Gandhi
(1869-1948)
Mohandas Karamchand Ghandi was born on October 2, 1869. His place of birth was Porbandar, a small town on the western coast of India. His father was named Karamchand. He was the prime minister of Porbandar, as his father had been before him. His mother, Putlibai, was a deeply spiritual, gentle and compassionate woman.
His years in school were unremarkable. At 13 he was married to Kasturbai, a young woman of the same age. After high school he enrolled at Samaldas College. He found his studies to be challenging, and the atmosphere not conducive to positive growth and development. His father died in 1885. He decided to go to England and study to become a barrister in order to be able to take the place of his father when the time came.
While in England, he was introduced to an English translation of The Bhagavad-Gita by Sir Edward Arnold. He read it, and from that time forward the Gita became his favorite spiritual text. He says of it, “The book struck me as one of priceless worth. This opinion of a key text has ever since been growing on me, with the result that I regard today as the supreme book for the knowledge of Truth. It has afforded me invaluable help in my moments of gloom.” It was at this time that he also began to study The Bible. He especially connected to the New Testament, being very moved by the Sermon on the Mount. Continually expanding his spiritual studies, he read of Buddha’s life and teachings, as well as that of Mohammed. He began to form an attitude of respect for all religions, and a desire to understand the underlying spiritual message in each one of them.
In 1891 he completed his studies and returned to India. In 1893 he traveled to South Africa to assist in defense of the resident Indians there. Quickly he learned the British rule in South Africa was exceedingly unfair towards his countrymen. Though he had come to work for only a year, he ended up staying for 21 years, working tirelessly and diligently to secure basic rights for the Indian citizens. He was arrested several times, and gave up time with his family, and many of the conveniences of modern middle-class life. He simplified his lifestyle, washing his own clothing and cleaning his own living space. He also studied midwifery, and attended the birth of his fourth son.
Gandhi continually challenged British rule, and successfully organized the Indian people, yet he always strove to cooperate with all concerned. Though never compromising truth, he ever extended love, compassion, and good humor toward all. Many times he entered volatile situations, but quickly the energy dissipated, as his obvious goodwill awakened this quality in others. With his help, many victories over injustice were realized.
He studied Tolstoy and Thoreau, and was interested in the concepts of civil disobedience and passive resistance. However, neither one of these paths truly struck a chord in his heart. When he was introduced to the concept of Sadagraha, meaning “holding fast to truth or firmness in a righteous cause,” he became a Satygraha. He began to teach this way to many others. With his natural charm and enthusiasm, as well as his steadfastness, the movement grew.
One example of his work is recorded at http://www. engagedpage.com/html:
In 1907, when the Transvaal received responsible government, it passed what came to be known as The Black Act, requiring all Indians, men and women, to register and submit to fingerprints. Gandhi advised the Indian community to refuse to submit to this indignity and to court imprisonment by defying the law. In January 1908, he was arrested and sentenced to two months' simple imprisonment. He was followed by other satyagrahis.
Before the prison term was over General Smuts sent him an emissary proposing that if the Indians voluntarily registered themselves he promised to repeal the Act. Gandhi agreed to the compromise. He always believed in trusting the opponent, but the other Indians were not so trusting. One burly Pathan even charged Gandhi with having betrayed them and threatened to kill him if he registered. On the day Gandhi went out to register he was waylaid and attacked by this and other Pathans and severely injured. When he recovered consciousness and was told that his assailants had been arrested he insisted on their being released.
Gandhi registered, but his disappointment was great when Smuts went back on his word and refused to repeal the Black Act. The Indians made a bonfire of their registration certificates and decided to defy the ban on immigration to the Transvaal. Jails began to be filled. Gandhi was arrested a second time in September 1908 and sentenced to two months' imprisonment, this time hard labor. The struggle continued. In February 1909 he was arrested a third time and sentenced to three months' hard labor. He made such good use of his time in jail with study and prayer that he was able to declare. “The real road to ultimate happiness lies in going to jail and undergoing sufferings and privations there in the interest of one's own country and religion.”
In 1911, a provisional settlement of the Asiatic question in the Transvaal brought about a suspension of the satyagraha. In the following year, Gokhale visited South Africa, and on the eve of his departure assured Gandhi that the Union Government had promised to repeal the Black Act, remove the racial bar from the immigration law and abolish the £3 tax. But Gandhi had his fears that were soon borne out. The Union Government went back on its promise, and to this fire was added a very powerful fuel when a judgment of the Supreme Court ruled that only Christian marriages were legal in South Africa, turning at one stroke all Indian marriages in South Africa invalid and all Indian wives into concubines. This provoked Indian women, including, Kasturbai, to join the struggle.
It was illegal for the Indians to cross the border from the Transvaal into Natal, and vice versa, without a permit. Indian women from the Tolstoy Ashram crossed the border without permits and proceeded to Newcastle to persuade the Indian miners there to strike. They succeeded and were arrested. The strike spread and thousands of miners and other Indians prepared, under Gandhi's leadership, to march to the Transvaal border in a concerted act of non-violent defiance. Gandhi made strict rules for the conduct of the satyagrahis who were to submit patiently and without retaliation to insult, flogging or arrest. He was arrested and sentenced, but the satyagraha spread. At one time there were about fifty thousand indentured laborers on strike and several thousand other Indians in jail. The Government tried repression and even shooting, and many lives were lost. “In the end,” as an American biographer has put it, “General Smuts did what every Government that ever opposed Gandhi had to do―he yielded.”
Gandhi was released and, in January 1914, a provisional agreement was arrived at between him and General Smuts. The main Indian demands were conceded. Gandhi's work in South Africa was now over and, in July 1914, he sailed with his wife for England where Gokhale had called him. Before sailing, he sent a pair of sandals he had made in jail to General Smuts as a gift. Recalling the gift twenty-five years later, the General wrote: “I have worn these sandals for many a summer since then even though I may feel that I am not worthy to stand in the shoes of so great a man.”
Ghandi continued throughout his life to challenge injustice, and to do so with the utmost respect for all involved. He challenged the beliefs and ideas that created the conditions of injustice, not the people themselves. He believed in educating people in morality, justice, and compassion. He held the opinion that people would do good if they were taught to.
At http://www.mkgandhi.org/biographyicon/bioindex.html, in reference to his time in Africa, is written: “Though he stayed on specifically to challenge European arrogance and to resist injustice, he harboured no hatred in his heart and was in fact always ready to help his opponents when they were in distress. It was this rare combination of readiness to resist wrong and capacity to love his opponent that baffled his enemies and compelled their admiration. When the so-called Zulu rebellion broke out, he again offered his help to the Government and raised an Indian Ambulance Corps. He and his men nursed the sick and dying Zulus whom the white doctors and nurses were unwilling to touch.”
Upon his return to India, he used the principles of Satyagraha to lead the campaign for Indian independence from Britain. Gandhi was arrested many times by the British for his activities in South Africa and India. Altogether he spent seven years in prison for his political activities. More than once Gandhi used fasting to impress upon others the need to be nonviolent. India was granted independence in 1947, and was partitioned into India and Pakistan. Rioting between Hindus and Muslims followed. Gandhi had been an advocate for a united India where Hindus and Muslims lived together in peace.
On January 13, 1948, at the age of 78, he began a fast with the purpose of stopping the bloodshed. After 5 days, the opposing leaders pledged to stop the fighting and Gandhi broke his fast. Twelve days later a Hindu fanatic, Nathuram Godse, who opposed his program of tolerance for all creeds and religions, assassinated Gandhi.
Ghandi was a good man who inspired others to be good humans. As quoted at http://www.mkgandhi.org/biographyicon/bioindex.html, “If at the end he seemed like no other man, it is good to remember that when he began he was like any other man.”
From Gandhi ~
“Non-cooperation with evil is a sacred duty.”
“You assist an evil system most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees. An evil system never deserves such allegiance. Allegiance to it means partaking of the evil. A good person will resist an evil system with his or her whole soul. Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.”
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world. Whether humanity will consciously follow the law of love, I do not know. But that need not disturb me. The law will work just as the law of gravitation works, whether we accept it or not. The person who discovered the law of love was a far greater scientist than any of our modern scientists.”
“However much I may sympathize with and admire worthy motives, I am an uncompromising opponent of violent methods even to serve the noblest of causes.”
“Man and his deed are two distinct things. Whereas a good deed should call forth approbation, and a wicked deed disapprobation, the doer of the deed, whether good or wicked always deserves respect or pity as the case may be. Nonviolence and cowardice are contradictory terms. Nonviolence is the greatest virtue, cowardice the greatest vice. Nonviolence springs from love, cowardice from hate. Nonviolence always suffers, cowardice always inflicts suffering. Perfect nonviolence is the highest bravery. Nonviolent conduct is never demoralizing, cowardice always is.”
“Nonviolence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being.”
“It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us. This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good heart whatever they might have to say.”
“It is the law of love that rules mankind. Had violence, i.e. hate, ruled us we should have become extinct long ago. And yet, the tragedy is that the so-called civilized men and nations conduct themselves as if the basis of society was violence.”
Gandhi was once asked what he thought about western civilization. His response was: “I think it would be a good idea.”
Learn more about Mahatma Gandhi and the biography of his life. Learn his ways of nonviolent communication, how he showed compassion by practicing nonviolent peaceful ways. He helped make peace possible for many people in the world by approaching life with inner peace and compassion which contributed to the spread of world peace. Learn about compassion international and make a stand against injustice. Find your own inner peace. Mahatma Gandhi, born as Mohandas Gandhi, seemed to believe we might all, to borrow a quote, “…follow my example.” That’s only a fraction of the entire Gandhi quote, he did live as an example of inner strength, fighting injustice through nonviolent communication.