards independence. Gandhi engineered a form of non-violent protest that would influence the world. He was born on 2nd October, 1869, in Porbandar, India. Gandhi studied law and advocated for the civil rights of Indians, and influenced many civil rights movements. Even after his death, Gandhi’s actions inspired future civil rights movements around the globe. He most notably impacted, civil rights movements in three regions of the world; South Africa, India and America.

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, the definition of civil disobedience is the “refusal to obey governmental demands or commands especially as a nonviolent and usually collective means of forcing concessions from the government.” Men such as Henry David Thoreau, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. have all used forms of civil disobedience and nonviolent protest to make changes in the world. These changes have made huge impacts on our societies and how we are able to live our everyday lives. Without these three men and their practice of civil disobedience, the world would be a very different place.

In every society, some laws and regulations govern the conduct of the members of the group. From day to the other, new laws are introduced to cater for the ever changing world. These new rules and regulations are not always welcomed by all the people in the societies and thus may experience opposition. The active and professed rejection to obey a law or regulation is termed as civil disobedience (Delmas, 2016). Smart (1978) defined civil disobedience in terms of the actions that are involved as people seek to resist the new laws believed to be malicious. According to Smart, civil disobedience refers to a situation in which a person or a group of people openly reject to obey a law and their actions are in contrary to the

Gandhi was a huge reason Britain left India. A point that Gandhi made for being civilly disobedient was satyagraha and it is insistence on truth, a way of reform with nonviolent actions. “One who resorts to it does not have to break another’s head; he may merely have his own head broken. He has to be prepared to die himself suffering all the pain” (Civil Disobedience). This is a form of countering an unjust law with civil disobedience because you are breaking that law, peacefully and provoking a response from the government. You are not performing a violent action that causes harm. Thus provoking a response from the government means it is working, and not fighting back will inspire more everyday people to see the good in your acts due to the unjust ruling of the

All throughout world history, human beings have been pushed to their breaking points by authority figures. Some of these individuals band together and wreck havoc on society through acts of violence. Others prefer to act peacefully in a way they believe more likely to produce a positive outcome. All around the world, in every era of history, people have participated in acts of civil disobedience, peacefully protesting one wrong doing or another by simply disobeying laws, demands, or directions from those in power above them. However, in the last two centuries the belief in and practice of civil disobedience has been taken to a new level and has even brought about historical changes, especially concerning equal rights and just laws. Three major contributors to these peaceful protests, and activists in civil disobedience were Martin Luther King Jr, Mahatma Gandhi, and Henry David Thoreau. All three of these men participated in acts of civil disobedience but each in his own way and for different reasons. Martin Luther stood together with African Americans from across the country to demand equal rights for blacks. Mahatma Gandhi lead the Indian independence movement against British tyranny. Henry David Thoreau believed an ongoing war between Mexico and the Southern United States was unjust and refused to pay taxes to help fund it. This then lead to his arrest and imprisonment for a day during which he wrote the essay "Civil Disobedience."

Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Rosa Parks. These are just a few of the individuals who utilized the tool of civil disobedience to better the world. The word “disobedience” usually has negative connotations and strikes fear into the hearts of those who value order. However, civil disobedience is essential to the health of free society as it is, in fact, what keeps these societies free.