Mahatma Gandhi

– Person Of The Century Essay, Research Paper

Mahatma Gandhi

There was little hope for the natives as imperialism and greed had taken

the white man by the mind, body, and soul. These white men promised that

they would be .civilized,. when in reality they were enslaved and treated like

animals. No lashing out would save them, for the white men had technologies

like gunpowder. During the rise of this on October 2nd, 1869 the world

changed forever. Mohandas K. Gandhi came into the world. Gandhi sparked a

world wide non-violent revolution that changed the ability, spirit, and the

power of the oppressed forever.

Gandhi was born in India to parents who were merchants and neither

well-off or poor. He was described as a shy but serious boy. At the age of 13, he

married a girl his age– Kasturba. They later had four children. Gandhi went to

the University College, London to study law. In 1891, he returned to India after

he passed the British Bar exam. Gandhi intended on practicing law there, but he

had a little success. His firm sent him to Durban, South Africa, which was

under British control.

When Gandhi first arrived he was treated like a second class citizen,

because he was a member of an .inferior. race. He was abused because he was

an Indian who claimed his rights as a British subject. Gandhi was denied civil

liberties and political rights just as his fellow Indians in South Africa. Despite

that his assignment was for a year, Gandhi stayed 20 more years to serve his

people and advocate for their rights. He was convinced by other Indians to stay

and make a living as a lawyer. That same year, 1894, he was the first India to

draft and send a petition to the South African legislature. Gandhi led

campaigns for Indian rights. In 1896, he was wrongly beaten by white South

Africans. Instead of revolting in a violent uproar, Gandhi preached passive

resistance and for the Indian people to not cooperate with the South African

government. Instead of the term passive resistance or civil disobedience, Gandhi

chose a different term, satyagraha which means .truth and fairness..

Later Gandhi returned to India shortly to bring back his wife and two

children. While he was returning to South Africa he was mobbed by the British,

because of what he had written about the treatment of Indian citizens in South

Africa so he went back to India. During 1901-1902 he opened a law office and

attended the Indian National Congress Meeting in Calcutta. Later in 1902 the

South African Indian community urgently requested that he come back.

Upon returning in the summer of 1903, he opened a law office in

Johnannesburg, and later established a weekly periodical, Indian Opinion. He

also organized a Phoenix Settlement, near Durban. He helped his fellow Indians

in anyway he could. He organized Indian Ambulance Corps for when the Zulus

.rebelled.. That same year in 1906 he took a vow of continence for life.

Continence is:

In September the first satyagraha campaign began to protest against the Asiatic

ordinance which was directed to discriminate the Indian immigrants in

Transvaal. The next month Gandhi went to England to present the case to the

Colonial Secretary and started back to South Africa in December. Gandhi later

organized more peaceful campaigns against .The Black Act. which mandated

mass registration for the Indian community in South Africa. In 1908, Gandhi

stood trial for instigating satyagraha, and he was imprisoned for two months.

He did not serve his entire term, because General Smuts needed him in Pretoria.

Later that month he was attacked by Mir Alam, an Indian extremist, because he

reached a settlement with Smuts. In August, Smuts broke agreement, and more

protesting began. The first of which was another satyagraha campaign in which

Indians burned their registration certificates. Gandhi was arrested for not

having a certificate in October and he was sentenced to two months

imprisonment.

In 1913 he began a preniterntial fast because of two members in the

Phoenix settlement who he thought had .morally lapsed.. A preniterntial fast is

one meal a day for more than four months. For the rest of his stay in South

Africa, he was imprisoned, organizing more campaigns, and visiting the United

Kingdom to present his case to officials. Upon his return to India in 1915, he

soon became the leader of the Indian nationalist movement. In 1918 Gandhi fell

ill after one of his fasts. This is when he learned how to spin while he was

recuperating.

In 1919, the British induced the Rowlatt Bills which made it illegal to

organize opposition to the government. Gandhi led a non-cooperation campaign

against this, and it prevented one of the bills to not be passed and the other was

not enforced. In 1920 Gandhi was elected president of All-India Home Rule

league. He urged a resolution l

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