Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi- 2 October 1869 - 30 January 194 was the pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement. He is also known as Mahatma which means “The Great Soul”. He was committed to pacifism, that there should be no violence.(1) He had three concepts to follow in his life for independence of India: Satyagraha, Ahimsa and Swaraj. Gandhi introduced the concept of “Satyagraha” that means “passive resistance”. This passive resistance also means ‘soul force’ or ‘truth force’. The words satya means truth and Agraha means insistence, or holding firmly to (2). For Gandhi, Satyagraha is more likely a method which is the idea of practicing in non-violence. Gandhi says, “Truth (satya) implies love, and firmness (agraha) engenders and therefore serves as a synonym for force. I thus began to call the Indian movement Satyagraha, that is to say, the Force which is born of Truth and Love or non-violence.” (3) Gandhi devoted himself for Satyagraha in order to decolonize India from British without violence. In his book Home Rule he says,” Passive resistance is a method of securing rights by personal suffering, it is the reverse of resistance by arms. When I refuse to do a thing that is repugnant to my conscience, I use soul-force” (5). He deployed this concept in Indian Independence Movement. For him, Satyagraha has three essentials meaning: “Satyagraha is a weapon of the strong; it admits of no violence under any circumstance whatsoever; and it ever insists upon truth” (6). Also, he presented some rules for this “soul-force” to the individuals of India as a campaign to follow and to reach the independency. For instance, these are the rules that he wanted his people to obey without viole... ... middle of paper ... ...ed States and South Africa. Works Cited (1) http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_was_Mahatma_Gandhi#ixzz17wt8byMT (2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyagraha (3) Satyagraha in South Africa, 1926 from Johnson, p. 73. (4) Gandhi, M.K. “Letter to Mr. ——” 25 January 1920 (The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi vol. 19, p. 350) (5) http://www.mkgandhi.org/swarajya/coverpage.htm (6) Gandhi, M.K. “Some Rules of Satyagraha” Young India (Navajivan) 23 February 1930 (The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi vol. 48, p. 340) (7) http://www.kamat.com/mmgandhi/ahimsa.htm (8) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swaraj (9) http://www.mkgandhi.org/swarajya/coverpage.htm (10) http://www.swaraj.org/whatisswaraj.htm (12) King, Jr., Martin Luther (1998). Carson, Clayborne. ed. The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.. pp. 23–24 (13) http://www.sa-venues.com/nelson_mandela.htm
The mission of Gandhi’s life was to help the people of India free themselves from British rule. Many people have struggled for independence. They have fought bloody battles or used terrorism in an attempt to achieve their goals. Gandhi’s revolution was different. He succeeded as an independence leader with the use of nonviolent methods. The young Mohandas Gandhi did not seem as a boy that would become a great leader. He changed as he studied in Britain and practiced in South Africa. He fought for the rights of Indians in both South Africa and India. Gandhi believed that all people in the world are brothers and sisters. He didn’t hate the English. Actually, he saw a lot that was good about them. His nonviolent means of revolution was referred to as satyagraha, which is a combination of two Sanskrit words, satya, meaning truth and love, plus agraha, meaning firmness. Many people were influenced by satyagraha.
India gained independence from British rule in 1947. The Gandhian strategy is mainly comprised with: Satyagraha, Truth, Nonviolence, non-cooperation and peace and love. Satyagraha, a holistic approach toward life based on the ideals of truth and moral courage. Truth, the most powerful weapon. Gandhi believed "the truth is far more powerful than any weapon of mass destruction. Non-violence, was seen by Gandhi as "everlasting". Gandhi was influenced Jainism and Buddhism, both preached non-violence. Non-cooperation, aimed to resist British rule in India. Non-cooperation included the boycott of councils, courts and schools set up by British and of all foreign cloth. Peace and love, Gandhi stated " peace between countries must rest on the solid foundation of love between
Miller, William Robert. Martin Luther King, Jr.: His Life, Martyrdom and Meaning for the World. New York: Avon Books (1968).p.69
Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand. Young India, Volume 9. N.p.: Navajivan Publishing House, 1927. Print. Vol. 9 of Young India.
“Gandhi developed his philosophy of “Satyagraha,” or resistance through non-violent civil disobedience to defend his rights and the rights of all Indians and non-whites. Practices of Satyagraha included boycotts, protest marches, and fasts. He encouraged
Potpourri, Kamat. "Gandhi: A Biography." Kamat's Potpourri -- The History, Mystery, and Diversity of India. 4 Jan. 2011. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. .
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
Gandhi advocated for passive resistance in order to fight against colonial oppression. As a young Indian man living in South Africa, he experienced racism and injustice. After he was removed from a railway compartment and beaten, Gandhi began developing and teaching the idea of satyagraha, nonviolent protest, as a way of defying authorities. In 1906, when a new law required Indians in South Africa to register with the government, Gandhi urged his followers to resist the discrimination and suffer the punishments. Over the eight year period of the movement, thousands of Indians were imprisoned and murdered for not complying with the new law.
Have you ever fought for others? Well, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi did it for others. He spent almost half of his life to fight for Indian independence from British rule, and he stood up for Indian poor citizens. Today, Gandhi became the international symbol of peace and human right. Mohandas K. Gandhi was born in Porbandar, India on October 2, 1869.
In Machiavelli’s “The Qualities of the Prince”, Machiavelli states that, "A wise ruler, therefore, cannot and should not keep his word when such an observance of faith would be to his disadvantage" (Jacobus 48). If Mohandas Gandhi had followed the advice of Machiavelli, he would not be revered as the wise and great leader that he was. Mohandas Gandhi used his philosophy called Satyagraha to gain followers and to achieve his goal of freeing India from British colonial rule. Satyagraha is defined as a concept introduced in the early 20th century by Mohandas Gandhi to designate a determined but nonviolent resistance to evil (Encyclopædia Britannica). This requires that a person who decides to break a law considered unjust must accept the consequences of that decision. The use of Satyagraha had brought a lot of hard...
Kumar, Ravindra. Mahatma Gandhi at the Close of Twentieth Century. New Delhi: Anmol Publications, 2004. Print.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi revolutionized India’s history forever. In the 1930s, The British colonized India and unfairly controlled and ruled over the people of India. The people of India wanted to fight for independence, but they did not want war because they did not want to many casualties. Mohandas Gandhi stepped forward with vast knowledge and lead the people of India. Mohandas Gandhi’s use of nonviolence against the British demonstrates how efficient and successful nonviolent movements are in comparison to violent movements.
“The strongest physical force bends before moral force when used in the defense of truth.” - Mahatma Gandhi (Bondurant). Mahatma Gandhi was the main leader in helping India become independent through the principles of non violence, self-rule, and the unity of Hindus and Muslims. His full name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, but he was given the name Mahatma later on in his life. He wanted to see an united India without the rule of the British Empire. He accomplished this with passive resistance or resistance by non violence because he wanted to show that violence is not always the best answer.
It was in 1906 while working in his law office in Johannesburg that Gandhi invented the satyagraha. "The term meant Indians would stand up against injustice and would carr...