Who was this person?
Mohandas Karamchand
Gandhi, also known as Mathatma Gandhu, was born in Porbander, India on October
2 1869. In his time India was under British Empire. Gandhi studied law to
support for the Indian rights and independence. He became a leader of India’s
independence movement, resisting British rule in peaceful ways. He was assasinated
by Nathuram Godseon 1948.
What were the historical/ political/
social conditions that the person was living in?
During Gandhi’s time, India was under the
British Empire, and under discrimination of other countries. Gandhi studied law in London, England, but went to South Africa to
oppose discriminatory legislation against Indians. As a founder of Satyagraha
(resistance with means of mass non-violent civil disobedience), he became a
major political and spiritual leader in India.
What Liberal values did this person
feel were being violated?
Gandhi felt that citizens of India,
during his time, have their liberal values violated. Poor laborers and farmers
where discriminated and abused by having huge taxes. India was also engulfed
with poverty, due to oppression of the British political leaders. Moreover,
women suffered from discrimination, and had their rights violated.
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| An example of civil disobedience, where 4 black college students went to a restaurant that was reserved only for white people, they stayed in the same spot until the restaurant would serve them without getting into violence |
Gandhi
believed that peaceful protest, or also known as civil disobedience, is the
best way to achieve independence. Instead of fighting the
British, Gandhi used his influence and satyagraha,
the peaceful way of protesting, to change inequities between Indians.
Using his fame, he provided people determination to fight, giving them
responsibilities to cooperate and participate to the peaceful protest.
What are your active citizens’ views
on the rights, roles and responsibilities of the individual during times of
conflict? To what extent did your activist
effect change in society?
Ghandi’s
ideas and actions not only affected
India’s independence, but also influenced other countries. Even after his death, Gandhi's commitment to
non-violence and his belief in simple living as a means of protest have been
the idea of hope for oppressed, discriminated and abused people around the
world. Moreover, Martin Luther King, a civil rights activist who freed African
Americans from racial discrimination, based his way of protesting from satyagraha, a peaceful protest through
civil disobedience.
In 1914, Gandhi returned to India, where he supported the
Home Rule movement, and became leader of the Indian National Congress,
advocating a policy of non-violent non-co-operation to achieve independence.
His goal was to help poor farmers and laborers protest oppressive taxation and
discrimination. He struggled to alleviate poverty, liberate women and put an
end to caste discrimination, with the ultimate objective being self-rule for
India.
Following his civil disobedience campaign (1919-22), he was
jailed for conspiracy (1922-24). In 1930, he led a landmark 320 km/200 mi march
to the sea to collect salt in symbolic defiance of the government monopoly. On
his release from prison (1931), he attended the London Round Table Conference
on Indian constitutional reform. In 1946, he negotiated with the Cabinet
Mission which recommended the new constitutional structure. After independence
(1947), he tried to stop the Hindu-Muslim conflict in Bengal, a policy which
led to his assassination in Delhi by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu fanatic.
