Mahatma Gandhi – Who was He?

Mahatma Gandhi was a leader and a friend to all throughout his life. He dedicated his life to fostering the philosophy of nonviolent action, and spreading this concept throughout the world. Born on October 2, 1869, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi did not live an easy life. He struggled to find freedom for his countrymen and to spread his belief in nonviolent resistance. Given the name Mahatma, meaning “great soul,” he spread his message across the globe.

Traveling to England as a young man, Gandhi studied law and was admitted to the bar. Already married to Kasturba Gandhi, leaving India was difficult. While in England he experimented with food, clothing and social mores, believing that he must dress like an Englishman to succeed. Gandhi returned to India at 22years old to establish a law practice in Bombay. Unfortunately, he was so shy that it was not possible for him to speak in front of the court. Thus, when a friend offered him a job in South Africa he felt it was his only option.

It was in South Africa that Gandhi first experienced racial discrimination. There he began his fight to end prejudice and achieve equality for people of all races. During this time he began to change, studying the Bhagavad Gita, the Christian Bible, and the writings of Thoreau, Ruskin, and Tolstoy. He decided to forgo wealth and fineries and focus instead on self-improvement. Together with Kasturba, Gandhi founded Phoenix Ashram, a community in which people came to live together and teat each other equally and with respect. Using marches, letters, articles, community meetings and boycotts, he protested. These protests often led to his arrest.

After 21 years in South Africa Gandhi returned to India to fight for Indian independence from Great Britain. In addition to the methods he used in South Africa, Gandhi would add fasting, prayer, and to his system of nonviolence. He spent numerous days in jail goal of showing people that violence is not the answer. his long life, he would inspire and encourage many to follow his same path.

Gandhi's death was regarded as an international catastrophe. His place in humanity was measured not in terms of the 20th century, but in terms of history. A period of mourning was set aside in the United Nations General Assembly, and condolences to India were expressed by all countries. Religious violence soon waned in India and Pakistan, and the teachings of Gandhi came to inspire nonviolent movements elsewhere, notably in the U.S. under the civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and in South Africa under Nelson Mandela.

Gandhiji influenced both nationalist and internationalist movements and brought the cause of India's independence from British colonial rule to world attention. Gandhiji's principle of satyagraha (from Sanskrit satya: truth, and graha: grasp/hold), has also inspired other democratic activists, including Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lennon and the 14th Dalai Lama.

The title of ‘Mahatma’ (Sanskrit term of reverence ‘mahatman’ meaning ‘one of great soul’) was accorded on Gandhiji in 1915 by his admirer Rabindranath Tagore (the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature). It was given in response to Gandhiji conferring the title of "Gurudev" (great teacher) upon Tagore.

Ideoligies

Gandhi's philosophy and his ideologies of satya (truth) and ahimsa (non-violence) were influenced by the Bhagavad Gita and Hindu beliefs, the Jain religion and the pacifist Christian teachings of Leo Tolstoy. The concept of ‘ahimsa’ (non-violence) has a long history in Indian religious thought and has had many revivals in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain contexts. Gandhi explains his philosophy and way of life in his autobiography ‘The Story of my Experiments with Truth’.  

In applying these principles, Gandhi did not balk from taking them to their most logical extremes. In 1940, when invasion of the British Isles by the armed forces of Nazi Germany looked imminent, Gandhi offered the following advice to the British people:
“I would like you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions.... If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourselves, man, woman, and child, to be slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them.” (Non-Violence in Peace and War)

Although he experimented with eating meat upon first leaving India, he later became a strict vegetarian. He wrote books on the subject while in London, having met vegetarian campaigner Henry Salt at gatherings of the Vegetarian Society. The idea of vegetarianism is deeply ingrained in Hindu and Jain traditions in India, and, in his native land of Gujarat, most Hindus were vegetarian. He experimented with various diets and concluded that a vegetarian diet should be enough to satisfy the minimum requirements of the body. He abstained from eating for long periods, using fasting as a political weapon.

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Gandhi gave up sexual intercourse at the age of 36, becoming totally celibate while still married. This decision was deeply influenced by the Hindu idea of brahmacharya—spiritual and practical purity—largely associated with celibacy. He announced this to his wife, rather than discussing it with her.

Gandhi spent one day of each week in silence. He believed that abstaining from speaking brought him inner peace. This influence was drawn from the Hindu principles of mouna (silence) and shanti (peace). On such days he communicated with others by writing on paper. For three and a half years, from the age of 37, Gandhi refused to read newspapers, claiming that the tumultuous state of world affairs caused him more confusion than his own inner unrest.

Returning to India from South Africa, where he had enjoyed a successful legal practice, he gave up wearing Western-style clothing, which he associated with wealth and success. He dressed to be accepted by the poorest person in India. He advocated the use of homespun cloth (khadi). Gandhi and his followers adopted the practice of weaving their own clothes from thread they themselves spun, and encouraged others to do so. This was a threat to the British establishment. While Indian workers were often idle due to unemployment, they had always bought their clothing from English industrial manufacturers. If Indians made their own clothes, it would deal a harsh blow to British industry. The spinning wheel was later incorporated into the flag of the Indian National Congress.

Haile Selassie I – On Ghandi
“Mahatma Gandhi will always be remembered as long as free men and those who love freedom and justice live.”

“The name Mahatma Gandhi has become synonymous with right and justice; towards this end it has become an inspiration to millions of oppressed people and has kindled the light of liberty.”

“Today, when world peace is threatened with atomic and nuclear weapons capable of annihilating the human race, Mahatma Gandhi's teachings of love and truth and of respect for others' rights have become even more meaningful than at any other time.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – On Ghandi
 "Like most people, I had heard of Gandhi, but I had never studied him seriously. As I read I became deeply fascinated by his campaigns of nonviolent resistance.... The whole concept of Satyagraha was profoundly significant to me."

“Gandhi was probably the first person in history to lift the love ethic of Jesus above mere interaction between individuals to a powerful and effective social force on a large scale. The intellectual and moral satisfaction that I failed to gain from the utilitarianism of Bentham and Mill, the revolutionary methods of Marx and Lenin, the social contract theory of Hobbes, the 'back to nature' optimism of Rousseau, and the superman philosophy of Nietzsche, I found in the non-violent resistance philosophy of Gandhi.”
“If humanity is to progress, Gandhi is inescapable. He lived, thought, and acted, inspired by the vision of humanity evolving toward a world of peace and harmony. We may ignore him at our own risk.”

“Gandhi resisted evil with as much vigor and power as the violent resister, but he resisted with love instead of hate. True pacifism is not unrealistic submission to evil power. It is rather a courageous confrontation of evil by the power of love.”