Compare And Contrast Gandhi And Civil Disobedience

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Worth His Salt: Gandhi’s Civil Disobedience 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 not born poor or untouchable but to a respectful merchant class family (Bush 23). He did a lot of self-searching as a young man before becoming the “Mahatma” Indians respected and followed. Prior to achieving his status as an honored …show more content…

Whereas Thoreau’s eyes were opened to the “summer soldiers” unwilling to persevere with him through the hard times, Gandhi had 60,000 other people go to jail with him (Thoreau 281; “Dandi”) Gandhi also rallied those people to continue the cause long after he had been arrested, choosing to believe that they would not give up when it became difficult (Bush 69). Gandhi volunteered to be a stretcher-bearer in the British war against the Zulu Kingdom, and supported the drafting of Indians, violating Thoreau’s belief that if one cannot completely eradicate a wrong, they should wash their hands of it and refuse to give it any kind of support (271; Bush 51). Also, Gandhi himself was the leader of the National Indian Congress, a political party, while Thoreau believed one needed to withdraw from the government completely (Thoreau 275; Bush 39). Many of their differences were defined by their time and their

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