Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi And Civil Disobedience

In the list of world’s history makers, the name of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi would take place at the beginning. A little brown man not only changed his motherland India, but also reshaped the world history. Many other great leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. or Nelson Mandela followed his step of civil disobedience. Gandhi was more likely a moral leader than a political one throughout the whole world. He was neither a wealthy person, nor a president of his country, but his strong morality and his civil rights movement made him a world renowned figure. Gandhi was not a typical political leader who was eager to climb to the top of the power, but a believer of freedom and independence Mohandas K. Gandhi was initially a lawyer and ended his

Gandhi. He came to know about “Civil Disobedience” thorough his reading. The Constitutional Rights Foundation published “Gandhi and Civil Disobedience” Where the author stated that, “When in jail, Gandhi read the essay “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau, a 19th century American writer. Gandhi adopted the term ‘Civil disobedience’ to describe his strategy of non-violent refusing to cooperate with injustice, but he preferred the Sanskrit word ‘Satyagraha’ (devotion to the truth).” To understand the strengths of civil disobedience better, the term ‘civil disobedience’ need to be understood briefly. It means the refusal to obey the rules and regulation determined by the civil law. People who believe that the current law in the society is unjust, generally participate in civil disobedience to make a difference. In perhaps, his most famous essay, “Civil Disobedience” (1849) the American author Henry D. Thoreau set forth the basic tenets of civil disobedience for the first time. The individual, Thoreau claimed, is a “higher and independent power,” from which state obtains its power. (Source: Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia,2016, 1P) The great leader Gandhi walked in the path of a non-violent civil disobedience to free his country from the British. He protested against the colonial laws of the British emperor. But the question is what made his movement successful and the strengths behind civil disobedience that expedite the ending of British rulers in India? The main strength of civil disobedience is the people who participate in the movement. They don’t do it for gaining anything personal. They are ready to go to jail or even accept any punishment imposed on them. People participate in a civil disobedience movement believe that it will get other people’s sympathy toward their good cause. Gandhi and his followers were devoted to the truth.