Mahatma Gandhi was one of the world’s greatest peacemakers, who is also considered the father of nonviolent protest. He was born October 2, 1869, in Porbandar, India. During his life, he was the leader of the Indian independence movement against Britain. To many, he was a hero, a great example of how the strength and will of one man can achieve so much, but others saw him as a threat and unfortunately this lead to his assassination in 1948 at 78.
Gandhi’s early life was surprising in that he was born into a normal middle-class family. It was his mother that introduced him to a path of nonviolence through an ancient Indian religion know as Jainism. However, as a young adult, he started becoming more and more rebellious towards authority admitting to drinking, stealing, and even eating meat. After his father’s passing, he left his home country to travel to London to seek education to become a lawyer. While in London Gandhi was influenced by different religions and ways of life that had a major impact on his beliefs and ways of life. When he finished his schooling in London, he returned to India and began to practice law, however, he saw little success in this, so he moved to South Africa for nearly 20 years. It was here where he was thrown off a stagecoach and beaten for not giving up his seat for a European traveler, this began his passive resistance to authority.
He began by leading a civil disobedience campaign that lasted eight years against the Transvaal government of South Africa, which allowed for the recognition of Indian marriages and the removal of a poll tax for Indians. In 1914, he returned to India and began the Indian independence movement. He leads boycotts of British imported goods and stressed the importance of economic independence. He was first arrested in 1922 and served two of the four-year sentence. From 1914 Gandhi was leading and calling off movements against Britain’s rule over India until finally in 1947 Britain granted India its independence.
However, he wasn’t done, when independence was given India and Pakistan split into two separate nations and rioting began. Gandhi began a hunger strike that lasted until the riots stopped. Again in 1948, he carried out another fast for peace in Delhi. It was after this fast that he was assassinated by Nathuram Godse because he was upset over Gandhi’s efforts in negotiating with Jinnah and other Muslims.
Mahatma Gandhi is associated with peace because he risked his own safety and life in order to bring peace to his people, also he was one of the first peacemakers to do this in a nonviolent way, paving the road and showing future peacemakers how this can be accomplished. What I was so inspired by was just his resilience and pride. He wouldn’t let people hold him and his country down and he successfully achieved these goals without violence.
Works Cited