Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
A paper about indian independence
Mahatma gandhi contribution to freedom struggle
Mahatma gandhi contribution to freedom struggle
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: A paper about indian independence
Gandhi is considered by many around the world as the father of the Indian independence movement. Gandhi spent over 20 years in South Africa working to fight discrimination. It was in South Africa that he developed his concept of Satyagraha, a non-violent way of protesting against discrimination. The first time Gandhi used Satyagraha was in South Africa beginning in 1907 when he organized opposition to the Black Act. In 1907, the Black Act was passed, requiring all Indians to keep registration documents on them at all times.
Gandhi’s first hand experiences in dealing with discrimination began in South Africa. In Chapter VII ‘Some Experiences,’ Gandhi recalls on his first days of his arrival the incident at the Durban court where he was asked to remove his turban. He refused and left the court. He quickly learned that Indians where divided in different groups. “One was that of Musalman merchants, who would call themselves ‘Arabs.’ Another was that of Hindu, and yet another of Parsi, clerks. The Hindu clerks were neither here nor there, unless they cast in their lot with the ‘Arabs.’ The Parsi clerks would call themselves Persians. These three classes had some social relations with one another. But by far the largest class was that composed of Tamil, Telugu and North Indian indentured and freed labourers.” Gandhi learns the plight of the indentured laborers later on in his stay in South Africa.
Another firsthand account of discrimination was on the train to Pretoria from Durban. Gandhi was still, at this time, accustomed to traveling first class. “But a passenger came next, and looked me up and down. He saw that I was a ‘coloured’ man. This disturbed him. Out he went and came in again with two officia...
... middle of paper ...
... It was law, and not just a social abnormality.
Gandhi prepared to leave India after his case concluded when he reads in the newspaper of a new bill – the Indian Franchise – “which sought to deprive the Indians of their rights to elect members of the Natal Legislative Assemble” If the bill were to pass, Gandhi felt it would be a terrible blow to his people and their fight for rights. “This Bill, if it passes into law, will make our lot extremely difficult. It is the first nail into our coffin. It strikes at the room of our self respect.” The Indian peoples rights to trade were eliminated in the Orange Free State were gone. Gandhi would not leave South Africa now and his farewell party turned into a working committee against the bill. ‘Thus God laid the foundations of my life in South Africa and sowed the seed of the fight for national self respect.”
Gandhi developed the idea of satyagraha which centered around nonviolent resistance to opposition and evil. The goal of this march was to protest the taxation on salt production and transport in India by the British government. Gandhi's march sparked a wave of civil disobedience which contributed to the expulsion of the British empire. This march had a long term effect, as it inspired many to take part in a successful, organized civil protest. Furthermore, the protest stimulated further motivation for other disobedience and influenced the thinking of many civil disobedience leaders, such as Martin Luther King during the Civil rights
The mission of Gandhi’s life was to help the people of India free themselves from British rule. Many people have struggled for independence. They have fought bloody battles or used terrorism in an attempt to achieve their goals. Gandhi’s revolution was different. He succeeded as an independence leader with the use of nonviolent methods. The young Mohandas Gandhi did not seem as a boy that would become a great leader. He changed as he studied in Britain and practiced in South Africa. He fought for the rights of Indians in both South Africa and India. Gandhi believed that all people in the world are brothers and sisters. He didn’t hate the English. Actually, he saw a lot that was good about them. His nonviolent means of revolution was referred to as satyagraha, which is a combination of two Sanskrit words, satya, meaning truth and love, plus agraha, meaning firmness. Many people were influenced by satyagraha.
To begin with, one must find a peaceful approach to defeat discrimination. According to the text, on “from Letter to Viceroy, Lord Irwin”, Gandhi stated “My ambition is no less than to convert the British through non-violence and thus make them see the wrong they have done to India.” This evidence shows that Gandhi wants to be heard without using violence. Another example is on lines 17-24 which says “It has impoverished the dumb millions by a system of progressive exploitation…reduced politically to serfdom…sapped foundations of our culture…degraded us spiritually.” This evidence reveals that Gandhi is showing the effect the British is having a right now in India.
Mohandas Gandhi was a non-violent promoter for Indian independence.He was married young at 13,and went to London to go to law school.Gandhi got his degree there and was on his way to being a lawyer.He went to his first case,but couldn't even speak. Gandhi then got invited to South Africa from a businessman. Gandhi’s luck their was no good either.European racism came to him,after he got kicked off of a train,because he was “colored” and was holding a first class ticket.When Gandhi fought back because of it,was arrested and was sent to jail.After this, he became know as as a leader.Gandhi returned to India in 1896,and he was disgusted by it.British wanted them to wear their clothes,copy their manners,accept their standards of beauty,but Gandhi refused.Gandhi wanted people to live free of all class and wealth.Gandhi tried so hard and was more successful then any other man in India.They won independence in 1947. Gandhi’s non-violent movement worked because,Gandhi used clever planning, mass appeal, conviction, and compassion to win independence for India.
Gandhi’s speech on the eve of his historic march on March 11, 1930, was intended as his last speech to his followers. He highlighted what his followers should do in the event that he was arrested for his crimes. They were to continue to try to attain Swaraj (self-governance, i.e. the country rules itself) with non-violence and truth. Instead of violence, he wanted them to cause civil disobedience by breaking small laws, such as owning and selling illegal salts, as well as purchasing or making them. He wanted the employees of the Government (British rule in India) to stop working in protest, in an attempt to undermine it. Gandhi asked for the taxpayers, and all who were cooperating with the Government to stop cooperating, doing things such as not sending their children to public schools or keeping titles. He also asked for them to have self-confidence in the goal of Swaraj, and to become leaders, while stressing non-violence and truth. Gandhi also asked his followers to continue to follow local leaders; to ensure that leadership at all levels in India was not changed all at once. At the end of his speech Gandhi tells his followers that is they are always truthful and non-violent while trying to make India self-governing, they will always be victorious, even if
In the year of 1919, a crowd of 379 nonviolent protesters were murdered by British Indian Army troops. These protestors were killed because they were Indian. Racism was already existent in many countries that were colonized by Britain. Gandhi, a social reformer came to a realization that Indians deserve equal rights and that such acts were in humane and unacceptable. So what made Gandhi’s peaceful movement such a success? It was his civil disobedience practice, which he reached through nonviolent protests, embracing the enemy, and accepting jail time.
After the British empire separated itself from India, inner-country religious problems began to arise. The Muslims and Hindus of the liberated India released their pent up anger on each other and combusted into civil war right after they won the peaceful war against Great Britain. This war distressed Gandhi, who has insight into the unity of mankind, and encouraged him to go on a hunger strike until the brutality ceased. While on his near-death bed, he is approached by a Hindu who “killed a child” because the Muslims “killed [his] son,” and in response, Gandhi said that the way out of his “Hell is to “Find a [Muslim] child, a child whose mother and father have been killed and raise him as your own,” therefore the man would be able to see the equality in all religions. Throughout his entire life, Gandhi, though a Hindu, never prosecuted anyone for their religion and was able to see through everyone’s eyes as fellow brother’s and sisters, not enemies. This ability to empathize and recognize the general unity of the human population allowed Gandhi insight into the human
Lastly, Gandhi continued to struggle with the satyagraha belief and was willing to devote his time on demanding the British to “quit India.” However, despite being imprisoned for this campaign, Gandhi aroused upheaval from the Indians who insisted the British to remove Gandhi from captivity. After the execution of the Salt March, the events that followed supported Gandhi’s philosophy on the satyagraha movement and further brought India closer to its independence from the British colonization. Works Cited Furbee, Mary and Mike Furbee. The Importance of Mohanda Gandhi.
The Partition of India in August, 1947 was a significant event in history that accounted for the separation of one of the world’s oldest civilization into two, independent nations – Pakistan and India. Like many other wars in history, The Partition of India was instigated by religious, political and social conflict. This resulted in violence, discrimination and the largest human displacement in contemporary history. While the Partition was well-studied, much of our understanding was focused on the political side of history, not the human side of it. This was why oral history played an important role in manifesting the complexity of a historical event. Our focus here is Maya Rani’s testimony from Butalia’s book, The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India (2000). Maya Rani’s testimony is a valuable contribution to our understanding of India as we examine a story of a Harijan woman from a minority group whose experience touched on a perspective that we ought to have seen before. Through her story, we are exposed to an entirely different view on the recurring themes of: violence, abduction, belonging and rumour.
In Machiavelli’s “The Qualities of the Prince”, Machiavelli states that, "A wise ruler, therefore, cannot and should not keep his word when such an observance of faith would be to his disadvantage" (Jacobus 48). If Mohandas Gandhi had followed the advice of Machiavelli, he would not be revered as the wise and great leader that he was. Mohandas Gandhi used his philosophy called Satyagraha to gain followers and to achieve his goal of freeing India from British colonial rule. Satyagraha is defined as a concept introduced in the early 20th century by Mohandas Gandhi to designate a determined but nonviolent resistance to evil (Encyclopædia Britannica). This requires that a person who decides to break a law considered unjust must accept the consequences of that decision. The use of Satyagraha had brought a lot of hard...
Nicholas B. Dirks. (2011). Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India. Princeton University Press
Gandhi is motivated by religious means; he believes that everyone is equal in God’s eyes. He gets involved in several movements for equality, and he stresses non-violence very strongly. The Indians are very mad because British rule continues to limit their rights. They are supposed to all get fingerprinted, and their marriage laws are invalid. Gandhi’s followers vow to fight their oppressors to the death, but he discourages them from violence.
It was in 1906 while working in his law office in Johannesburg that Gandhi invented the satyagraha. "The term meant Indians would stand up against injustice and would carr...
Gandhi was pissed and so he withdrew from public life once again. Just them in 1935 the British gave the Indians a great amount of rights but they were not happy.
India has not been a free independent country for a long time. It had been under British rule from 1858-1947. India finally became independent on August 15, 1947 (Trueman). Many people credit India’s independence to Mahatma Gandhi because of the great role he played in helping India in its freedom struggle. Along with Mahatma Gandhi, Muhammed Jinnah and Jawaharlal Nehru assisted in making India an independent country. Gandhi’s main principle in India’s freedom struggle was based on non violence, which he called satyagraha, which means holding onto the truth, truth force, or soul force (Bondurant). Along with nonviolence Gandhi believe in passive resistance and swaraj or self rule. Gandhi thought that being violent would only get a bad response from the British, however passive resistance pushed the British to do something which would make them look bad To accomplish swaraj or self rule (Bondurant), Gandhi believed India needed 3 vital ingredients. The first thing India needed was to unify Indians with different religions, especially Hindus and Muslims. Second, India needed to remove its...