Essay about Nonviolence and Gandhi

Submitted By lrivera13
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Gandhi was an Indian religious leader, born on October 2nd, 1869 in Porbandar, India. He died in Delhi, India on January 30th, 1948. He was most known for his famous struggle for India’s independence from Britain. The main focuses of his philosophy were non-violence and racial equality for Indians. Gandhi was born into a wealthy family of merchants, who owned a couple of small cities. Although Gandhi was interested in majoring in medicine, his father disagreed and made him study law instead. Gandhi never got very far in his law practice, and after getting kicked off a train by a white man, he traveled to Africa to fight for racial equality for Indians until his demise. During Britain’s reign over India, the East India Company controlled imports and trading in India. During this time the company taxed the salt, which the Indians themselves cultivated. After promoting the Declaration of Independence of India in 1930, Gandhi forged ahead to free India from British reign and protest the salt tax. Salt was important to the people of India, due to the high heats, and was always easily available until the tax. Gandhi chose the salt tax to start his injustice “campaign”, and on March 12th, 1930 Gandhi and 78 other protesters started their long journey. They planned to march on foot 240 miles to Dandi, India. Since it was illegal for Indians to make salt freely, Gandhi encouraged his followers to make salt in protest. Soon after the salt march ended and Gandhi was arrested along with some of his followers, but not without affecting people all across India. Although Gandhi was raised by Hindu parents, he later adopted the principle of Ahisma, doing no harm, which led to his own religion of Satyagraha. Often confuse his principles of Satyagraha and Ahisma. Satya means “truth” and agraha means “the eagerness to follow the principles of truth or one’s zeal for knowledge of truth”(Write Spirit). While Satyagraha was the principle of “soul force”, Ahisma was the principle of non-violence. Gandhi combined these to in a way to fuel his protests and as part of his religion. Gandhi used this principle during the salt march, and the independence movement, during his time in Africa. Gandhi defined it as such,” I have also called it love-force or soul-force. In the application of Satyagraha, I discovered in the earliest stages that pursuit of truth did not admit of violence being inflicted on one’s opponent but that he must be weaned from error by patience and compassion. For what appears to be truth to the one may appear to be error to the other. And patience means self-suffering. So the doctrine came to mean vindication of truth, not by infliction of suffering on the opponent, but on oneself”(Gandhi). Satyagraha was Gandhi’s overall message of non-violence. Gandhi had two types of Satyagraha. The first type was civil disobedience, which meant you had to break a law and not resist arrest. People normally connected “disobedience” with acting out or making a scene, but in actuality everything he did was peaceful. When it came to protesting and being arrested, Gandhi was very polite, and civil. The goal of Gandhi’s civil
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