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Civil disobedience is effective for change
The successes of civil disobedience during the civil rights era
The successes of civil disobedience during the civil rights era
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Gandhi: Risks for Rights If anyone has ever heard about Gandhi, chances are, they were sitting in their history class learning about civil rights, "Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state becomes lawless or corrupt," claimed the famous soul. Gandhi's character illustrated his actions upon civil rights and equality, in the book "Freedom's Battle" by Mahatma Gandhi it showed how big of a role his peaceful technique to independence was. From learning about Gandhi's early life, risks for civil rights, and how he approached these risks one can infer that the charismatic person he was, was a matchless person to defeat the Apartheid and civil rights disobedience. The late Mahatma Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869 in Porbandar, …show more content…
Gandhi's movement and leadership in protesting the Apartheid started with hunger strikes (Gandhi 105). Hunger strikes have been a peaceful yet powerful way to show awareness to the civil rights causes. These hunger strikes were for the benefit of himself for self purification and to protest the social discrimination. On March all the way to April of 1930 Gandhi led a peaceful march to protest the British rule on India (Gandhi 156). This march shows how powerful Gandhi was because of how he started with seventy eight people and proceeded to end with several thousands.This walk was not a breeze either, it stretched all the way from Dandi, India to the Arabian coast, so it shows people that they were committed to stand up for these rights. Ghandi risked being arrested multiple times, he was arrested four times and spent a total of seven years in prison among all the arrests (Gandhi 160). All of these arrests show how dedicated Gandhi was to receiving independence for his country. He sacrificed his personal life and seeing his children and wife everyday just so that India could have independence and Indian's could receive their basic rights. If Gandhi didn't stand up for the Apartheid laws and gaining independence over Britain, who would have done the job? Would the world be different if Gandhi was never
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
Martin Luther King Jr. looked up to Gandhi’s idea of civil disobedience in order to protest for black people’s right in America.
Gandhi is a strong believer in hinduism and a bit of Jainism. Within both of these religions there is the idea of Ahimsa. Ahimsa means not to kill, it is also the concept of non-violence and the fact that any violence leads to consequences. This is where Gandhi got his ideas of nonviolence and civil disobedience. When the British Government tries to raise land taxes and increase India’s border tax, Gandhi uses the idea of Ahimsa and civil-disobedience to disobey the British Government, yet not violate and laws in a violent way. “‘Ahimsa’ is another Indian word for which there is no exact English word. Ahimsa means nonkilling, but actually it means much more than that. To live according to the doctrine of ahimsa is to feel only love for all living things.”(Gandhi 99) This quote shows what Ahimsa means and how Gandhi would implement it into his everyday life. As Gandhi mainly believes in hinduism, this shows how his religious beliefs affected him and influenced his belief of Ahimsa. Even though Gandhi himself was a Hindu, he did not agree with all of their ideas. He especially did not agree with the Hindu caste system. In which certain castes were assigned certain roles in society, and assigned certain classes of families. Gandhi believed in equality for everyone, and he wanted to rule out the untouchables, the lowest caste of people in hinduism. “Below the four castes are the Untouchables, or outcastes, who
The movie “Gandhi” begins with a very compelling scene with the foreshadowing of Gandhi’s assassination. He is walking with a crowd of people and is greeted by many. This was followed by a scene of thousands mourning his death from all around the world. Later, the movie takes a flashback to a younger Gandhi during his days in South Africa. He is seen on a train and though he is riding with a first-class ticket, he is forced to move to third-class due to him being a minority. He refuses and is thrown off of the train. Back in India, he never directly experienced this type of injustice. From there, he continues his attempts at non-violent protests. Gandhi’s main goal was to bring an end to racial oppression as well as create equality. He made little success in South Africa after being arrested multiple times. After his release in South Africa, he decided to move back to India to hopefully bring change there as well as hopefully gaining India’s independence back from the British Empire. Throughout the movie, there are many people who support his ways, many who try to be him down, and many who honestly don’t know if his ways of non-violence are worth it.
Mohandas Gandhi was a religious man, however, his religious beliefs did not come from his childhood but from his studies that he began as a political activist in South Africa. Upon his return to India from England, he had had a rough start as a lawyer and accepted an offer to work on a case in South Africa. He ended up staying in South Africa for more than twenty years. In South Africa Gandhi became a leader of the Indian immigration population. Gandhi had to learn skills to overcome caste, class, and religious divisions to build a base for dramatic mass actions. In the process, Gandhi’s religious development influenced his politics. He believed that the search for truth was the goal of human life, and since “no one could ever be sure of having attained the ultimate truth, use of violence to enforce one’s own necessarily partial understanding of it was sinful.”
Mohandas Gandhi is an Indian lawyer and a spiritual leader that led a successful nonviolent resistance movement against the British colonial power. “The tactic of nonviolence civil disobedience in the Civil Rights Movement was deeply influenced by the model of Mohandas Gandhi, (...) Gandhi 's approach of non-violent civil disobedience involved provoking authorities by breaking the law peacefully, to force those in power to acknowledge existing injustice and bring it to an end”. (1) “Provoking authorities by breaking the law peacefully” this is an example of how nonviolent disobedience allows the message to stay focused and reach the point where people in power cannot ignore. Violent actions draw the media away from the message and fuels the rich and powerful; those who hide behind barriers in order to mute the underprivileged. An example of underprivileged people is African American’s during the 1950s who were treated like second class citizens. “Laws separated people of color from whites in schools, housing, jobs, and public gathering places”. (3) The types of methods used to fight against segregation are, “One of the ways African American communities fought legal segregation was through direct action protests, such as boycotts, sit-ins, and mass civil disobedience”. (1) This is how nonviolent disobedience is fought
Martin king luther jr. and Gandhi both achieved their goal through the means of peaceful protest. They both believed nonviolence was the answer to successfully achieve their goals through the best methods. Martin king luther jr. led marches, sit-ins, and boycotts
Gandhi was a well knowledgeable and unique person who found hope in struggles that he never thought would shape who he was. Gandhi was born in a Hindu family, and even though he was the youngest he made a huge impact on others (“Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi” pg 3). He had his older brother who helped him with his education when his father passed away (“Mohandas Gandhi”). Gandhi was very religious even when he was little his brothers tried to make him eat meat (it wasn’t bad to eat meat in Hinduism when you are little), but he refused (“Mohandas Gandhi”). Gandhi respected his religion and was a respectful towards others.
Gandhi’s non-violent efforts to attain freedom and independence for India from British Colonial rule solidified his place in the annuals of time. His influence can be seen in many of the movements that have further the cause of human and civil rights from Africa to the United States. Gandhi refused to capitulate to pressures of oppressive and discriminative foreign rule and continued to speak out for his country and for those seen as “lower class”. Ultimately, it would be violence that would be Gandhi’s downfall when in 1948, he was assassinated by a fellow countryman. (Robert 2011) Nevertheless, throughout it life, he espoused the ideals of inner-strength, non-violence and concern for his fellow man. Many of these traits are evident in this image of him and represent his embrace of this type of freedom.
Also advised by white activists Glenn and Smiley, persons who came from the Christian pacifist tradition were his mentors. A&E Television Networks 2015; expresses a synopsis of Gandhi. " Born on October 2, 1869, in Porbandar, India, Mahatma Gandhi studied law and came to advocate for the rights of Indians, both at home and in South Africa. Gandhi became a leader of India's independence movement, organizing boycotts against British institutions in peaceful forms of civil disobedience. He was killed by a fanatic in 1948.
The British rulers had acknowledged Gandhi as a force they could not suppress or ignore. Dandi March served as an important stepping-stone in India’s achievement to Freedom eventually. The seemingly unimportant and simple act to the Britishers, and even many of the Indian leaders, ironically turned out to be the history’s most influential event. It served as an inspiration for the leaders like Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King, Jr. in their own struggles for rights of their people. Gandhi’s Dandi March turned out to be a compelling act of seemingly passive but really forceful movement of protest against the oppression. It makes the readers wonder what made Dandi March a national success as well as a globally impacting act? Gandhi had spent years traveling throughout India and was aware of the fact that the majority of people of India were simple farmers or villagers, who would understand and be gripped by a simple concept like salt, rather than being motivated by fancy words or complex methods and goals. The creation of an army out of these simple villagers would be simply out of question; besides being against the core values of peace, nonviolence, and truth, which Gandhi was employing to thwart the injustices of the British Rule. It would be simply
The Salt March that Gandhi led was held from March to April in 1930. This was a 200 mile walk to Dandi on the Arabian Sea. Gandhi and his thousands of followers could get salt from the seawater. More and more people joined the cause the more they traveled to the coast. In the end, 60,000 people and Gandhi were arrested by the British police (History.com, 1930). Gandhi was released from prison on January 1930. Later on, he spoke to the viceroy of India to negotiate the independence of India with Britain. Although Gandhi did not win this debate, Britain realized that he was determined to get India its freedom (History.com,
Gandhi will always be remembered for bringing peace to this world. He has lived on by showing that if you work and pursue your goals hard enough you will get what you want out of life. He has showed us that in the end all our hard work will be worth it. He has provided us with morals to live by to become a “great soul”.
He led many peaceful protests and movements such as the Non Co-operation, Civil Disobedience and Quit India Movement, to fight for India’s freedom against Britain. Not only did Gandhi used his power of words to get people to stay peaceful but to show people how they can make a difference in the world. As Gandhi once said, “I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent” (Ghandi). Gandhi also once said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world” (Ghandi). The first quote shows how Gandhi strongly didn’t believe in violence and he thought that when people did evil things for the good, it will only do good for sometime until it comes back to them. Gandhi used his power of words to motivate people to stay calm and refrain from violence. He also believed that every person had the power to change the world. Gandhi expressed to people that they need to be the change they want to see. He used his words to impact the view of people on life in general as he talked about peace, love, sacrifice and much more. He expressed this to the people by using his power of words. Gandhi took his power of words and used them in a way to make people question their power in this
Gandhi faced three main struggled throughout his life. After he studied law in England, he got a job to represent Indians facing racial harassment in South Africa. Indians were imported to work as indentured workers for a contract of 5 years. Most of the population were white and they established dominance over other races. Indians were not allowed to wear turbans in court, they can not ride first class even with a ticket, and they can not rent a room in a hotel. Indians were classed with the native Africans. To solve this problem, Gandhi used non- violent civil resistance called “satyagraha”. Gandhi disobeyed some of the rules and was sent to jail for two months. Then the government made all Indians above the age of eight had to be fingerprinted and carry around certificates of registration at all times. He urged thousands of Indians to burn their certificates and 2,500 Indian out of 13,000 were arrested. Then in 1910 Gandhi received 1,000 acres of land outside Johannesburg in South Africa. He used the land as a refuge for people involved in his satyagraha and their families and cal...