Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandi, more commonly known as Mahatma (Great soul) was born in Porbandar in Gujarat on 2 October 1869. Gandhi’s father, Karamchand Gandhi (1822-1885) was the Chief Minister of Parbandar. Gandhi’s mother, Putlibai Gandhi (1839-1891) was a deeply religious Hindu and her religious devotion meant that his upbringing was infused with the Jain pacifist teachings of mutual tolerance, non-injury to living beings and vegetarianism. It all started at the age of 18, when Gandhi left India in September 1888. He moved to London to become a lawyer. In June 1891 Gandhi moved back to India, to practice his studies. He was quick to discover that he lacked knowledge of Indian law and self-confidence at trial. Instead, Gandhi moved to South Africa when he was given the opportunity to work with a yearlong case. While in South Africa Gandhi experienced its racial prejudice. When he refused to move from his first-class seat to a third-class seat he was forcibly removed from the train. All because a white man complained about sharing a compartment with a “coolie”. After being thrown off the train, sitting in the cold, Gandhi was contemplating on whether he should stay or go back home to India. Despite arriving on a year’s contract Gandhi stayed and spent the next twenty years working to better Indians’ rights in South Africa. During his first years Gandhi studied the law and learned more about Indian grievances. He wrote letter to officials, organized petitions and on May 22, 1894, Gandhi established the Natal Indian congress (NIC). After becoming well-known for his activism and acts Gandhi became a leader of the Indian community in South Africa. Ghandi planned to head back to India in July 1914 but made a ... ... middle of paper ... ...n-violence, and that he had arrived at the point in his life where he was determined to see India attain independence during his lifetime. A disagreement between Hindus and Muslims had risen. The Muslims feared losing all political power in an independence India since the majority of Indians were Hindu. In August 1947 the British decided to leave India with what seemed to become a violent civil war. Violence between the two groups continued, Muslims marched to Pakistan and Hindus who were in Pakistan packed up and walked to India. Many died along the way from dehydration, illness and exposure. They attacked each other with vengeance. On January 13, 1948, Gandhi went on a fast to stop the violence. Stating that he would eat again once he saw the violence stop. Knowing that Gandhi could not withstand a long fast at his age, both sides came together to create peace.
Mohandas Gandhi was born into a Hindu family of the Vaisya caste. This was the third ranking caste in the class structure of Hinduism. This class was for farmers and merchants. The whole system was so complex that in Gandhi’s lifetime it had begun to disintegrate. Gandhi’s father and grandfather were not farmers or merchants. They were prime ministers of the tiny principality of Porbandar in Gujarat. Mohandas was extremely shy. He rushed to and from school, too nervous to talk to any of his classmates. Then a pretty and strong-willed girl was married to him by an arranged marriage at the age of 13. Her name was Kasturbai. A marriage at this age was typical in Hindu custom. He was a strict husband and kept control over actions. Kasturbai disliked this. They didn’t spend more than the first five years of their marriage together, since it was typical for the girl to visit her family. At this point in his life, he was very depressed. He was little and suffered fears that didn’t bother his wife. An athletic and older boy who was Muslim fascinated him. He told Mohandas to eat meat if he wanted to become bigger and stronger. He said the Indians were weak and small people, because they didn’t eat meat, and this is why the British, who did, had the strength to rule over them. This was against his religion, but he tried anyway. He ate the meat in secrecy, but after a few meals he stopped. He didn’t like the taste of meat and fe...
Gandhi was not born poor or untouchable but to a respectful merchant class family (Bush 23). He did a lot of self-searching as a young man before becoming the “Mahatma” Indians respected and followed. Prior to achieving his status as an honored
Next, let’s talk about his education and where he went to get his education. Gandhi went to an all boy school Rajkot when he was seven (“Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi” pg3 ).once he finished elementary school he then went to high school because they didn’t have a middle school, and that’s when he started to think about his career (“Mohandas Gandhi”).Later when Gandhi finished high school he went to the university college in London to study law (“Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi”pg3). Even though he went to London he had good and bad experiences with it.
“My ambition is no less than to convert British people through nonviolence and thus make them see the wrong they have done to India.” (Document A, Paragraph Two) Gandhi clearly said he did not want to hurt the Europeans, he believed the Europeans forcing ways of life on the Indians was unjust, but he did not want to respond with any negative emotions. This peaceful approach remained a tactic within the movement because as Gandhi held firm to it, his loyal followers mimicked that as well. Gandhi’s words to Lord Irwin, “I do not intend to hurt a single Englishman.” (Document A, Paragraph One), were proven to be truthful ones when six years later the march at Dharasana occurred. While police begin to beat his followers with steel clubs, Gandhi’s peaceful remained cemented within them all. “Not one of the marchers even raised an arm to fend off the blows.” (Document B, Paragraph
...es of past leaders Gandhi gained new perspective and subsequently avoided repeating the past; this lead him to attempt to embark upon a new path--one perceived as better for India. None of this would have been possible without the perspective gained through studying India’s brutal past. Subsequently his efforts and strategies were later emulated by other civil rights activists, effectively impacting the general society. Clearly, the perspective gained through looking back on one’s mistake would be impossible without adversity, which serves as the origin for remediation; society would not be able to progress without certain duress.
When he was 19 he defied custom by going abroad to study. He studied law
Gandhi. Gandhi was trained as a lawyer in Britain and fought for human rights in apartheid South Africa. Later on, Gandhi returned to his homeland to fight for independence from the Empire that the sun never sets on. Gandhi achieved this goal through peaceful resistance. But the euphoria of liberation was short lived. Muhammed Jinnah, a comrade and leader of the Indian Independence movement, demanded that a separate nation be made for Indian Muslims. That nation would become Pakistan and Gandhi would regret not doing more to prevent the disunity until he was killed by an assassin's bullet while going to pray in his garden. To this day, Pakistan and India hold a very bitter taste in their mouths towards one another. Furthermore, the racism towards Indians has also risen in Britain since the former's liberation. The racial slur "coolie" is to English Indians what "nigger" is to African
Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “If humanity is to progress, Gandhi is inescapable… We may ignore him at our own risk.” King cited Gandhi as one of his biggest inspirations, which should come as no surprise, as Gandhi helped end racism towards as many if not more people than King himself. Gandhi pioneered the use of what he called satyagraha, or political change through nonviolence, and helped bring millions of India’s oppressed to equality. Lord Mountbatten, the last British ruler of India, is quoted as saying, “Mahatma Gandhi will go down in history on a par with Buddha and Jesus Christ.” There is no denying the truth in this statement because of the way he had a profound impact on the lives of those around him, just like these other two famous figures of history. Gandhi may have been very small man, relatively speaking, but he grew to be a giant in the eyes of the world.
After the British empire separated itself from India, inner-country religious problems began to arise. The Muslims and Hindus of the liberated India released their pent up anger on each other and combusted into civil war right after they won the peaceful war against Great Britain. This war distressed Gandhi, who has insight into the unity of mankind, and encouraged him to go on a hunger strike until the brutality ceased. While on his near-death bed, he is approached by a Hindu who “killed a child” because the Muslims “killed [his] son,” and in response, Gandhi said that the way out of his “Hell is to “Find a [Muslim] child, a child whose mother and father have been killed and raise him as your own,” therefore the man would be able to see the equality in all religions. Throughout his entire life, Gandhi, though a Hindu, never prosecuted anyone for their religion and was able to see through everyone’s eyes as fellow brother’s and sisters, not enemies. This ability to empathize and recognize the general unity of the human population allowed Gandhi insight into the human
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was many different words. He was noncooperation, civil disobedience, fasting, a political leader, a human to some, a god to others. Gandhi was truth. As the father of Satyagraha, or ‘truth-seizing’ Gandhi believed that “Satyagraha is the weapon of the strong, it admits of no violence under any circumstances whatsoever, and it even insists upon truth” (Quinn 2013: 206). The name of the movement of Satyagraha also stands for ‘soul’ or ‘love’ power. This is because the act of Satyagraha is to spread love even to those who show hatred. The term ahimsa, nonviolence or non-harm, is the root of Satyagraha. Gandhi wanted to make India independent without killing or hurting others, he wanted to use nonviolent techniques to
Through Imperialism, Britain oppressed many countries, including India. British influence stripped Indian culture and in some way, civil rights. As a result, a civil rights activist by the name of Mahatma Gandhi refused to replace his culture with that of the British. He also refused to accept that violence was the only way to gain independence. Throughout his philosophical journey, Gandhi went through trial and error to accomplish his ambitious goal. Conversely, Gandhi successfully approached India’s oppressors, inspired his followers, and built a loyal community through nonviolent protests.
Gandhi was pissed and so he withdrew from public life once again. Just them in 1935 the British gave the Indians a great amount of rights but they were not happy.
Gandhi is motivated by religious means; he believes that everyone is equal in God’s eyes. He gets involved in several movements for equality, and he stresses non-violence very strongly. The Indians are very mad because British rule continues to limit their rights. They are supposed to all get fingerprinted, and their marriage laws are invalid. Gandhi’s followers vow to fight their oppressors to the death, but he discourages them from violence.
14 August, 1947, saw the birth of the new Islamic Republic of Pakistan. At midnight the next day India won its freedom from colonial rule, ending nearly 350 years of British presence in India. During the struggle for freedom, Gandhi had written an appeal "To Every Briton" to free their possessions in Asia and Africa, especially India (Philips and Wainwright, 567). The British left India divided in two. The two countries were founded on the basis of religion, with Pakistan as an Islamic state and India as a secular one.
Gandhi has obviously had the greatest influence in India and South Africa where he worked for the rights of Indian citizens under British rule. While working in South Africa Gandhi experienced first hand the oppression Indian immigrants were facing. In 1984 he organized the Natal Indian Congress to help the Indian community in South Africa. Gandhi's ability as a leader first showed itself during the Anglo-Boer War in 1899 when he had over 1000 Indians serving under him in the Ambulance Corps to help the injured on the British Side.