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| Mohandas Gandhi |
Mohandas Gandhi (picture), worked with Jawarharlal Nehru, to achieve independence for India. Gandhi inspired the Indian people to achieve independence by his unique method of nonviolent resistance against British rule.
Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand (1869-1948), was one of
the foremost political leaders of the 1900s. The Indian people called Gandhi
the Mahatma (Great Soul).
He
helped to free India from British rule by a unique method of nonviolent
resistance, and is honoured by Indians as the father of their nation. Gandhi
was slight in build but had almost limitless physical and moral strength. He
was assassinated by an Indian who resented Gandhi's programme of tolerance for
all creeds and religions. The great scientist Albert Einstein said of Gandhi:
"Generations to come will scarcely believe that such a one as this walked
the earth in flesh and blood."
Gandhi's beliefs.
Gandhi's life was guided by a search for truth. He called his autobiography The Story of My Experiment with Truth.
Gandhi said that truth was God, and his aim in life was to achieve truthfulness
in thought, word, and deed. Ahimsa
(nonviolence) to him was the highest virtue. By nonviolence, Gandhi meant not
merely the absence of violence, but also loving concern for all life. He
believed that truth could be known only through tolerance and concern for
others, and that finding a truthful way to solutions required constant testing.
He taught that to be nonviolent required great courage. Gandhi overcame fear in
himself and showed others how to overcome fear.
Gandhi
developed a method of direct social action based upon principles of courage,
nonviolence, and truth, which he called satyagraha
(truth-forcel. Where the method was used against British rule, it gave rise to
what was called civil disobedience.
Gandhi and his supporters used satyagraha to fight for India's independence,
and to bring about social change.
A
successful campaign of satyagraha involves five basic stages. First, there must
be some perception of injustice.
Examples of such injustice include a landlord charging excessive rent, and the
treatment of people belonging to the caste
(social class) known as the untouchables
(see Caste). Other examples include discrimination against minorities, and
British rule in India.
The
second stage requires the necessity of a
proper response. The victim of injustice usually accepts the situation
out of fear or else resorts to violence. Gandhi claimed that both these
responses were wrong. A satya- grahi
(one who practises satyagraha) fights injustice nonviolently and with courage.
The
third stage involves choosing the field
of action. The victim must decide how to highlight the injustice.
Often the victim chooses deliberate, nonviolent defiance of the unjust law and
is prepared to suffer the consequences.
The
fourth stage covers conduct in a campaign of satyagraha. The satyagrahi aims
at winning over an opponent through love and self-sacrifice. The satyagrahi
must never exploit an opponent's weakness. During World War II (1939-1945), in
India, Gandhi suspended his civil disobedience campaign from Dec. 12,1940, to
Jan. 4,
1941,
so that British officials could enjoy their Christmas holiday without being
called out to make arrests.
The
fifth and final stage is the resolution of the conflict. A satyagrahi tries to
see an opponent's point of view, and a satyagraha is claimed to be successful
only when both sides feel that they are winners.
Satyagraha,
this new, unique method of solving conflicts, was Gandhi's greatest legacy to
mankind. His method proved itself when India gained independence from the
British, leaving little lingering sense of bitterness. This method has since
been used in many other parts of the world. It was highly successful in Martin
Luther King's struggle against racial discrimination in the United States.
Today, many groups of activists, involved in causes such as nuclear
disarmament, animal rights, and environmental protection, use these Gandhian
methods to good effect.
Gandhi's early life.
Gandhi was born on Oct. 2, 1869, in Porbandar, India. His parents belonged to
the Vaisya (merchant) caste
of Hindus. Young Gandhi grew up in an atmosphere of religious tolerance and the
acceptance of the teachings of various Hindu sects, as well as Jainism (see
Jainism). He was a shy, serious boy. Even as a child he resisted the temptation
to lie or cheat. When he was 13 years old, he married Kasturbai, a girl of the
same age. Their parents had arranged the marriage according to custom. The
Gandhis had four children.
At
the age of 19, Gandhi travelled to England to study law. In London, he began to
develop his philosophy of life. He remained a vegetarian under difficult circumstances,
and studied the great Indian religious classic, the Bhagavad-Gita. He also turned to the New Testament of the
Bible and to the teachings of the Buddha.
In
1891, Gandhi returned to India to practise law, but met with little success. In
1893, Gandhi went to South Africa to do some legal work. South Africa was then
under British control. Almost immediately, he was abused because he was an
Indian who claimed his rights as a British subject. He saw that all Indians suffered
from discrimination. His law assignment was for one year, but he stayed in
South Africa for 21 years to work for Indian rights.
Gandhi
led many campaigns for Indian rights in South Africa and edited a newspaper, Indian Opinion. As a part of
satyagraha, he promoted civil disobedience campaigns and organized
a strike among Indian miners. He was arrested many times by the British, but
his efforts brought important reforms. Gandhi also worked for the British when
he felt justice was on their side. He was decorated by them for medical work in
the Anglo- Boer War of 1899-1902. See Anglo-Boer Wars.
Gandhi
fully developed his philosophy of life in South Africa. He was greatly
influenced by Leo Tolstoy's essay, "The Kingdom of God Is Within You,"
and John Ruskin's book Unto This Last.
But the greatest influence on him was the Bhagavad-Cita,
which became an unfailing source of inspiration. Gandhi believed that all life
was a part of one ultimate spiritual reality. The supreme goal was self-realization,
the realization that one's true self was identical with ultimate reality. He
believed that all religions contain some elements of truth, and this accounted
for his own religious tolerance. For him, the best guide to self-realization
was the Gita. The Gita advocates action without desire.
Such action leads to nonpossession and equitability (even-temperedness)— two
virtues practised by Gandhi with increasing zeal throughout his life.
Gandhi
experimented with communal living at the Phoenix Farm and the Tolstoy Farm in
South Africa, and later at Sabarmati Ashram, in India. There he practised
voluntary simplicity, a way of life designed to offer an alternative to the
increasingly competitive, stressful, and violent atmosphere of Western
civilization. Voluntary simplicity means reducing material wants to a minimum
and reaping spiritual rewards instead; emphasizing service; and practising
manual labour. Gandhi himself served as teacher, cook, nurse, and even
scavenger. As a social reformer, he fought for the emancipation of women, the
removal of the tradition of Untouchability
(low caste or class status), and for Hindu-Muslim unity.
In
his social philosophy, Gandhi replaced the Marxist emphasis on class struggle
with the theory of trusteeship.
Landowhers were to see themselves as trustees, honour-bound to use their
property for the benefit of society. In this way, class struggle would yield to
sarvo- daya (welfare of all).
In politics, Gandhi taught that everybody should take part in a democratic
system having its roots in villages or neighbourhoods. In his speech and
writing he used everyday language that was simple to understand.
Gandhi's
independence campaigns. In 1915, Gandhi returned to India. Within five years,
he became the leader of the Indian nationalist movement.
In
1919, the British imperial government introduced the Rowlatt bills to make it
unlawful to organize opposition to the government. Gandhi led a satyagraha campaign
that succeeded in preventing passage of one of those bills. The other was never
enforced. Gandhi called off the campaign when riots broke out. He then fasted
to impress the people with the need to be nonviolent. His belief in the cruelty
of imperial rule became more intense after the Amritsar Massacre of April
13,1919. A British general ordered his men to fire on an unarmed crowd, and
almost 400 Indians were killed. This made Gandhi even more determined to
develop satyagraha and to win independence through nonviolent resistance.
Gandhi
began a programme of hand spinning and weaving about 1920. He believed that the
programme
helped
the fight for independence in three ways: (1) it
aided economic freedom by making India self-sufficient in cloth; (2) it promoted
social freedom through the dignity of labour; (3) it advanced political
freedom by challenging the British textile industry and by encouraging mass
participation in the Indian movement for self- government.
In
1930, Gandhi led hundreds of followers on a 300- kilometre march to the sea,
where they made salt from seawater. This was a protest against the Salt Acts,
which made it a crime to possess salt not bought from the government. See
Dandi March.
During
World War II, Gandhi continued his struggle for India's freedom through
nonviolent disobedience to British rule. He was jailed for the last time in
1942. Altogether, he spent seven years in prison for political activity. He
believed that it is honourable to go to jail for a good cause.
Freedom
and death. The United Kingdom granted India freedom in 1947. But Gandhi did not
take part in the Independence Day celebrations. The partition of India into the
two nations of India and Pakistan grieved Gandhi. He was saddened also by the
violent rioting between Hindus and Muslims that accompanied the partition. He
had worked for a united country and had urged that Hindus and Muslims should
live together in peace.
On
Jan. 13,1948, at the age of 78, Gandhi began his last fast. His purpose was to
end the bloodshed among Hindu, Muslim, and other groups. On January 18, their
leaders pledged to stop fighting and Gandhi broke his fast. Twelve days later,
in New Delhi, while on his way to a prayer meeting, Gandhi was assassinated.
Nathuram Godse, a Hindu fanatic, who opposed Gandhi's programme of tolerance
for all creeds and religions, shot him three times. A shocked India and a
saddened world mourned Gandhi's death.
Gandhi
was loved and admired by millions throughout the world because he lived his
ideals in an age of cynicism. He insisted on honourable means instead of the
principle of the end justifying the means, lived a simple life in a world of
mounting complexity, and practised nonviolence in a world of escalating
violence.
See also India, History of.
Ganges River is the greatest
waterway in India and one of the largest in the world. It is most important to
the Indians for the part it plays in the Hindu religion. Hindus consider it the
most sacred river in India. Each year, thousands of Hindu pilgrims visit such
holy cities as Varanasi and Allahabad along the banks of the Ganges to bathe in
the river and to take home some of its water. Temples line the riverbank, and
ghats (stairways) lead down to the water. Some pilgrims come to bathe in the
water only to cleanse and purify themselves. The sick and crippled come hoping
that the touch of the water will cure their ailments. Others come to die in the
river, for the Hindus believe that those who die in the Ganges will be carried
to Paradise. The river's name in Hindi, the chief Indian language, is Canga.
The river is an important trade
area. Its valley is fertile and densely populated. Some of India's largest
cities, such as Calcutta, Howrah, Patna, Varanasi, and Kanpur, stand on its
banks. But the Ganges is less important commercially than it once was.
Irrigation has drained much of its water and steamers can navigate only in the
lower part of the river.
The Ganges has its source in an ice
cave 3,139 metres above sea level in the Himalaya of northern India. The river
flows toward the southeast and through Bangladesh for 2,480 kilometres to empty
into the Bay of Bengal (see India (physical map]; Bangladesh [map]). Several
tributary rivers, including the Jumna, Ramganga, Go-mati, Ghaghra, Son, and
Sapt Kosi add to the waters of the Ganges. The Brahmaputra River joins some of
the branches of the Ganges near its mouth, and together the two rivers form a
large delta. See also Allahabad; Brahmaputra River; Varanasi.
20 Inspiring Quotes from Mahatma Gandhi:
1. “Live as if you
were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
2. “A man is but a
product of his thoughts. What he thinks he becomes.”
3. “Be the change
that you want to see in the world.”
4. “The weak can
never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong.”
5. “I will not let
anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.”
6. “Strength does
not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”
7. “An ounce of
patience is worth more than a tonne of preaching.”
8. “Change
yourself – you are in control.”
9. “See the good
in people and help them.”
10. “Without
action, you aren’t going anywhere.”
11. “Take care of
this moment.”
12. “Be congruent,
be authentic, be your true self.”
13. “Continue to
grow and evolve.”
14. “A no uttered
from the deepest conviction is better than a ‘Yes’ uttered merely to please, or
worse, to avoid trouble.”
15. “Glory lies in
the attempt to reach one’s goal and not in reaching it.”
16. "An eye
for an eye will make the whole world blind.”
17. “Happiness is
when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
18. “A coward is
incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.”
19. “Nobody can
hurt me without my permission.”
20. “In a gentle
way, you can shake the world.”
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