The Small Man Who Led a Big Nation
Mahatma Gandhi was a national icon for the people of India between the years 1869 and 1948. He is still remembered all over the world today. To follow the path of Gandhi one must traverse all regions of India, from the houses of the highest officials to the poorest villages where the word poverty does injustice. Gandhi led a fearless resistance against the British government, that oppressed his people, and an endless pilgrimage to lift the spirits of his people(the people of India) to maturity. Gandhi was very unique in his approach as he preached non-violence and led a life similar to that of the most downtrodden people of India.
Gandhi was born into a family of high standing. His family had been advisors of some of the rulers of India.(Spodek 663) Gandhi’s mother, Putlibai, was a traditional Indian woman; she was of high morals and deeply religious. In Gandhi’s later years his mothers impact is apparent as he fasts many times and becomes a vegetarian. She also had a moral influence on her son. One of Gandhi’s early teachers encouraged him to cheat on a spelling test in order to impress a school inspector, but he refused. Despite all his good traits Gandhi was a below average student and did not show much promise in academics.(Wolf 171) Nevertheless he traveled to England to attend law school in 1888 in accordance with the desires of his family. He studied for three years in London where he “began to come alive, intellectually and spiritually”(Wolf 171).
Upon his return to India, Gandhi was hired by an Indian firm to take a case in South Africa. While there Gandhi witnessed several cases of injustice against himself and the Indian population in South Africa. Gandhi himself was thrown out of a first-class train car because he was not white. The demeaning approach the government of Africa took against the Indian population ignited Gandhi’s fire to fight human injustice. This began Gandhi’s communal living and his methods of resistance.
Gandhi established a new form of nonviolent resistance against government he called satyagraha or “truth force”. Satyagraha “manifested in self-sacrificing, non-violent mass demonstrations, demanding that the persecutors recognize the immorality of their own position and ...
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...nd traveled with the poor he helped them feel connected with the other leaders of the movement. One of Gandhi’s greatest marches towards independence was the Salt March. The British had a monopoly on salt production and sale. Gandhi marched 241 miles to the beach and gathered his own salt and this led to hundreds of peasants doing the same. That is just another example of Gandhi going to jail for his cause.(Wolf 173)
During his time, Gandhi shined as a spiritual reformer and political activist to try and change the hearts of his opponents. His characteristic non-violent movements have been copied by many great men that have come after him. He held himself no higher than the poorest man of his country and that is why his country loved him.
Works Cited
Sherman, Dennis. World Civilizations . Massachusetts:
Mcgraw-Hill; 1998.
Spodek, Howard. The World’s History. New Jersey: Prentice
Hall; 1998.
Wolf, Ken. Personalities and Problems. Massachusetts:
McGraw-Hill; 1999.
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.
The introduction of civil disobedience reminded the world that it had the option of nonviolence and that negative action did not have to be countered with equally negative reaction. Henry David Thoreau’s essay “Civil Disobedience” embraced the idea of a man who took action to maintain his morality, even if it meant defying the government. Mahatma Gandhi, in turn, instigated his own act of civil disobedience in the Salt March where he marched across India and collected salt forbidden by British law. Thoreau’s writings on civil disobedience inspired Gandhi’s nonviolent movement, the Salt March, in which he was compelled to take action against a corrupt government.
Gandhi was a well knowledgeable and unique person who found hope in struggles that he never thought would shape who he was. Gandhi was born in a Hindu family, and even though he was the youngest he made a huge impact on others (“Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi” pg 3). He had his older brother who helped him with his education when his father passed away (“Mohandas Gandhi”). Gandhi was very religious even when he was little his brothers tried to make him eat meat (it wasn’t bad to eat meat in Hinduism when you are little), but he refused (“Mohandas Gandhi”). Gandhi respected his religion and was a respectful towards others.
Many had to come to an understatement that one of the hardships to fight for their rights, especially gandhi, it was to spend time in jail once they were captured. “Gandhi’s Body is in jail but his soul is with you”(Doc B), since “the great soul” was in jail many still had the courage to continue on the protest that gandhi had guided them. “Been sentenced to three months’ imprisonment with hard labor…. been fined a heavy amount…. I therefore asked the magistrate to impose upon me the heaviest penalty”(Doc C), even though gandhi took most of the consequences because he wanted to be included in the punishment but heavier. His followers continued to protest for his behalf and sent to jail.
The first reason why Gandhi’s movement worked so well is because he is disciplined in civil disobedience. Civil disobedience is the refusal to obey certain laws and paw taxes and fines. “Discipline shown by straight lines and no resistance to steel clubs”(Doc B). Gandhi disciplined his men very well to a point where his men would follow his orders under any circumstances. While resisting the to the steel clus the salt tax got publicized and that could win support around the world. This is how Gandhi used disciplined civil disobedience to make his movement work.
He started in South Africa trying to help. Mr.Khan, a friend of Gandhi’s was a successful Muslim trader but the South Africans see him as simply an Indian. Hearing this surprised Gandhi because he is a well-educated lawyer and like the other Indian men he was speaking to, they are still considered inferior and not allowed to walk with whit e men in the street. Gandhi received his law degree in England yet the British discriminate against him in South Africa and he thought this treatment was unjust. Mr.Khan agreed to join him in protest against Indian discrimination and encourage people to burn their passes they have to carry. The British beat or arrested anyone who tried to join him in going against the government but he pass laws were eventually changed. After Africa he travels to India. His wife Ba usually does what he asks of her but when Gandhi tells her to clean the latrine she says no because that is a job for untouchables. At this time there was still a rigid caste system that Gandhi was trying to eliminate. He wanted equality for everyone. Ba agreed to follow him and stay by his side through his journey. His whole plan was to protest Britain through Ahimsa or nonviolence. His first major campaign was the Non-Cooperation Movement in 1922. He used tactics such as boycotts, work strikes, and hunger strikes. He then led the Dandi Salt March to protest the
Gandhi believed “Non-violence is the greatest force man has been endowed with. Truth is the only goal he has. For God is none other but truth. But Truth cannot be, never will be, reached except through non-violence.”(‘Non-Violence- The Greatest Gift). One of Gandhi’s best-known non-violent protest was the Salt Satyagrah, that took place from 1930-1931, a 241 mile march to the coast to protest British rule and the salt taxes. Gandhi used techniques such as formal statements, prayer, boycotts, and honoring of the men and women killed or wounded by the British especially for those who were killed at Amritsar in 1919. Indian gained its independence from Britain on August 15, 1947 and Gandhi was assassinated in 1948 by a Hindu extremist who did not share the same beliefs as Gandhi ("Gandhi begins fast in protest of caste
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.
In another scene, Gandhi is in jail, and some of his followers are peacefully gathered in a square. The police lock up the square and kill almost everyone, over 1,500 people. Gandhi is disgusted and discouraged. He continues to preach non-violence, but the Indians do have occasional conflict with the police. Gandhi’s counter to the popular phrase “an eye for an eye” says that after that, “everyone will be blind.” Gandhi leads several organized protests against British rule. In one, all Indians stopped doing their work, and the major cities in the country were disabled. Another time, he led a 165-mile walk to the sea to protest the British monopoly on salt. The Indians made their own salt out of the sea.
It was between 1915 and his assassination in 1945 that he struggled for India's freedom. Gandhi's teachings of non-violent resistance, known as satyagraha, has had a lasting effect and influence on the world today. He has been the role model for many famous, influential people such as American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. and former South African President Nelson Mandela. His continued influence can still be felt today in many non-violent peace organizations around the world bearing his name or teaching his philosophy.
Gandhi was inspirational for many people. As General George C. Marshall, the United States secretary of state from 1946 to 1949, said at Gandhi 's death, “Mahatma Gandhi was the spokesman for the conscience of mankind.” (Bio.com.) He is only one of many who believed in what Gandhi was fighting for. Many people not only believed in what Gandhi stood for but they also follow in his footsteps and try to do what Gandhi accomplished. (“Gandhi, Mahatma”)