Mahatma Gandhi Essay, Research Paper

“The future generations will scarcely believe that such a man in flesh and blood, had tread this earth.”

Said Albert Einstein

Mahatma Gandhi’s real name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He was born in 1869 at Porbandar in the state of Gujarat in INDIA. His father’s name was Karamchand Gandhi and his mother’s name was Putlibai. He was the youngest in the family of one sister and three brothers. His father belonged to the family of grocers but himself was a minister in the court of a local ruler. He was not very learned but his rich experience of practical affairs stood him in good stead in the solution of the most intricate questions. Both the parents were deeply religious and frequently visited temples and took their meals only after daily prayers.

In school, Gandhi was a mediocre student. He did not talk to anybody and was very shy. He was afraid that other children would poke fun at him. During his first year in high school, there occurred an incident which goes a long way in showing us the honesty and truthfulness that Gandhi upheld even as a child. Once an educational inspector had come on an inspection visit. He set the students five words to write. One of the words was “kettle” and Gandhi mis-spelt it. His teacher prompted him to copy it from his neighbor’s slate but he did not and it resulted out that he was the only one who got a spelling wrong. But this incident did not diminish his respect for his teacher because as he himself said that he was “blind to the faults of elders.”

M. K. Gandhi was married in 1882 at the age of thirteen. He passed his matriculation exam in 1887. He then joined a college but soon returned to Porbandar because the studies were too tough for him. There, one of the family friends advised him to pursue barrister ship in England. After a lot of opposition from his mother and some other people, he was allowed to go only after he vowed not to touch woman, wine and meat.

In London, Gandhi joined The University of London to study law. He passed the London Matriculation at the second attempt. He was unknown of any English Laws. He bought many books and tried to understand them but it was beyond him. At last he sailed back for India on the 12th of June 1891, a day after he was enrolled into the English High Court.

While in India, he went to Bombay to study Indian Laws. But even this was difficult for him. Eventually he got a case, but in the court he became so nervous that he left during the case and never went to another one until going to South Africa.

Gandhi sailed for South Africa in April 1893 and reached Natal at the close of May. It was in South Africa that Gandhi had a lot of experience in laws, handling cases and many other fields. He observed the pitiful conditions of the Indians and other colored people and also experienced it when on his way to Pretoria from Natal, he was thrown out of a train because he was the only colored person in the first class compartment.

The case for which Gandhi had come to South Africa was between two businessmen, Abdullah Seth and Tyeb Seth, concerning a huge amount of money. Gandhi had to defend Abdullah Seth. He worked very hard and convinced Tyeb Seth for arbitration. Abdullah Seth won the arbitration and Gandhi’s joy knew no bounds. He understood that the true function of a lawyer was “to unite parties riven asunder.”

During this time Gandhi became deeply interested in religion. His Christian friends tried to convince him to convert to Christianity but he kept his faith. He helped the indentured Indian laborers and fought for their rights.

After three years in South Africa, Gandhi returned to India in 1896.

Gandhi had a lot of shortcomings in his personal life. He was a jealous husband. He was very suspicious and kept an eye on all the movements of his wife, Kasturbai. This resulted in bitter quarrels becoming the order of the day. But in his autobiography, Gandhi says that he did all this because he “wanted to make his wife an ideal wife and make her live a pure life.” Some more of his shortcomings were that at a young age he had started smoking and eating meat in company of a cousin and a friend. He stole money from his servant’s pocket and bought cigarettes. Once they had also planned to suicide by consuming poison, but they did not have the courage to do it. At last he gave up all the malpractices and became a strict vegetarian and stuck to it all his life. He educated his children and the child of his widow sister. He also became a very religious person and was greatly influenced by the “saintliness” of his mother. He practiced Ahimsa (non-violence), Brahmacharya (celibacy) and Aparigraha (non-possession).

In his public life, Gandhi was very successful. When he went to South Africa, he came in contact with many people and went through many experiences. He protested against the color bar and helped all those who were neglected. During the Boer War he participated with the British. He and some other people joined to form the Ambulance Corps who took care of the wounded fighters. Gandhi awakened a sense of duty to the motherland in the Indians settled in South Africa, so that they sent money for the famine relief during the famines in India in 1897 and 1899. In 1917, he got the Indentured Emigration from India, abolished.

After returning to India, he set about reforming it. His campaign in India started from Champaran, a small place in the state of Bihar. There he fought for the rights of Indigo farmers. He upheld the principles of Swaraj (self rule), Swadeshi (self sufficiency) and Satyagraha (truth as a medium of protest). He instructed the people not to wear foreign clothes or use foreign goods. He told them to make their own clothes using handlooms and the cloth that they wore was known as Khadi. Even Gandhi made his own clothes by using a Charkha (spinning wheel), which became the symbol of prosperity and integrity of India.

Gandhi created a number of Ashrams or communities where men, women and children from all backgrounds and nationalities came to learn from his daily example on how to make non-violence and love the basis of their lives. One of the ashrams was the Sabarmati Ashram in the state of Gujarat. He understood the problems of the untouchables who were thrown out of society. He called these people “Harijans” or “people of the lord”. Wherever he went, he collected money for the Harijans. He traveled in the third class of the trains, which were dirty and meant for the low caste Indians. When someone asked him why, he simply said, “Because there is no fourth.”

Gandhi faced many challenges towards the end of his life. In 1930, the British government levied tax on salt, which was the primary ingredient of every household’s meal. Gandhi collected some followers and marched to a small, coastal town of Dandi, situated near the Arabian Sea, 240 miles away, where he proposed to produce salt from the sea water. Thousands of people joined the march on the way. This was known as the DANDI MARCH. Gandhi was arrested after this incident. But this did not hinder his courage. He started the NON-CO-OPERATION MOVEMENT. Nobody was to co-operate with the British, which would lead to their leaving India. On the 8th of August 1942 the QUIT INDIA MOVEMENT started. This non-violent protest disrupted and destroyed the British Government and their system of governance and added nationalistic fire to every Indian’s heart.

On the eve of independence, Hindus and Muslims in India were in the throes of civil war. All the government forces were powerless to stop the massacres. The bloodshed and destruction touched the very depths of Gandhi. He went straight to the heart of the violence and walked barefoot through the remote, ravaged villages as a one-man force for peace.

“He who trembles or takes to the heels, the moment he sees two people fighting, is not non-violent, but a coward. A non-violent person will lay down his life in preventing such quarrels” said Gandhi and he truly justified it.

It was on the evening of 30th of January 1948, that the final tragedy took place. Mahatma Gandhi was in Delhi, requesting for Hindu-Muslim unity. When the time for prayer meeting came, he walked briskly with his arms on the shoulder of two of the ashram girls. As he walked to the platform through the huge crowd, he held his palms together in front of him. Suddenly, a young man placed himself in Gandhi’s path and fired a gun point-blank into his heart.

Such was the greatness of Gandhi that as his body fell, he called out “Rama, Rama, Rama” which meant I forgive you, I love you, I bless you. The killer was later identified as Nathuram Godse, a Hindu fanatic.

This 30th day of January, is known in India as the Martyr’s Day.

“Gandhi is a great man held in universal esteem, a figure lifted from history to moral icon”, states the Time Magazine, which has rated Mahatma Gandhi as the “runner up Person of The 20th Century” and the B.B.C. has voted him as the “Man of The Millennium.”

Gandhi deeply affected the society and his followers. His concept of nonviolent resistance liberated one nation and sped the end of colonial empires around the world. His marches and fasts fired the imagination of oppressed people everywhere. Millions sought freedom and justice under The Mahatma’s guiding light. He shone and still shines as a conscience for the world. He proclaimed the power of love, peace and freedom.

PERSONAL OPINION:

Personally, I am amazed by the astonishing personal revolution by which a simple, inarticulate man transformed himself into THE MAHATMA, who ushered the British Empire out of India without firing a shot.

In an age of Empire and Military Might, he proved that the powerless had power and that force of arms would not forever prevail against force of spirit.

“The light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere and I do not quite know what to tell you and how to say it. Our beloved leader, BAPU, as we call him, the Father of our Nation, is no more. Perhaps I am wrong to say that. Nevertheless, we will not see him again as we have seen him these many years. We will not run to him and seek solace from him, and that is a terrible blow not to me only but to millions and millions in this country. And it is difficult to soften the blow by any advice that I or anyone else can give you.

The light has gone out, I said, and yet I was wrong. For the light that shone in this country was no ordinary light…and a thousand years later that light will still be seen in this country, and the world will see it… For that light represented the living truth…”.

–ON THE EVENING OF GANDHI’S DEATH, JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU, THE FIRST PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA, ADDRESSING THE WHOLE OF INDIA ON RADIO—

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