Mahatma Gandhi was a man of faith and great conviction. Mohandas Gandhi, Whom most people know as Mahatma, meaning "Great Soul”, dedicated most of his life to free his motherland by using peace and love to a vast extent rather than war and destruction. Gandhi founded Satyagraha, a new peaceful way to raise his voice. Gandhi was very well educated and helped the oppressed Indian community of South Africa. He came up with a policy of non-violent resistance called Satyagraha or 'devotion to truth’. He introduced a program known as swadeshi meaning "one's own country" to boycott British goods. Gandhi began a synchronized protest march against an unfair tax on salt, which was imposed on the Indians by the British government. This march shook the establishment of the British rule in India.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, into a family of merchants. He went to England to study law when he was 19. His fellow students avoided him because he was an Indian. In London he read Henry David Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience”, which had an enormous influence on him (Ryan). In 1893, he accepted a job at an Indian law firm in Durban, South Africa. Gandhi was horrified by the treatment of Indian immigrants there, and joined the fight to attain basic rights for them. He used Thoreau's “Civil Disobedience” or Refusal to obey civil laws in an effort to induce change in governmental policy or legislation using non-violent properties. Through his 20 years in South Africa, he was sent to the jail many times. In 1914, the South African government approved many of Gandhi's demands (Mohandas Gandhi). When Gandhi returned to India, he was disturbed to see the terrible condition of the India under The British. This provoked him to publici...
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...he was never frightened by any challenge. He was a perfect example of an individual. He significantly influenced many people with his peaceful personality and still people try to use him as a model of behavior.
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"Mohandas Gandhi (1869 - 1948)." BBC. BBC, Web. 29 Nov 2009. < http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/gandhi_mohandas.shtml >.
Ryan, James. "Mohandas Gandhi." (2005): 1-2. EBSCO. Web. 22 Nov. 2009. .)
Mohandas Gandhi was a non-violent promoter for Indian independence.He was married young at 13,and went to London to go to law school.Gandhi got his degree there and was on his way to being a lawyer.He went to his first case,but couldn't even speak. Gandhi then got invited to South Africa from a businessman. Gandhi’s luck their was no good either.European racism came to him,after he got kicked off of a train,because he was “colored” and was holding a first class ticket.When Gandhi fought back because of it,was arrested and was sent to jail.After this, he became know as as a leader.Gandhi returned to India in 1896,and he was disgusted by it.British wanted them to wear their clothes,copy their manners,accept their standards of beauty,but Gandhi refused.Gandhi wanted people to live free of all class and wealth.Gandhi tried so hard and was more successful then any other man in India.They won independence in 1947. Gandhi’s non-violent movement worked because,Gandhi used clever planning, mass appeal, conviction, and compassion to win independence for India.
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.
From the onset of man fighting for freedom or his beliefs, the question has always been whether one person can make a difference using words rather than wars. Philosophically, the concept of civil disobedience would appear to be an ineffective weapon against political injustice; history however has proven it to repeatedly be one of the most powerful weapons of the common man. Martin Luther King Jr. looked at the way African Americans were treated in the United States and saw an inequality. By refusing to pay his taxes and subsequently being imprisoned for a night, Henry David Thoreau demonstrated his intolerance for the American government. Under British rule, India remained oppressed until Mohandas Gandhi, with his doctrine of non-violence lead the country to freedom.
Dalton, Dennis. “Mahatma Gandhi Selected Political Writings.” Indianapolis, Indiana. 1996. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. 125. Text
World wars, mass genocides, and violent revolutions have become unusually iconic in history. However, the efficiency of nonviolent tactics and political strategies is relatively ambiguous. There have been several pacifistic approaches to solve a particular problem, some much more successful than others. Gandhi is primarily known for his work in the Indian Independence Movement and his nonviolent practices. Born in 1869, Gandhi was to respect all religions and taught to treat all living things sacred. Growing up, he encountered several cases of racism and poverty, and from these experiences, he developed a unique lifestyle. Eventually, Gandhi earned the title of “Mahatma,” or “Great Soul.” England was a feared and well-respected country at this time, but Gandhi miraculously changed this prevalent opinion to accomplish independence. Gandhi’s incarceration, teachings of self-control, and altruistic attitude towards the English assisted in his crusade for an independent nation.
Mohandas Gandhi is an Indian lawyer and a spiritual leader that led a successful nonviolent resistance movement against the British colonial power. “The tactic of nonviolence civil disobedience in the Civil Rights Movement was deeply influenced by the model of Mohandas Gandhi, (...) Gandhi 's approach of non-violent civil disobedience involved provoking authorities by breaking the law peacefully, to force those in power to acknowledge existing injustice and bring it to an end”. (1) “Provoking authorities by breaking the law peacefully” this is an example of how nonviolent disobedience allows the message to stay focused and reach the point where people in power cannot ignore. Violent actions draw the media away from the message and fuels the rich and powerful; those who hide behind barriers in order to mute the underprivileged. An example of underprivileged people is African American’s during the 1950s who were treated like second class citizens. “Laws separated people of color from whites in schools, housing, jobs, and public gathering places”. (3) The types of methods used to fight against segregation are, “One of the ways African American communities fought legal segregation was through direct action protests, such as boycotts, sit-ins, and mass civil disobedience”. (1) This is how nonviolent disobedience is fought
People in India call him Mahatma and according to the oxford dictionary it means a revered person regarded with love and respect, two words that Gandhi uses a lot in his writing, in this essay he used the word love eight times. He is recognized as “The Father of the Nation” in India. The essay “My Faith in Nonviolence” was written in 1930 and was directed to the Indian people. Also in 1930 Gandhi started a march to the sea to protest the British rule of India so this letter and many others were important for Gandhi to explain his message to his followers. Gandhi supported his claim
Gandhi developed the idea of satyagraha which centered around nonviolent resistance to opposition and evil. The goal of this march was to protest the taxation on salt production and transport in India by the British government. Gandhi's march sparked a wave of civil disobedience which contributed to the expulsion of the British empire. This march had a long term effect, as it inspired many to take part in a successful, organized civil protest. Furthermore, the protest stimulated further motivation for other disobedience and influenced the thinking of many civil disobedience leaders, such as Martin Luther King during the Civil rights
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.
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.
In 1914 he returned as a hero to all Indian people and was considered a holly man, because of this he was often referred to as Mahatma which means great soul. Wile in India the British started to take Indian civil liberties after world war one, hence Gandhi protested fallowing his own nonviolent ways when the Amritsar massacre occurred and both he and India came to the realization that India needed to be a self governed people.
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.
Mahatma Gandhi's Influence and Ideas Mahatma Gandhi was a man of faith and great conviction. He was born into an average Hindu family in India. Like most teenagers he had a rebellious stage when he smoked, spent time with girls and ate meat (forbidden to strict Hindus). The young Gandhi changed as a person while earning a living as a lawyer in South Africa. He came in contact with the apartheid and the future Mahatma began to emerge, one who championed the truth through non-violent resistance.