Summary Of Gandhi And Henry Wiebe's Peace Shall Destroy Many

Even though Catherine Owens Pearce’s biography of Gandhi and Henry Wiebe’s novel, Peace Shall Destroy Many, are set in different countries, they share many common themes like nonviolence, effect of religion on conflicts and the idea of cooperation to move forward toward a common goal. Mahatma Gandhi fought for many Indian rights within India during the time of British control. Gandhi also fought to end discrimination in South Africa as Indian people encountered racism and prejudice everywhere they went. In the novel Peace Shall Destroy Many, an Amish family who moves to Canada faces many hardships. They find themselves in conflict with their Amish community and with the neighbouring Native Americans. Not only do these two books show how

He then tries to convince his family to allow him to do this, as he believes it would benefit them, but his family completely disagrees. “‘But you can’t. They can’t join our church.’ The words hung in darkness a moment. ‘They don’t live like us.’” (Wiebe 194) This quote shows how directly after Thom brings up the topic of the “half-breeds” joining their church, his family immediately denies it as they want nothing to do with the other cultures in their area. Thom is enraged at his family as they do not support his ideas and are very prejudice towards the Native Americans near the

Gandhi is a strong believer in hinduism and a bit of Jainism. Within both of these religions there is the idea of Ahimsa. Ahimsa means not to kill, it is also the concept of non-violence and the fact that any violence leads to consequences. This is where Gandhi got his ideas of nonviolence and civil disobedience. When the British Government tries to raise land taxes and increase India’s border tax, Gandhi uses the idea of Ahimsa and civil-disobedience to disobey the British Government, yet not violate and laws in a violent way. “‘Ahimsa’ is another Indian word for which there is no exact English word. Ahimsa means nonkilling, but actually it means much more than that. To live according to the doctrine of ahimsa is to feel only love for all living things.”(Gandhi 99) This quote shows what Ahimsa means and how Gandhi would implement it into his everyday life. As Gandhi mainly believes in hinduism, this shows how his religious beliefs affected him and influenced his belief of Ahimsa. Even though Gandhi himself was a Hindu, he did not agree with all of their ideas. He especially did not agree with the Hindu caste system. In which certain castes were assigned certain roles in society, and assigned certain classes of families. Gandhi believed in equality for everyone, and he wanted to rule out the untouchables, the lowest caste of people in hinduism. “Below the four castes are the Untouchables, or outcastes, who