Mustafa Kemal And Mohandas Gandhi example essay topic

Compare and contrast Mustafa Kemal with Mohandas Gandhi, explain their similarities and differences. In 1918, the Ottoman Turks were already independent, and consequently the allies (the United States, Great Britain, and France) wanted to make them pay. They were going to divide the Turkish territory among themselves. These were the conditions in Turkey at the time. The Turks' feelings about being split up between the allies and the Greeks were very simple. Obviously they didn't agree.

They wanted to remain independent and not be subjects of anyone else. So they elected Mustafa Kemal, who was considered a major hero to the Turks for capturing the Galippity Peninsula, was elected to be leader and ignored what the Sultan in Constantinople was saying, and they formed their own government. In 1923, the Turks defeated the Greeks and Britain and France decided to not send any force over and engage in any other war with the Turks. Simply because the British and the French were totally exhausted from WWI.

They no longer had the same energy or power. Getting themselves involved in another war was the last thing they wanted to do. So they negotiated with Kemal a completely new set of treaties. Turkey maintained their national independence and the Allies were finally over with all the fighting. The Turkish independence was preserved, and everyone was happy. Now in 1923, after everything was settled and there was peace, many new changes happened under Kemal.

First, Kemal made changes in the government. He got rid of the Ottoman empire, overthrew the Sultan, and made Turkey a republic. Next, Kemal secularized Turkey (secularized- no main religion in place). Turkey had been an Islamic Empire but when Kemal overthrew the Sultan, the religion was no longer dominant. Kemal tried to separate church and state, like the Europeans. No established religion, none was above the other.

Religion was now a private affair. This was a revolutionary move on Kemal's part. Kemal basically tried to modernize Turkey. Lastly, Kemal established new laws, saying that women were no longer forced to wear the veil, the mark under Muslim customs of their seclusion from public life. In traditional Islam society, women couldn't show themselves in public to keep men holy and prevent impure thoughts from entering men's minds. Kemal did away with this.

Women were to be equal and become part of public life, and get educated, get a job, and no longer had to wear the veil. All of these established efforts were major contributions for Turkey by Kemal. Mohandas Gandhi was borned in 1869. He married at 13 and in 1891, completed his studies. In order to devote himself selflessly to his work, he denounced all worldly possessions mainly for the purpose to free India of British rule. People working with Gandhi protested their rights in a non-violent and passive way.

Gandhi's continuous effortful and harmless acts of defiance were basically his pleas for freedom. On August 15, 1947, the Indians received their independence and they marched for their freedom. Ghandi's job was now done, but yet he was disappointed because of the partitioning of India. At the age of 78, Gandhi was murdered. India had lost their leader and the entire world mourned. Gandhi preached passive resistance even in the face of death and lead a revolution without guns nor violence.

His basic idea was to disobey unjust laws in a just way. Gandhi was the first since Jesus to preach non-violence and non-violent protest and resistance. Gandhi said if you obey oppressive, unjust laws, you are degrading yourself. Non-violence was productive he said. Violence achieved nothing, it only increases the problem. Gandhi preached return good with evil, not evil with evil.

His basic idea was practicing civil disobedience and passive resistance requires tremendous amount of faith. Mustafa Kemal and Mohandas Gandhi were very much alike in all basic ways. They both tried to better their environment, the way of living at the time, and enforce and establish new ideas and concepts for the betterment of their nation. They were both good people trying to help the people around them.