“In times of despair, I am reminded that truth and love have always triumphed throughout history. Assassins and tyrants who believed they were invincible at some point but always lost in the end.” These sublime words were the bright beacons that always lit the path of Mahatma Gandhi, the inexhaustible flame of his soul’s will, by which he erased the utter darkness of Britain that had descended upon India. He continued to develop wisdom and constructive ideas until he saw the sun of freedom and dignity permeating his homeland with security, warmth, and peace. India’s spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi’s revolution began. Through his peaceful campaign, Gandhi made his native India independent from British colonialism. His desire to create a new reality that guaranteed the rights of various segments of Indian society, especially Muslims and the untouchables, was strong. Able to touch on the reasons for backwardness, division, and suffering in the United States, it launched liberation movements and practiced all methods of politics of disobedience. June 1948, civil or non-violent action to finally force Britain to withdraw from India. However, he was soon murdered by extremist Hindus who opposed his call at the time to introduce the principle of respect for Muslim rights into India. Mahatma. Born into a Wealthy Family Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, commonly known as ‘Mahatma’, was born on October 2, 1869, in Porbandar, Gujarat, India, into a conservative and respected family. His father Karamchand was Prime Minister of the Principality of Porbandar. Despite his family’s material wealth and their famous commercial projects, Gandhi had a normal childhood and led a humble life throughout his life. And according to the strict Indian traditions of the time, at the age of thirteen, he was forced to marry a girl named Kasturba, by whom he had four children. Gandhi traveled to England to study law in 1882 and returned to his hometown in July 1890, earning a university degree and qualifying to practice law.
Satyagraha. The Philosophy of Non-Violence
Gandhi believed that ‘Non-violence is the greatest power in the hands of mankind, more powerful than the most powerful weapons of destruction devised by the human mind’. By the nature of the work, hate breeds it more and violence breeds only evil. Gandhi thus established the method of peaceful struggle or so-called “peaceful resistance” or “philosophy of non-violence” (Satyagraha), a set of rules based simultaneously on religious, political, and economic foundations. . By recognizing all imminent dangers and forming forces capable of meeting them first peacefully and then with force if necessary, there is no other choice. “Non-violence requires him to have double faith, faith in God and faith in man.” And Gandhi here states that peace comes from a strong inner faith in God, which takes determination and will to apply to your life. A clumsy victory is a heinous defeat, and there is no force comparable to peace as a lofty means to achieve goals, as the use of weapons and violence is conclusive evidence of the weakness of the argument, the lack of resourcefulness, and the inability to accommodate the difference with the other. As the Mahatma repeatedly explained, non-violence was not seen as a manifestation of helplessness or weakness, for “refraining from punishing is forgiveness only when the power to punish is present.” Gandhi believes that man’s true battle lies within himself, against his whims and desires. In this regard, he once said while advocating the policy of non-violence, “We will win our battle not by the amount of killing of our opponents, but by the amount of killing in our souls the desire to kill.” “I would resort to violence a thousand times over if the alternative were to castrate an entire human race,” he added. Non-violence here does not mean non-violence. According to these principles, the goal of the peace policy, according to Gandhi, is to expose the oppression of the usurping colonialist to the sanctity of the homeland on the one hand and to stir up public opinion and incite the masses against this injustice, on the other hand, to eliminate or besiege it and reduce its sphere of influence.
Factors that shaped his philosophy
Who was influenced by Gandhi when he embraced the politics of non-violent philosophy? He was strongly influenced by the ideas of American writer David Toro, who had the idea of civil disobedience.” The idea came from the politics of “civil disobedience.” Citizens have the right to disobey immoral laws. Several books also contributed to shaping Gandhi’s thoughts and policies and strengthening his philosophy, such as Songs of the Blessed One, a Hindu poetic epic written in the 3rd century. It deals with the soul and refines it to the point of elevating it to a mental dictionary that it draws upon to draw ideas.
Gandhi was also influenced by Brahmanism, the repetition of routine actions to control one’s desires and senses. Brahmanism is embodied in asceticism in dress, food, way of life, fasting, cleanliness, prayer, piety, and silence every Monday. Through this practice, a person liberates himself from all others, and then he deserves the liberation of others.
SOUTH AFRICA. Faced with Racism
In 1893 Gandhi was forced to travel to South Africa to practice law in Natal. He intended to stay there for his one year, but the extremely poor conditions of his Indian community forced him to stay even longer. Since his arrival, he has faced the worst racism. His grandson Rajmohan told the whole story, and the bright light of struggle emanated from Gandhi’s heart. he said: This happened on a train on May 21, 1893. Gandhi was 24 years old at the time and was a first-class passenger, unaware that race laws prohibited him from doing so. One of the white passengers reported him. He paid for his ticket and was violently kicked out of the first-class car despite wearing an expensive suit.” He did not leave his exile in India until July 1914. Since both countries were under British rule, sovereignty was recognized. As a result of the violations of the rights of Indian workers there, Gandhi decided to stand up for them and become an advocate before the company where they worked. During this period, conditions were created for him to expand his knowledge and culture, and to open his mind to other religions and beliefs, so he spared no effort to develop his thinking and political approach. Most notably, Gandhi was guided by his political actions regarding the policy of non-violence that came into effect against British colonialism. His major achievements during that time:
- Restored trust, freed children from fear and inferiority complex, and raised moral standards in Indian immigrant communities.
- Founded the newspaper Indian Opinion, advocating a philosophy of non-violence.
- Formation of the Natal Indian Congress Party to defend the rights of Indian workers.
- Oppose laws denying Indians the right to vote.
- Amends so-called “Asian legislation” requiring Indians to be registered in personal records.
- Discourage the UK government’s intention to limit Indian immigration to South Africa.
- Combat laws voiding non-Christian marriage contracts.
After a few years of national struggle, Mahatma Gandhi became the most popular leader. In the beginning, he paid great attention to the struggle against social injustice and British colonialism alike, and he also took great care of the problems of workers, peasants, and outcasts. In 1932, Gandhi began applying the method of fasting to death, denouncing a bill that perpetuates discrimination in elections against the Indian untouchables, which prompted political and religious leaders to open room for negotiation, and they finally reached the “Pune Agreement”, which stipulated an increase in the number of “untouchable” deputies and the abolition of the system electoral discrimination. Gandhi’s positions on the British occupation of the Indian subcontinent were characterized by toughness at one time and tactical flexibility at another, and his reluctance between rigid nationalist positions and appeasement staged settlements caused him a deadlock with his opponents and supporters that amounted to treason and challenge the credibility of his national struggle by opponents of his policy and strategy in resolving the issue. Gandhi cooperated with Britain in World War I against the Central Powers, then turned to direct opposition to British policy between 1918 and 1922, and during that period demanded complete independence for India. In 1922, he led a “civil disobedience” movement that expressed public outrage, sometimes leading to confrontations with crowds and British security forces and police, leading to a stop to this movement. British authorities arrested him and imprisoned him for six years before releasing him in 1924. Following this principle, Gandhi adopted the salt method and defied British laws restricting salt extraction to British authorities. On the other hand, he and the Indians with him demanded consent to the right to extract and manufacture their natural wealth.
Gandhi also led marches of people to the sea to extract salt. In 1931, disobedience triumphed after both parties reached a compromise and signed the Treaty of Delhi. In 1937 he encouraged the party to participate in elections, as the 1935 Constitution guaranteed credibility and non-alignment. Resumed its disobedience campaign by launching a new campaign to protest Britain’s declaration that it was fighting against this disobedience continued until 1941 when Britain was preoccupied with World War II and concerned with stabilizing the situation in India to support the war effort in
The British government launched a mission known as the “Krebs Mission” in 1942 to make peace with the Indian independence movement in the face of the impending Japanese threat, but its preparations were unsuccessful. Mahatma Gandhi famously said to the English, “Leave India while you are masters,” when he agreed for the first time in 1943 to lead India into a full-scale conflict with the Axis powers to attain independence later that year. However, the British government was not pleased with this speech, so they started a campaign of arrests and harshly repressed the protesters. Gandhi himself was one of the casualties because he was imprisoned and didn’t get out until 1944.
India’s Independence and Partition
In late 1944 and early 1945, India became increasingly independent, responding to separatist calls to divide India into two states Muslims and Hindus. Fear increased. Gandhi repeatedly tried to persuade Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the leader of this separation-seeking people, to abandon his negative inclinations but failed. And he said on 16 August 1947, when the partition of India was announced, religious unrest spread throughout the country and violence reached levels beyond expectations. In Calcutta alone, he killed over 5000 people.
These atrocious events had such an impact on Gandhi’s mind that he called it a national catastrophe. Adding to his pain and sorrow was the widening rift between India and burgeoning Pakistan over Kashmir, and the death toll from the violent clashes between the two countries in 1947-1948. Sharia stresses the need to restore national unity between Hindus and Muslims and Gandhi’s call to the Hindu majority to respect the rights of the Muslim minority never justified him. On January 30, 1948, a Hindu fanatic fired three deadly bullets at him, hitting his emaciated body, and died at the age of 79.
