The Importance of Gandhi for Indian Nationalism - Essay Example

? ASSESS THE IMPORTANCE OF GHANDI TO INDIAN NATIONALISM by of the of the of the School 17 March, 2013 Introduction Mahatma Ghandi was one of the historical legends in Africa, India, and an inspiration to the world for his determination to steer freedom in the countries he lived in. He is remembered to have strongly been associated with the largest democratic movement in India, for freedom struggle that was against imperialism and colonialism. His inspiration made numerous African countries and others in the world that had been subjected under colonial leadership, to raise their voices against their tyranny and victimization carried out by the settlers in their own land. Ghandi was born in October 1869 in a Hindu Modh family in Porbandar, Gujarat in India, and was given the name Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi by his parents. The father named Karamchand Gandhi was a chief minister at the city of Porbandar; meaning mahatma Ghandi had a strong upbringing background around leadership, politics, and guided by the Hindu principles (Shelokhonov, 2013). The principles he learned early in life made him a mature and determined man early in age, considering that he had the chance to experience and observe the discrimination the colonialist and their associates conducted on the native people. He became motivated in his law study and understanding of varying principles of different religions he encountered with in different lands. According to Barua, “his combined brilliance, humanism, and courage with indomitable will brought a revolutionary change in the East Indian Community in South Africa and India” (n.d, p. 2). Borrowing from numerous teaching of the different religions, and inspirations from wise political ideologies such as those of Gopal Krishna, David Thoreau, and Leo Tolstoy, he was able to organize non-violent movements, which would paralyze the then imperial governments to have their demands heeded. As a key reformist, he was named Bapu Ghandi and is today known to be the father of the Indian nation, after his successful organization and support for the non violent movements of struggle for freedom in India. Characters of Mahatma Ghandi: The persona of Ghandi is still held debatable by many, depending on religion and way of life. However, it must be admitted that he had acquired certain substantial and enabling virtues from his way of life in different environments across the world. Even though being a faithful Hindu, he drew some of his principles from the Bible, the Islamic religion, among others to shape his characters and belief for the common good of existence in the general society. His persona brought him close to the society, especially the women whom characters and sufferings he understood in broad point of view. Effectively, he was very attracted to the virtues of different societies (Western, African, and Indian), cultures, and different genders, and hoped to unite the people together for their common good. He was a man described to be courageous and stubborn in confronting the British governments, yet humble, patient, and compassionate to others, regardless of their religion, race, and gender. The virtues of non-violence (Ahimsa) and compassion he believed in, was an acceptance of the women qualities, who had been kept out of power and dominion in political and social aspects because of their simple virtues of patience, compassion, and tenderness that was viewed as a contradiction to the roles (Anand, 2006). With such a trusted persona, Ghandi was able to pull people closer, the strong and the weak and from it, women had the opportunity to come out of their locked areas and confidently support him in Indian liberation. Anand further mentions that the very nature of his virtues (ahimsa and truth among others) made the people liberation movement open to all; his plans and politics also comprised most trusted feminine virtues, allowing men and women to take part in the non-violent wars (2006). Ghandi’s will and understanding of connection of the women self suffering and courage, created room for him to coalesce women in social regeneration, and later entreated them as the backbone of his satyagraha struggles of 1930, for the trust he had in their feminine virtues entailing self sacrifice, endurance, and intuition. Ghandi was able to mobilize the women of different religions and from different areas and ethnicities in India during the 1930 mass movement, which experienced a great number of women participation in political affairs in demand for independence. Prominent women, wives, and daughters of congress men, whose potential had been for a long period hampered by the common stereotype holding that women were inferior, came out to mobilize other women and the general public. The various nationalistic and attracted foreign women in the Ghandi initiated movements were Sarojini Naidu ( a poet and a popular figure in the congress circle), Sarla Sarabhai, Sarla chowdhry, Mithuben petite, Margret Kajins (an Irish woman), and Nali Sen Gupta (English woman) among other wives of freedom fighters (Tripathi and Tiwari, 1999). During the salt satyagraha movement of 1930, women’s role was to picket at the shops of foreign goods, and instead promoted their ‘Khadi’ urging people to change their ways; an action against the British movement, and involving the Indian women perseverance from morning to nights as they supported the liberation movement, as well as encouraging equity between men and women as a new dawn for women involvement in public and political affairs. His persona in a humanistic outlook easily connected with common human and Indian sentiments, hence smoothly influencing their psyche to embrace a spirit of non-cooperation and non-violence, during freedom struggle in the oppressive British induced politics in India. He encouraged the society by demonstrating courage when he challenged the British right to govern India, practicing what he believed was right and organizing movements to revolt the British government. Since he began his movements, the number of arrests and failures to bring change to India did not put him down, but instead spurred others to support his peaceful movements that denounced oppression and destruction of human lives; exercising his humble and patient nature, while enduring all the hardships till India received independence in 1947. Ghandi an educated lawyer: Ghandi’s role and leadership was well shaped by his education in law and political closeness in his upbringing. He had acquired knowledge in law, first from the university of Bombay in India, before proceeding to an oversee university college in London, where he completed his legal education, which was a preparation for him to hold an eminent position in Kathiawad statecraft (Spodek, 1971). His father was prominent and had the opportunity to work in the British government, not just as a member of a court, but also as a dewan/ruler in Rajkot states, meaning Ghandi’s upbringing was not drowned in poverty as the many native Indians. In his return after completing education in London, he was not successful in legal careers in Bombay and Rajkat, because he was uncomfortable with the practice and implementation of the law in the Kathiawad courts. Instead, he fled to South Africa where he is known to have spent most of his lifetime (almost two decades) practicing law as a leader of the civil right groups and a writer/editor. He got to encounter the true meaning of racism as an Indian under the British government, and grew firm and famous in his law practice. He studied diligently the cases he was assigned to and the racial discrimination against coloured people. His good reputation in practice grew stronger, after diligently managing to solve the cases between the parties by both employing law, and influencing the aspects of human nature to solve the problem, which in the end, won the trust of his Indian community and other coloured people in South Africa. He was part of those who formed the Indian Congress of Natal in 1894, a collective body intended to protect the rights and civil liberties of the Indian people and other clients including the Africans, and given the role of opposing a government proposed bill that sought to humiliate and lead to Indians deportation from South Africa once passed (Barua, n.d.). He got to first begin his non-violent resistance (satyagraha) by mobilizing the South African Indians in demand for equality, after being inspired by spiritual principles and his established phoenix farm that engaged diverse people with focus on offering service, enforcing equity, and dignity in work. At his climax, he managed to acquire huge support in South Africa and even back in India; evident from his articles in Indian opinion newspaper, and his initiation of Indian civil disobedience that came to be copied by other South African organizations, to paralyze government activities. Though he was imprisoned severally for causing South African Indian struggles against racism with his non violent movement, he made the British governments to have negotiations for a proper settlement with the South African Indians, before his return to India. Use of Hindu Ideology: Ghandi undertook a lot of readings in prison sessions, right from when he was in South Africa and even in India, with most of them being religious teachings beside inspirational works from diverse sources. It is believed that from the outset of his public life in South Africa, he learned to use a religious approach to solve social problems. According to Borah, Ghandi’s strong belief in non-violence resulted from his faith in Jainism, and borrowing from the ‘Bhagavad Gita’ that hold the cardinal principles of Hindu, encouraged him to render selfless service to the people (n.d.). Through the selfless service arising from Hindu ideology, “he organized the Indian Ambulance corps of 300 Indian volunteers and hundreds of associates to serve wounded black South Africans” (Shelokhonov, 2013). The message to live and practice truth no matter the consequence as required by the ‘Gita,’ sanctity of all lives and non-violence, were the fundamental tenets of Hinduism that Ghandi believed in, and which made many people to trust him for his reputable ideas and principles in India and South Africa. According to Stein, Ghandi’s main aim was to unify the mass movement of the Indian people, so that demand for justice for the Indian poor people would be met; effectively, the religious ideology of the Hindu became a charismatic concept that brought many people together, as to free the Indian people from the British rule (2010). With that, he was able to mobilize people through the use of religious principles, and cultural appeal to Hindu values to conduct political activities against the British. Combined with his developed persona, Hindu ideology, and the teachings from the religions, he mobilized Indian people for the non-cooperation and non-violent movement that first occurred between 1920 and 1922 (Khilafat movement). However, his ideology had little impact as he tried to promote secularism in the 1930 to 1934 movement, due to the communal differences between the Indian Muslims and Hindus (Kibriya, 1999). He devoted his time to learn and uphold the Hindu spiritual teachings, and the general humanistic principles regardless of religion, making him the people’s resort in seeking advice or the next direction. Indian National Congress and search for self rule: Ghandi returned back in India from South Africa after 1914, and although the Indian subcontinent expected him to strongly contribute in their freedom fight, he had no experience of politics and leadership in India. In his first 4 years, he spent his time studying and observing the Indian situation, as he prepared both himself and others who chose to follow his principles of satyagraha based on truth, to remove the political and social inequalities of the British rule (Borah, n.d.). Through his intuition of religious virtues and his persona, he began building around in political scenarios, first being involved in settling disputes for local Indian workers with the government. He initiated the champaran satyagraha in 1917 that opposed the government order, which restricted peasants to grow indigo in their lands, in 1919, he supported mill workers of ahmedabab to have their wages increased rather than decreased, Kheda struggle petitioning the government collection of revenues due to the poor condition of crop failure that resulted from the famine condition (Borah, n.d.). These experiences in the political scene brought him fame and trust from the Indian people, and after being a member of the Indian National Congress after his return, he was granted the congress executive authority. Although he had curved his own political figure as a servant of the people who defended their course, his nationalistic exposure became a reality when he first led the Indian National Congress (INC), allowing him to have an effective opportunity to launch national ‘Swaraj’(seek for independence) by ensuring non-cooperation with the British authorities, which led to his arrest for at least two years (between 1922 to 1924), and having served shortly in the congress, though unsuccessful but effective, he managed to awaken and inspire Indians for the self rule struggle (shelokhonov, n.d.). In 1924, the congress and the Indian people choose to use home spun and hand woven cotton clothing, as a symbol for their national identity and their support for their national economy, which was against British imported textiles. It inspired Ghandi and the congress to develop a Khadi charka flag independent of communities, but aiming to promote the economy and will of the people. Despite politically disengaging for some years after his arrest, he led the INC again from 1928, which was effective in the mass salt movement of the 1930. Other nation wide campaigns he conducted and of contributive effort towards and after independence include, Harijan movement (entailing fasting period to improve the lives of the untouchable or Indian people) aimed at strengthening women rights, enforcing education, fighting against oppression for the poor, social reform, and strengthening ethnic amity towards the end of his lifetime. Conclusion There are cases where Ghandi supported the British government such as in World War I in India, and retrieving from some non-cooperative movements to avoid delight in hurting the other party (for example in South Africa).However, much of his efforts in non-violent and non-cooperative movements were successful in portraying the British government as an oppressive rule. The mass movements he formed under his leadership were able to oppose the Indian oppressive bill in South Africa and the Rowlatt act of India. The mass movement under Ghandi and congress leaders, protesting over the JallianwallaBagh tragedy in Amritsar that left approximately 400 people dead and 1200 injured, after General Dyer of British government ordered his troop to open fire on a non-violent movement, greatly implicated the British rule to lack of respect to humanity (Borah, n.d.). His maturity and discipline in human virtues and political and spiritual aspects were convincing to the people for mobilization, to meet their demands till they acquired independence before his death. All their efforts sought for Indian revolution and reform, and liberation from oppressive governance. Bibliography Anand, M., 2006. S. RadhakrishnanHis Life and Works. New Delhi: Atlantic publishers and distributors Barua, S.K. Mahatma Gandhi Won & His Challenge to British Imperialism. [online] Available at: http://mukto-mona.net/Articles/Sona_Baruwa/Gandhi.pdf [Accessed 17 March 2013]. Borah, P., n.d. Gandhi’s Role in Indian Freedom Struggle: A Critical Understanding. [online] Available at: http://www.grmgrlaranya.com/Journals/7th%20issue/Gandhi%E2%80%99s%20Role%20in%20Indian%20Freedom%20Struggle_%20A%20Critical%20Understanding.pdf [Accessed 17 March 2013]. Kibriya, M., 1999. Gandhi and Indian Freedom Struggle. New Delhi: APH Publishing Corporation. Shelokhonov, S. n.d. Biography of Mohandas K. Gandhi. [online] Available at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0003987/bio [Accessed 17 March 2013]. Spodek, H., 1971. On the Origins of Gandhi's Political Methodology: The Heritage of Kathiawad and Gujarat. [online] Available at: http://central.d127.org/library/classprojects/gandhi/Documents/OntheOriginsofGandhiPolMeth.pdf [Accessed 17 March 2013]. Stein, B., 2010. A History of India. 2nd edition. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons. Tripathi, R. S., and Tiwari, R. P. eds., 1999. Perspectives on Indian Women. New Delhi: APH Publishing Corporation. Read More