Ghandi's Career

Gandhi is known worldwide as Mahatma Gandhi, meaning "Great Soul". Rightfully so, he was given this honorable title by Rabindranath Tagore. He was somewhat of a pioneer of resistance of tyranny through mass civil disobedience, also known as Satyagraha, or at least the first to make it work for a whole country. His philosophy was that noncooperation was infinitely more effective than any act of violence. "There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for." Gandhi was an extremely passionate and fair man as shown by the previous quote. He was willing to sacrifice his own life, but saw no point in death of others.

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." In other words, revenge will only propel the violence. Getting even only wounds both sides. Most think that these were the words of Gandhi, though he simply made them famous. He believed that throwing a punch was an act of the weak; only the strong had the self-control to keep to nonviolence.

In his early life, Gandhi was an aspiring lawyer. During his study of the law, he picked up some valuable information. He learned just exactly how far one could go without breaking the law. Although, he later expressed that breaking the law in certain situations was acceptable, if not necessary. If one truly believed that a law was unjust, their duty as a citizen was to defy said law and face the consequences.

Acts of disobedience such as this became the base of some of his major protests. One of his most reputable protests was the Salt march of 1930, in which he and some of his most devoted followers marched 240 miles from Ahmedabad to Dandi protesting the British tax on salt. They ended their march at the Indian Ocean where Gandhi proceeded to make his own salt. At the time this was illegal on the basic principle that the British wanted full control of the Indian population. A simple tax over salt gave them that control they needed, so in return of their uprising, 60,000 were imprisoned. Other famous protests included the burning of Indian passports used by natives to travel within the country; though nonviolent protests were not the only successful methods.

He also advocated economic self sufficiency to the people of India. He and his followers began to weave and spin their own clothes so as not to purchase them from industrial manufactures owned by the British. Henceforth Gandhi wore only a simple garment called a dhoti to represent the few true necessities in life. Another one of his most effective types of reform was his hunger strikes. People all over the world knew of these fasts. Several times in his life he turned to starving himself. From time to time he believed it was the only way to get the cooperation he needed, and it did. In fact, sometimes it was too effective and frightened the government who in return arrested Gandhi for "disturbing the peace".

Throughout his protests and speeches, he mentioned "bread, salt, and water". In this he was metaphorically referring to survival. When Gandhi said that poverty was the worst form of violence, he meant that it killed many more than physical violence. Poverty was also a slow process or form of death. With each second of starvation, one lost more and more of that drive and will to keep going. You could even say, it died along with you.

Gandhi was physically a fragile person, so why was it that the British government was so careful with him? They needed to be. With his enormous fan base, the British would be losing popularity and trust by getting rid of Gandhi. People all over the world would have looked down on England. Killing him may have even become an incentive for a rebellion among India; the last thing the British were looking for.
Gandhi, living in the same timeframe as Hitler, had his fair share of opinions on him and his ideals. He believed Hitler could accomplish all that he had wanted nonviolently. People would ask him what he would do if he were killed in the struggle of talking to, or even helping Hitler. He told people that someone would step into his place. He hoped and even believed that somebody out there would be more than willing to step up and take over from where he left off. In the end he was assassinated, but not until the late age of 78. His acts of bravery and leadership changed everybody, and before his death lead to a victory for India's independence from Britain in 1947.