Mahatma Gandhi Dbq Essay

“ First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win” (Mahatma Gandhi). Gandhi was born in 1869 in Porbandar. Throughout his life Gandhi helped those in need. He was taught that everyone and everything is holy. He married at the custom age of 19 and went to London to study law. The thing that helped Gandhi promote nonviolence is that he worked his entire life saying that violence didn’t change the way people acted. He lived his life saying that an eye for an eye only made the whole world blind. Gandhi’s nonviolent movement worked because he had something to prove and everyone else in the world agreed with him.
Gandhi served 2,338 days in prison -- 3.5 years-- just to prove that violence would never be the answer. When Gandhi heard that his fell Indian protesters had been sentenced to three months in prison he stated, “ If these men had committed an offense, I had committed a greater offense and I therefore asked the Magistrate to impose upon me the heaviest penalty…. I well remembered that I … did not feel the slightest hesitation in entering the prisoner’s box” (Document C). This proves that Gandhi was more than willing to prove to the British -- ruling India -- that he

would do anything to show everyone that violence would only make him look stronger. When he wrote that letter he proved to them that violence can’t beat him.
The salt that the poor man needs to survive is forbidden to him, yet the salt that means nothing to a rich man, is available at all times.

In a letter from Gandhi to Lord Irwin addressed as “Dear Friend,” he stated, “ Whilst therefore I hold the British rule to be a curse, I do not intend harm to a single Englishmen or to any legitimate interest he may have in India…. And why do I regard the British rule a curse? ...Even the salt [the peasant] must use to live is so taxed as to make burden fall heaviest on him…” (Document A). Gandhi refers to Lord Irwin as “Friend” so that as he reads the letter he is not seeing himself as a higher power. Gandhi was opposed to the British rule because they placed a high tax on the salt that the poor men and/or women need to

survive.
Gandhi’s protest supported non violence because his followers did not use resist, they did not raise a hand, and they did not use violence. Webb Miller, who was present at The Dharasana Salt Works, stated, “Suddenly, at a word of command, scores of native police rushed upon the advancing marchers and rained blows on their heads with their steel-shod [clubs]. Not one of the marchers even raised an arm to fend off the blows….” (Document B). Webb Miller’s report was carried by 1350 newspapers around the world because people wanted to know what Gandhi was doing. Everyone wanted to understand what non violence really was.
Gandhi’s Nonviolent Movement worked because he was able to prove to people that violence wasn’t the answer. Gandhi developed nonviolent techniques and took them to India to teach his followers that there is a way to live without violence. He was able to prove to them that they could be independent. The Salt March was Gandhi’s first step to Indian independence and later on it worked. It’s hard to think that an armed liberation will always have success. Gandhi’s tactics, changed the way people think.