Essay: Gandhi

A young Gandhi was a very timid, shy and easily shaken boy. So deeply that even as a teenager he would sleep with the lights on. In the years following Gandhi began to rebel out, by smoking, eating meat (very against religious rules and beliefs), and stealing change from household servants.  At the age of 13 Gandhi was married to Kasturba Makanji.
In 1885 his Father sadly passed away and this was extremely difficult for gandhi to endure, and shortly after his baby son died as well. In 1888, Kasturba gave birth to the first of the four surviving sons, Harilal.
Gandhi’s future was definitely influenced by his families views, wants and needs. Although he wanted to become a doctor, his Father deeply hoped for him to become a government minister or something else in the legal profession. So therefore in 1888, Gandhi sailed to London, England to study law.
After training for 3 years in 1891 Gandhi graduated and sailed back to India. Once arriving Ghandi was delivered the harsh news of the death of his Mother only weeks earlier. Gandhi found it very difficult as a lawyer in India still coping with his Mother’s death. In his very first courtroom case, Gandhi was extremely nervous. He drew a complete blank, reimbursed his client for the legal fees and then fled the room.
In 1893, Gandhi and his wife had their second child Manilal. Shortly after, while struggling to obtain work as a lawyer in India, Gandhi was given a one year contract to perform legal services in South Africa, so off sailed Gandhi, Wife and two young boys to Durban in the South African state of Natal.
Once Gandhi and his family arrived to South Africa, he was quite quickly outstanded and disgusted by the discrimination and racial segregation faced by Indians immigrants from the hands of white British and Boer authorities. Gandhi was in his first courtroom in Durban when he was asked to remove his turban. Gandhi refused and instead left the room. After this the Natal Advertiser mocked him nationally as “an unwelcome visitor”.
June the 7th 1893, was a very groundbreaking day in Gandhi’s life. During a train ride to Pretoria, South Africa, a wealthy white male strongly objected to Gandhi’s presence on board a first-class railway carriage. Although Gandhi had a ticket for this rail, the crew and staff on board asked him to move the the back on the train in the carriage for the coloured.After refusing to move Gandhi was then thrown off the train at a station in Pietermaritzburg. from this strong act of civil disobedience, rose a great determination to devote him, his life and skills to fighting the “deep disease of colour prejudice”. Later that evening he vouched to “try if possible, to root out the disease and suffer hardship in the process.” This was the turning point in Gandhi’s life that would create the civil rights activist that we all know so well today. Gandhi then went on to form the Natal Indian Congress of 1894 to fight discrimination.
Once at the end of his one year contract approached, Gandhi and his family prepared to return to Indian. Until he learned at his farewell party, of a bill before the Natal Legislative Assembly that would deprive Indians of the right to vote. After deep thought and consideration and fellow immigrants, all convinced Gandhi to stay and lead this long dreadful fight upon the legislation. Although he could not prevent the law to pass, he did draw the international stage to share some light on this injustice.
After a very brief trip back to Indian in late 1896 and early 1897, Gandhi then returned back to South Africa with his family. Once he had a little time to settle back into things, Gandhi and his wife had another son Devdas. A few months later he began to run a brilliant, thriving legal practice. At the outbreak of the Boer war, he  raised an all-Indian ambulance service of 1’100 volunteers to help support the British cause, whilst arguing that if Indians expect to have the full fights of citizenship in the British Empire, they also need to take some responsibilities as well.
In the forthcoming years Gandhi continued to fight as a civil rights activist. In 1900 Gandhi had his final son Ramdas. In 1906, Gandhi organised and ran his very first mass civil-disobedience campaign, which he called “Satyagraha” (“truth and firmness”). This was a full reaction to the South African Transvaal government’s new tight restrictions on the rights of Indians, this was including the persisted refusal to recognize Hindu marriages.
After years and years of multiple strong protests, the South African government imprisoned hundreds of Indians in 1913, this was including the imprisonment of Gandhi himself. The South African government was under immense pressure as the Indians protests became more violent whilst Gandhi was in jail. From there they accept a compromise negotiated between Gandhi and General Jan Christian Smuts ( a South African and British Commonwealth statesman, military leader and philosopher), that includes the recognition of Hindu marriages and the annulment of a poll tax for Indians. Once released from prison Gandhi and his family sailed from South Africa in 1914 to return to Indian, Smuts wrote, “The saint has left our shores, I sincerely hope forever”. Once the outbreak of World War 1, Gandhi spent some time in London.
In 1919, with India still under strong control of the British Empire, Gandhi had a political reawakening when the Rowlatt Act was authorized. This act imposed for British authorities to imprison people who were suspected of sedition without trial. Gandhi was quick in response and called for a Satyagraha campaign of peaceful protests and strikes. Instead of the peaceful and tranquil protests that Gandhi had in mind, violence broke out instead, All this violence reached its peak on April 13, 1919, in the Massacre of Amritsar, when multiple troops led by the British Brigadier General Reginald Dyer fired machine guns into a large crown of unarmed peaceful demonstrators. With this violence act they killed nearly 400 people. Gandhi was furious, disgusted, disgraced, appalled, and overwhelmed with anger, with all of these emotions fuelling Gandhi was no longer able to pledge allegiance to the British Government. With this section Gandhi returned the medals that he had previously earned for his military service in South Africa and opposed British mandatory military draft of Indians to serve in World War 1.
With his past and present roles in activism, Gandhi became a firm leading figure in the Indian home-rule movement. He sent a outcry for mass boycotts, and urged government officials to stop their work for the crown, for students to please stop their attendance at government school, for soldiers to abandon their posts and Indian citizens to stop paying taxes and buying British items. Gandhi began to introduce the idea of using a portable spinning wheel to produce your own cloth that purchasing British-manufactured clothes. Very soon the spinning wheel became a leading representation of Indian independence and self-reliance. Gandhi took up the head role of the Indian National Congress and encouraged a policy if non-violence and non-cooperation to achieve his goal of home rule.
Gandhi was once again arrested by British authorities in 1922, he was truthful and pleaded guilty to all three counts of sedition that was placed against his name. He was sentenced to an imprisonment of six years, although he had an appendicitis surgery in the February of 1924 and then was released after his operation. In the Autumn of 1924 Gandhi began a three week fast to urge unity when he learned that violence had flared between Indian Hindus and Muslims. He tried to stay away from active politics for most of the 1920’s after his prison release.
One of Gandhi most world renowned work of activism is the Great Salt March. Gandhi return to active politics in 1930 to protest the Britain’s Salt Acts, this act banned many things, including the prohibition of Indians collecting or selling salt – a dietary staple for them. The act also imposed a extremely heavy tax that hit the countries poorest hardest of all. Another Satyagraha campaign ws underway with Gandhi planning a 390-kilometer/240-mile strong march to the Arabian sea, where him and his fellow marchers would collect salt as a symbol of defiance of the government monopoly.
Just days before the march was to begin Gandhi wrote. “My ambition is no less than to convert the British people through non-violence and thus make them see the wrong they have done to Indian”.
On the 12 of March 1930, Gandhi took his first step into the salt march wearing a homespun white shawl, sandal and carrying a walking stick with a few dozen followers in tow. Gandhi arrived in the coastal town of Dandi 24 days later. By the time Gandhi had arrived the marchers numbers had swelled. Gandhi also broke the law by making a salt out of evaporated seawater.
A mass civil disobedience virus swept across the street of India as The Salt March sparked similar protests. 60’000 Indians approximately were jailed for breaking the British Salt Acts, this was including Gandhi who again was imprisoned in the May of 1930. Even with Gandhi’s imprisonments, he was transformed into a transcendent figure around the world, and then he was named Time magazine’s “Man of the Year” for 1930.
After spending about 8 months in prison Gandhi was released in January 1931. Lord Irwin (Governor-General of India) and him made an agreement about 2 months later. Their agreement included, the end to the Salt Satyagraha in a fair exchange for the release of thousands and thousands of political prisoners. From this agreement the Salt Acts were still intact but did however all coastal residents to harvest salt from the nearby oceans. Gandhi was strong wishing for this agreement to become a so called stepping stone for the home rule. Gandhi became the sole representative of the Indian National Congress at the London Round Table Conference on Indian constitutional reform in the eighth month 1931. After attending the conference Gandhi released that it was meaningless and a waste of time.
India’s Independence from Great Britain
Once Gandhi returned home to India he found India’s new viceroy, Lord Willingdon, and once again Gandhi found himself behind steel bars due to the new Lord. He spent a lot of time think whilst being imprisoned, once he was eventually released he decided to leave the Indian National Congress in 1934, and he passed his leadership to his protégé Jawaharlal Nehru. He again stepped away from politics to focus on education, poverty and the many more problems that were afflicting Indian, its citizens and especially those in rural areas.
Great Britain found itself as a nation completely engulfed by World War || once it broke out in 1942, from this Gandhi launched his newest campaign “Quit India” movement. This movement was calling for the immediate British withdrawal from the country. In the August of 1942, Gandhi, his wife and other leaders of the Indian National Congress were arrest by the British and were detained in the Aga Khan Palace in present-day Pune. The Prime Minister of England at the time Winston Churchill told Parliament in support of the crackdown, “I have not become the Jing’s First Minister in order to preside at the liquidation of the British Empire”. After a 19-month detainment Gandhi was released due to his flailing health. But unfortunately it was not before his 74 year old wife died in his arms in February 1944.
Churchill’s Conservatives were defeated by the Labour Party in the General British election of 1945. From there negotiations for Indian independence began with the Indian National Congress and Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s Muslim League.
In mid 1947, as more violence sparked between the Hindus and Muslims. Once the killings multiplied drastiglu, Gandhi began to tour riot filled areas to appeal for peace and end the bloodshed. However not everyone preserved this as a sign of peace, some Hindus viewed Gandhi as a traitor for expressing sympathy toward Muslims.
Gandhi was 78 year-old in the late afternoon of January 30th 1948. He was very weak due to the repeated fasts, he clung to his two grandnieces as they walked him from his living quarters in New Delhi’s Birla House to a prayer meeting. Gandhi and his nieces make it part way down this path when Nathuram Godse steps out in front of him and says, “You’re late for prays”. There Gandhi replied back, “Yes, I am late”. From here in front of a very large crowd Godse revealed a small revolver out of his shirt. He aimed and shot three times from point blank range, as Gandhi clinged on to his nieces. Two on the bullets tore into his stomach and one into his chest. Showing no surprise, or pain Gandhi peacefully folded his hands into pray and muttered a small pray. Then he fell slowly back onto the ground. Godse was supposedly beaten by the crowd before police seized him. Gandhi died sometime later in his home.