“YOUR BELIEFS BECOME
YOUR THOUGHTS,
In 1915, at an age of 45 the advocate, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, returned to his home country; he had made himself a name during his time as an advocate of human rights in South Africa. After spending 21 years in South Africa - at the time a place of horrible racism which would many years later make the way for the regime known as apartheid - Gandhi had obtained an unsought awareness of how Indians were treated throughout the british empire’s colonies. The empire stretched around the whole world with its colonies which it at historical events rightfully, with an almost honour of knighthood had taken upon themselves, from their point of perspective. The newly acquired knowledge of how the world functioned in these colonies compelled Gandhi further on his endeavour to spread his methodology; Satyagraha.
YOUR THOUGHTS BECOME
YOUR WORDS,
Satyagraha, were the foundation of all Gandhi’s nonviolent protests. Its basic meaning is Truth-force, and spired from his very open-minded way of meeting and adapting to other cultures. This was made clear from his time as a student at the University College London, where he studied indian law and jurisprudence. His choice of place to study was apparently very controversial due to his religion. Gandhi’s family was of the merchant caste so in order for him to travel to England he had to first consult the elders of his caste, a guidance which he didn’t show of any importance as he neglected their advice, to which the elders condemned him to become casteless; an untouchable.
England may have been where Satyagraha first entered Gandhi’s mind. It was first when he came in contact with Theosophical Society through the vegetarian restaurants he visited, because of ...
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...e Gandhi saw for India whereas India’s self-sufficiency were achieved through small agricultural villages, seen by him as the core of India. The contemporary India has adapted its structure from western culture which were promoted at the time by Jawaharlal Nehru.
YOUR VALUES BECOME
YOUR DESTINY”
Gandhi saw even an unkind thought as a tendency of violence, as preserved by the quote that has been following along this essay in the subtitles. This led to his extraordinary clean, kind and open mind which resulted in so much good - he made many indians aware of their rights; helped many minorities out of suppression; spreading a new worldview and most importantly been a great inspiration and influence of new revolutions even to the present day.
“Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this walked the earth in flesh and blood.” - Albert Einstein
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.
In conclusion Gandhi’s background made him who he was, giving him an idea of how to get India’s independence, and his impact on India help people realize you can fight with knowledge and nonviolence to change a way of life. What makes a person strong and brave it’s the person who works hard to make something right.
Martin Luther King once said, “Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him”. Throughout history, people have committed numerous acts of crime from stealing to fighting, to war. These acts of violence had never done any good to mankind but had continuously harmed mankind. Mahatma Gandhi was a leader who had promoted and inspired people across the world to continue the acts of Ahimsa. Gandhi spread his acts of Ahimsa inspiring the American Civil Rights Movement, Nelson Mandela, and Harper Lee showing that Gandhi’s beliefs of non violence should be continued.
...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.
Dalton, Dennis. “Mahatma Gandhi Selected Political Writings.” Indianapolis, Indiana. 1996. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. 125. Text
While struggling for Independence, Gandhi use Satyagraha to fight back. He was trying to end the fight between Hindus and Muslims. The reason why was because, “He believed truth could be known only through tolerance and concern for others and that finding a truthful way to solutions required constant testing” (Sinha, Gandhi). “Gandhi developed a method of direct social action, based upon principles of courage, nonviolence, and truth, which he called Satyagraha” (Sinha, Gandhi). To show how he did this , “On Jan. 13, 1948, at the age of 78, Gandhi began his last fast. His purpose was to end the bloodshed among Hindu, Muslim, and other groups” (Sinha, Gandhi). Gandhi used religion by fasting to help other religious groups realize why they were fighting. He was trying to prove a point. By using his method he was trying to fight back peacefully using logic. His method was found in his religious views which helped him gain
Lastly, Gandhi continued to struggle with the satyagraha belief and was willing to devote his time on demanding the British to “quit India.” However, despite being imprisoned for this campaign, Gandhi aroused upheaval from the Indians who insisted the British to remove Gandhi from captivity. After the execution of the Salt March, the events that followed supported Gandhi’s philosophy on the satyagraha movement and further brought India closer to its independence from the British colonization. Works Cited Furbee, Mary and Mike Furbee. The Importance of Mohanda Gandhi.
...Because of Gandhi’s power, his flaw, and his catastrophe, one would say that Gandhi fits the model of a Greek tragic hero. Gandhi’s power was his heightened goodness, proven by his innumerable civil disobedience acts, where he continued to fight even while he was regularly jailed. His flaw was his tolerance and acceptance of everyone which led to his catastrophic assassination by Nathuram Godse. Gandhi’s teachings of nonviolence and peace still live on today, as they have inspired many other human rights leaders, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela. Gandhi’s teachings are responsible for the successes of civil rights movements in other countries. He not only helped free India from British rule, but also gave people new thoughts about violence and imperialism around the world. Even today, India continues to live and remember the tutelage of Gandhi.
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...
Gandhi then took the British apart with Satyagraha (non-violent non-cooperation) and was imprisoned for two years in1922. When he got out he took a brake from his politicalnes and traveled around India working various jobs among the peasants. Then in 1930 he was at it again writing the declaration of independence for India and making salt in protest of the British monopoly on salt. This act of treason inspired many more across the country rendering the British helpless once again forcing tem to invite Gandhi to London for meeting on how India’s independence would work with a Muslim minority and a Hindu majority.
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.
“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.
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...
Since his time many leaders have been inspired by his example and anyone who tries to change the world for the better using peaceful means owes something to Gandhi.
Ever wonder what to do when you are in a situation that most people react in violence? Ever think that violence is the only way out? Mahatma Gandhi is a very inspirational role model who not only reacted to violence without violence but overcame it and (for the most part) succeeded in life without violence. He was a victim of bullying and segregation and looked past the odds and was inspirational for many people.