, Research Paper

The Fight for Freedom in India

One of the most inspiring and influential work forces of the 20th century, Mohandas Gandhi, is a premier illustration of Thoreau s theory of civil noncompliance. Not merely did Gandhi about single-handedly free India and its five hundred million people from their long subjugation to the British Empire, but besides he did so without raising an ground forces, without firing a gun or taking a surety, and without of all time keeping a political office. How could one rebuff, soft-spoken adult male carry through such a singular effort? Let us analyze the reply, which lies in the overmastering force of his character and his ability to take others in civil noncompliance.

Gandhi knew that he could ne’er get the better of British colonial power in armed confrontation and at the same clip he had no involvement in engaging a logistical war that would outlive British forces, have oning them down to the point of releasing power. It was non in Gandhi s nature to contemplate military opposition in any signifier. His involvements and endowments lay in the country of personal diplomatic negotiations and he instinctively sought to oppose the British on humane, moral, and even religious evidences. He believed that an entrenched political and economical system could merely be revolutionized by religious thoughts. Therefore, he borrowed thoughts on inactive opposition from the Bible, Thoreau s Civil Disobedience, and Tolstoy s The Kingdom of God is Within You ( Collins & A ; Lapierre ) . Over a period of old ages Gandhi used those thoughts to develop and implement his ain manner of civil noncompliance, what he called Satyagraha, a nobly principled, extremely disciplined, bravely ethical scheme of non-violent inactive opposition ( Kirsey ) .

Gandhi demonstrated non-violent inactive opposition to further India s cause in legion ways. Clothing was chiefly manufactured in Britain and so imported to India, destructing Indian industry and countless occupations. Gandhi encouraged Indians to whirl fabric on their ain clip and on one symbolic twenty-four hours, he asked his followings to throw all of their British vesture on a large fire. He encouraged them non to purchase British vesture but to bring forth and buy their ain Indian made vesture which led to the boycott of British merchandises and the unemployment of legion British workers, ensuing in the reemployment of Indians.

An illustration of Gandhi s part to civil noncompliance that we all experience from clip to clip is the work stoppage. He made the work stoppage as a manner of contending back really popular and it is still used rather often today. Gandhi asked the full state to travel on work stoppage for one twenty-four hours, and the people did. For one twenty-four hours nil moved: no mail bringing or pick-up, no mill patterned advance, telegraph lines were down, and the British in India were cut O

ff from their female parent state. With this show of civil noncompliance, Great Britain realized that Gandhi meant concern and the true extent of his power in India.

Gandhi became really influential among the Indians, rapidly reforming the old Indian National Congress ( INC ) into a newer, more serious organisation. He called a immense boycott of British goods and services, including schools. With a leader like Gandhi, the Indian people were no longer afraid of their foreign swayers and began protesting. When constabulary arrived, the Indians would line up to be arrested, trusting to choke off the political system and halt the British ( Berlin ) . Thousands of Indians were arrested and their motion was largely a success, but a few violent eruptions caused the INC to name off the protest and label it a error. Gandhi himself was arrested shortly after and was released early due to medical complications. However, in his absence the INC had split into two parts and the strong bond that had been forged between Hindus and Muslims during protest had dissolved every bit good. Small battles took topographic point in small towns, which led Gandhi to another one of his hallmark protests, the fast. He fasted for three hebdomads, which efficaciously brought about peace.

With the beginning of World War II, the INC and Gandhi supported Britain on one status: the complete withdraw of Britain from India. India became independent shortly after the terminal of the war but it split as it became independent, forming Pakistan. Gandhi was upset that Indian integrity did non come along with Indian freedom, but however plunged himself into assisting mend the public violence ravaged countries and fasting for peace in those topographic points where the combat continued. Using ethical noncompliance in the signifier of fasting he stopped the public violences of Calcutta in 1947 and caused a armistice in Delhi in 1948. Gandhi was non destined to observe his freedom for really long: he was shot to decease on his manner to flushing supplication in 1948. Yet, he died with freedom, peace, and love within his bosom, every bit good as paving the route for others to contend non-violently for ethical reforms.

Plants Cited

Berlin, Loepa. Mahatma Gandhi ( 1869 1948 )

hypertext transfer protocol: //www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/8520/gand_eng.html

( 21 January 1998 )

Collins, Larry and Lapierre, Dominique. Freedom At Midnight. Ed. Simon and

Schuster, New York 1975.

Keirsey, David. An Idealist Mohandas Gandhi?

hypertext transfer protocol: //www.kirsey.com/gandhi.html

( 30 July 1997 )

Thoreau, Henry David. Civil Disobedience. Reading, Writing, and The

Humanistic disciplines. Ed. Joray McCuen and Anthony C. Winkler. San Diego:

Harcourt Brace Jovanich, 1991. 214-225.

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