Write an essay on modern India by inspiration of Mahatma Gandhi
Answers
Gandhi’s relevance in the 21st century
By Alexander Tham, Class 7A,
British International School, Bratislava
October 2009
Gandhi’s teachings about Satyagraha (devotion to the truth) were not only known in South Africa and India but also around the world, starting in Asia, then in Europe, and also in America. He was not only the Indian leader but also a world leader. Nearly everybody knew him and what he did. They were trying to be like him. They were practicing non-violent protests and solving conflicts without a fight.
Gandhi’s books and actions inspired a lot of other people that did extraordinary things to help the world such as Martin Luther King jr., Dalai Lama, Barrack Obama, Mother Teresa, and Nelson Mandela.
Gandhi was born in India, in a small place called Porbandar. His father, Karamchand Gandhi, who belonged to the Hindu Moth community, was the diwan (Prime Minister) of the small Porbandar state.
His father was truthful and fare-minded and Gandhi surely did inherit these qualities. His mother was very religious. She was strict with traditions such as not eating meat. She was a kind and a peaceful woman.
Gandhi’s parents were role models for him and they helped to formulate his beliefs and personality.
Gandhi went to study law and train as a barrister in England. When he finished he went to South Africa to work there as a lawyer. When he got to South Africa he saw discrimination of blacks and Indians in South Africa. He even experienced discrimination personally. In South Africa he was trying to help to liberate Indians and blacks, to make them equal with whites. He was doing this with teaching Indians and blacks in South Africa to use the method of satyagraha.
Satyagraha is from the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain religion. This means that you should be kind and equal with your neighbour, and solving conflicts non-violently. Gandhi extended this concept of satyagraha to resolving conflicts within nations and between nations.
At the age of 40, he returned back to India where he continued his teachings about satyagraha. He was trying to make India independent from the British. The Indians wanted to fight the British but Gandhi warned never to use violence. After many years of non-violent protests and campaigns Gandhi and India won. Gandhi became the Father of the nation for his role in this fight for India’s independence. Thanks to Gandhi, India gained independence without any violent fighting. Sadly, two years after India gained independence, an assassin shot Gandhi. Gandhi died aged 78.
Gandhi didn’t win all the fights. Some of his ideas went wrong and didn’t work. But he always followed his truth and beliefs. Many people in many countries follow his ideas today.
In the recent years, we saw same of the best examples of non-violent ways of solving conflicts within nations and between nations. e.g.: Poland, the Czechoslovak Republic, the Baltic States, the Philippines and several other countries.
In 1989 Poland became the first country in Eastern Europe to free itself from Soviet domination, without violence.
On November 17th 1989, a non-violent protest in Prague against the Soviet occupation turned into the largest protests in the history of Czechoslovakia.
Many people were injured when the security forces attacked these people. Thousands of people gathered together at Wenceslas Square, in Prague. They sat down and sang nursery rhymes. They were only holding candles and waving flags in a peaceful way. Their leader Vaclav Havel asked them not to use violence against the security forces. The Prague protest resulted in protests over the whole country. In every major city like Bratislava, Brno, and Kosice, people gathered together and sat down on town squares. They were holding candles, keys, flags, and flowers. People were giving candies to the security forces, all without violence. The security forces did beat some of the demonstrators but they couldn’t possibly beat up all of them. Some people didn’t go to work and instead they sat down and did this quiet protest. On December 7, the Communist Prime Minister resigned. By the end of December 1989, the Soviet regime had given up and Vaclav Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia.