Mohandas Ghandi Essay -- Biography Biographies Bio

Mohandas â€Å"Mahatma† Gandhi Mohandas Gandhi was easily one of the greatest political leaders of the twentieth century, yet he had no power what so ever. He was just a man, who influenced a non-violent revolt to gain India’s independence. Unfortunately after India did gain their independence, the struggle was not over. Gandhi was still in no form of power, and only was an adviser. As he had struggled throughout his life for India, been imprisoned for many years for India, it is interesting how on the evening of one of his usual prayers, an Indian waits in the crowd to kill him. On January 30th 1948, Bapu (Sanskrit for â€Å"father† commonly used with Gandhi and the â€Å"father of India†) was shot and killed, while having his nightly public walk. Mohandas Gandhi was one of the most powerful political leaders of the twentieth century, because of his strives for the independence of India through non-violent consent. Mohandas’ first enthusiasms towards non-violent resistance was discovered in South Africa when he was severely discriminated and realized something had to be done about the harsh discrimination towards blacks and Indians in South Africa. In South Africa he adopted his ideology of the devotion to the ‘truth’. â€Å"Gandhi launched his first civil disobedience campaign, using a technique he called Satyagraha, a Sanskrit word. Satya means truth and love; agraha means firmness or force. Satyagraha is often translated as â€Å"truth force.†Ã¢â‚¬ 1 He began to create a peaceful resistance, and using no violent measures. Many Indians and blacks were jailed but in the face of peaceful blacks and Indians simply trying to get more rights peacefully, the South African General had no choice but to negotiate with Gandhi, giving him his first of many vi... ...d advise violence.†5 Gandhi did not advicate cowardism, and certainly was not one. Infact Gandhi was never afraid. â€Å"If I die by the bullet of a madman, I must do so smiling. Should such a thing happen to me, you are not to shed one tear.†6 Mohandas Gandhi’s strive towards the independence and freedom of the Indian people, elevated him to being one of the most powerful and influential people in the twentieth century. Not only has he inspired people in his nation, but in countries around the world, in the struggle in peaceful and non-violent civil disobedience, instead of bloodshed. Bibliography Cheney, Glenn Alan, Mohandas Gandhi. New York: Grouer Company, 1983. Malaspina, Ann, Mahatma Gandhi: and India’s Independence. Berkeley Heights: Enslow Publishers, 2000. Mohandas Gandhi,† Wikipedia, 27th September 2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi