Gandhi's Work In South Africa example essay topic

Mohandas Gandhi, Whom most people know as Mahatma, meaning 'Great Soul,' ; is one of the most prevalent images in the minds of those who think about great leaders, in the movement for human rights and non-violence. However, not much is known about his life as a child and his achievements in the early twentieth century. All the staging grounds in Gandhi's stance towards non violence, human rights, and peace took place in the years leading up to the twentieth century and the first decade after. Gandhi was born in Porbandar, India on October 2, 1869. His family, which consisted of two brothers and one sister lived a rather good life. Gandhi's' father, Karamanchand Gandhi, was a government official for the state of Porbandar.

His mother could neither read nor write, but was very religious and was known to go on extended fasts. Gandhi's mother affected her young son at a very young age. In the state that Gandhi lived there were over two dozen religions. Gandhi learned to accept all of the different religions at a very young age. Gandhi's child hood was not very different from that of a normal child, the only exemption is that Gandhi always felt a sense of responsibility and duty. When Gandhi was seven years old his father got a new job as prime minister of Rajkot.

Gandhi continued his education and his life as if nothing had ever changed, until he was married at the age of thirteen in 1882. Kastura Makin ji was Gandhi's first wife. They were both the same age, and just like Gandhi's' mother Kastura could not read or write. She was the daughter of a merchant and like Gandhi lived a rather comfortable life. The two lived apart more than they did together, spending more time with parents rather than with each other.

Later in his life Gandhi joked that he was a stupidly jealous husband, he said 'I must say I was passionately fond of her. Even at school I used to think of her, and the thought of nightfall and our subsequent meeting was ever haunting me. I have already said that Kasturbawas illiterate. I was very anxious to teach her, but lustful love left me no time (Gold 24). ' ; Squire 2 Aside from the problems of marriage, Gandhi faced another huge turning point in his life when his father died. Gandhi respected his father Karamchand Gandhi deeply.

Although Karamchand was hot tempered at times, he had a reputation of having high integrity. During his die ing days, Gandhi would sit by Karmchands' bed for hours nursing after him and massaging his body. During the final hours of Karchands life, Gandhi left his side to be with his wife. This turned out to be a major regret in Gandhi's life. His father died a few minutes after Mahatma left him. His wife was pregnant at that time and was sleeping in another bed room.

Gandhi said, 'I saw that, if animal passion had not blinded me, I should have been spared the torture of separation from my father during his last moments. It is a blot I have never been able to efface or forget, and I always thought that, although, my devotion to my parents knew no bounds I would have given up anything for it, yet it was weighed and found unpardonable wanting because my mind was at the same time in the grip of lust (Dalton 147). ' ; In 1892 Gandhi traveled to South Africa. It turned out to be a major staging point for his unwavering stance towards non violence and equal rights.

Gandhi faced many hardships and obstacles in Africa. When he arrived in Natal he met with his employer and a week later was sent, by train, to Pretoria, Transvaal. This is were his strife began. Gandhi employer had purchased a first class ticket for his travel, but when a European passenger saw the little brown skinned Indian sitting in first class he called a railroad employee to throw the 'coolie'; out of first class.

Even though Gandhi had a valid ticket, Indians were simply not allowed in first class. Gandhi refused to leave first class and move to the third class compartment. He was thrown off the train and spent the night at the station freezing because he was too upset to get his luggage from the stationmaster. Gandhi's refusal to leave the first class compartment because of his ethnicity is a example of his character. To Gandhi race was not a means to separate people.

He felt that prejudice, on the grounds of skin color was totally wrong. He writes; 'The hardship to which I was subjected was superficial, only a symptom of the deep disease of color prejudice. I should try, if possible, to root out the disease and suffer hardships in the process. ' ; (Morris 380) Squire 3 Gandhi would many times put himself in mortal danger in order to prove a point.

When he said he should try and root out the disease and suffer hardships in the process, he knew that in order to get changes it would take allot of hardship and pain. Gandhi began to learn the discriminatory laws in the Transvaal. Indians could not own property except in specific areas, could not vote, and had to pay annual tax, they also had a 9: 00 p.m. curfew. In 1894, with permission from India, Gandhi formed the Indian Natal Congress with himself as secretary. Anyone was allowed to join if they paid a fee.

The goal of the program was to establish harmony between Europeans and Indians. Gandhi returned home in 1869 for a short visit and to pick up his family. He was known by a few Indians, his exploits in South Africa reached some in the Indian communities. Gandhi wasted no time trying to excite the crowd into action. He wrote news paper articles and pamphlets about how Indians in South Africa were being treated. Gandhi and his family set sail for Africa on November 30, 1896.

The Mood in South Africa was that of disgust and outrage towards Gandhi. A report by Reuter's News agency from London, reported on one of Gandhi's pamphlets about the problems in South Africa stated: 'A pamphlet published in India declares that the Indians in Natal are robbed and assaulted and treated like beasts and are unable to obtain redress. ' ; These statements were all false, Gandhi writings were more intellectual and reasoned. Never the less, the Natal papers quickly picked up on the topic and published numerous articles, exciting the masses of Europeans in Natal. Gandhi's ship arrived at Durban on December 19 along with a another ship containing Indian passengers. In total the two ships carried over 800 Indians.

To all the whites in Durban it seemed as if the Indians were invading. The government ordered the ships to be quarantined. A normal process for the time, except this quarantine lasted for more then twenty three days. The Indians were offered free transport back to India, and some were even threatened to leave.

After the twenty three day quarantine ended Gandhi, Being a man of strong moral character, felt he should not have to sneak into the city like a thief. He decided to exit the ship and barely walked through the crowd of Squire 4 angry Europeans. He was hit with eggs, rocks to the point were he was nearly knocked unconscious. The wife of the superintendent of police, recognized Gandhi as one of her husbands friend, and rain to his aid.

The sight of a white woman helping a little brown Indian stopped the crowd. Gandhi was taken to a friends house were his wounds we retreated. While all this was going on, a mob began to gather out side the house and even got to the point of threatening to burn the house down. The superintendent of police had to disperse the crowd, while Gandhi slipped out the back disguised as a Indian constable.

In 1906 A war broke out due to a Zulu uprising. This war was the main staging ground for Gandhi's life of servitude towards humanity. The white South Africans would leave the wounded Zulu to die, and it was up to Gandhi and his make-shift team of 24 stretcher-bearers to help the wounded Zulu warriors. The brutality and violence affected Gandhi in a deep way.

It was then that he made his determination to spend the rest of his life serving humanity. If he were going to effectively 'serve humanity'; he felt he had to undergo certain austerities. He no longer indulged in sex, or other physical pleasures. Going back to the times when his mother would fast, Gandhi related to this Hindu-holy man lifestyle. Brahm acharya, which means permanent celibacy is one of the tenets of faith, along with ahimsa, which means nonviolence to all living things, and satyagraha, which is translated into the force of truth and love. the final of the three saying, , is Gandhi's own creation (Gold 24.) Gandhi soon tested his new principles when the Natal Legislative council, passed a poll tax bill aimed primarily at the Indian population.

In 1906 the Transval in acted the Asiatic Law Amendment Ordinance, requiring all Indians over the age of eight to be fingerprinted and to carry with them at all times a registration certificate. Anyone who refused could be fined, imprisoned, or deported. Gandhi refused to let Indians be treated like criminals and feared that if this ordinance was passed, it would spread to all of Africa. On September 11, 1906 an Indian mass meeting was held in Johannesburg in which three thousand Indians were present.

All of the speakers at the meeting called for Gandhi's approach of passive resistance to fight the ordinance. The ordinance became law when on January 1, 1907, the Transval became a self governed state. Gandhi Squire 5 organized protests and non-violent rallies, to persuade the Indians not to register and be fingerprinted. The deadline the government had imposed was set back several times due to the general strike. The punishments for not complying with the law was inescapable. Hundreds of Indians were arrested and imprisoned for not following the law.

Gandhi was among those arrested. He was first sent to prison in January 1908, he served two weeks of a two month sentence. He later regarded prison as, 'A good place to relax and catch up on some reading (gold 48). ' ; His main weapon against the Europeans was civil resistance.

To him this meant not passively accepting injustice but actively, although nonviolently, opposing it by openly breaking the law and willingly suffering the penalty of doing so (Living Buddhism 03). His second act of civil resistance came on August 16 1908. Two thousand Indians in Johannesburg rallied together and burned their registration certificates. The London Daily Mail compared it to the Boston Tea Party.

Resistance continued, as new ways to nonviolently insight arrest. One day almost a quarter of Transvaal " indians were in prison. It became an honor to go to prison. On October 7, 1908 Gandhi was arrested and served two months, then again at the beginning of 1909 he was jailed for three months.

The final insult came on March 1913 when in a test case, the Supreme court ruled that all Hindu, Moslem, and Parsi marriages were invalid. This law meant that all Indian women were concubines without status, and they were liable to deportation. Also, children of Moslem and Hindu marriages were illegitimate. On egroup of women marched illegally from Transvaal to the Natal coal fields and persuaded Indian miners to walk off their jobs in protest. Women were arrested and thousands of strikers began to walk off of the job. The jails began to overflow.

Gandhi was imprisoned again. Fifty thousand laborers walked of their jobs in protest. Satyagrahiswere put to hard labor and some died in prison, including women. On December 18, 1913 Gandhi was released from prison. In January of 1913 he decided that Indians would not take advantage of the governments difficulties to make them even worse. He called of the satyagraha campaign.

The impact was amazing, even whites were impressed. Praise began to flow in from England and India. Gandhi's moral Squire 6 perfection was complete. Finally, after extreme pressure from the British Consulate in India and from the British Cabinet, the three pound tax on Indians was eradicated and restrictions against Indian marriages were also abolished. Gandhi's work in South Africa was finally complete. His moral character was unquestionable.

A clear blue print for the future had been drawn. A future of equal rights and peace, among all religions and nationalities. Gandhi declared: 'I have traveled all over the land as perhaps nobody in the present age has. The voiceless millions of the land saw in me their friend and representative, and Identified myself with them to an extent it was possible for a human being to do. I saw trust in their eyes...

(Ikeda 8). ' ;.