When we mention the name of Mohandas Gandhi, we cannot help but think of peace through diplomacy and freedom through non-violence.  Gandhi was a great leader of the people of India.  He was called Mahatma, which is equivalent to a saint or prophet.   He undoubtedly deserves much more credit than anyone else for having  worked hard to secure India’s independence.  Gandhi had many disciples, one of whom was Jawaharlal Nehru, the first head of the Indian government, when India became independent.

Gandhi believed that force and violence are wrong for any reason.  He advocated the philosophy of non-violence by refusing to resist when his countrymen were mistreated.  He was born in western Asia, in 1869, and studied in India and in England.  He practiced law in India and South Africa.  Many Indians live in South Africa where he was involved in fighting injustice and discrimination.

Upon his return to his own country,  he started to preach three main ideas, namely,  home rule for India, development of small home industries, and the abolition of the caste system.  India continued to be ruled by the British and he felt that it was high time that it should govern itself.  In order to achieve this objective, he advocated passive resistance, instead of violence,  as well as peaceful disobedience to unjust laws that were enacted by the British. The British did not offer any economic stimulus to the poor people of India.  There was no real incentive to spur the people to help themselves.  This was not acceptable, and therefore, something had to be done to ameliorate the impoverished circumstances of the people.  Gandhi believed that small home industries would help his people to eat and live more productively.

Gandhi was a devout Hindu. He abstained from eating meat. His lived a simple and unassuming life and stood firm in opposing the Hindu caste system.  The caste system  means that a way of living is inherited and those that were born  into a particular caste were permited to work and live only in certain ways, as decreed for members of that caste, such as the caste of “untouchables,”  “Untouchables” were shunned by members outside their caste and performed only the most undesirable work.

Gandhi was, not only loved by his own people, but was also respected by the British and everyone else.  Whenever he wanted the British government to do something that he considered necessary for his people, he would decide to “fast unto death.”  This forced the British to yield to his demands, as they feared that his death might cause a rebellion.  He and his countrymen had finally won independence in 1947.

In 1948, while Gandhi was holding a prayer meeting in New Delhi, he was assasinated by a Hindu for having been responsible for the division of India, in the name of peace and non-violence.