humanity tolerance without violence His life and his principles

Gandhi was born in October 2, 1869 in Porbanda, India. He was a Hindu as well and born to the second highest cast. After school Mohandas Gandhi went to London and studied Law at an university. He became a lawyer. Shortly after he was back in India, an Indian firm wanted him to go to South Africa to work for them. In South Africa the Indians were not welcome by the white settlers. One day Gandhi forced to leave a train when he refused to leave his seat for a white person. It was then when he decided never to be oppressed again and to fight for the rights of minorities. Violence made him very sad, so he started to lead the Indian workers in South Africa and fought for their rights non - violently. And he had great success with his non - violent methodes. Gandhi made it a very important rule for himself which he used his whole life: Never to use violence in his fights, even if others would use violence against him.

(Civil disobedience) Gandhi remained in South Africa for 20 years, suffering imprisonment many times. In 1896, after being attacked and beaten by withe South Africans, Gandhi began to teach a policy of passive resistance and non- cooperation with the South African authorities. Part of the inspiration for this policy came from the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy whose influence on Gandhi was profound. During the Civil War Gandhi organized an ambulance corps for the British army and commanded a Red Cross unit. After the war he returned to his campaign for the Indian rights. In 1914 the government of the Union of South Africa made important concessions to Gandhi‘s demands including recognitition of Indian marriages and abolition of the poll tax for them.

In 1914 he returned to India and became a leader in a complex struggle, the Indian campaign for home rule. Following World War 1 in which he played an active part in recruiting campaigns, Gandhi advocating Satyagraha, launched his movement of passive resistance against the kingdom. When in 1919 Parliament passed the Rowlatt Acts giving the Indian colonial authorities emergency powers to deal with socalled „revolutionary activities“, Satyagarha spread out, gaining India millions of followers. A demonstration against the Rowlatt Acts resulted in a massacare of Indians by British soldiers in In 1920, when the British government failed to make amends, Gandhi proclaimed an organized campaign of non-cooperation. Throughout India, streets where blocked by squatting Indias, who refused to rise even if they were beaten by police. Gandhi was arrested, but the British were soon forced to release him.

In 1932 Gandhi began new civil-disobedience campaigns against the British. Arrested twice Ghandi fasted for long periodes several times. These fasts were effective measures against the British, because revolution might well have broken out in India if he had died. In September 1932, while being in jail, Gandhi undertook a „fast unto death“ to improve the status of the Hindu Untouchables. The British, by permitting the Untouchables to be considered as a separate part of the Indian electorate, were, according to Gandhi, countenancing an injustice. Although he was himself a member of the „merchant“ cast, Gandhi was the great leader of the movement in India dedicated to eradicate the unjust social and economic aspects of the cast system. Mohandas Gandhi went for long walks through India to collected money for the Untouchables and he fought for their rights his whole life. He also fought for the peaceful understanding of different religions.

When the Second World War broke out, the Congress party and Gandhi demanded a declaration of war aims and their application to India. As a reaction to the unsatisfactory response from the British, the party decided not to support Britain in the war unless the country was granted complete and immediate independence. The British refused, offering compromises that were rejected. When Japan entered the war, Gandhi still refused to Indian participation. He was interned in1942, but Gandhi was released two years later because of failing health. By 1944 the Indian struggle for independence was in its final stages, the British government having agreed to independence on condition that the two contending national groups, the Muslim League and the Congress party, should resolve their differences. After all, in 1947, the British government agreed with Gandhi and his followers and India and Pakistan became separate states. During the riots that followed the partitition of India,took place. Gandhi pleaded with Hindus and Muslims to live together peacefully.

In August 15,1948 the Indian celebrated the Indian independence with huge parades.

On January 30, 1948, Nathuram Godes, a fanatic Hindu shot him at his daily prayer. Mohandas Gandhi was one of the few persons to fight wihout violence. He fought all his life for and with humanity, tolerance and without violence. He showed the way to a better world. Gandhi made the strike as a way of popular fighting and it is still widly used today(for example Greenpeace). In the beginning of the 20th century the British Empire was the biggest empire in the world. But Mahatma („The Soul“) managed to get India independent of the British. Also Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela did not use violence in their fights for the rights of the black people in America and in South Africa.And there are many other popular examples, but I think Mohandas Gandhi was one of the greatest persons of the 20th century. „An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind!“ (Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi)