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The
things that will destroy us are:
politics without principle;
pleasure without conscience;
wealth without work;
knowledge without character;
business without morality;
science without humanity,
and worship without sacrifice.
- Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi was extremely influential Indian who used
non-violence to accomplish many goals.
Mohandas K. Gandhi was born in 1869 to Hindu parents in the
state of Gujarat
in Western India. He then went to school in England where
he studied and became a lawyer. In May 1893 work as a lawyer brought him to South Africa
where he saw how Indians were unfairly treated.
After seeing and experiencing injustices he decided to try to
stop these by using his weapon called �Satyagraha.�
One of the first times for him to use this was when the South
African government tried to implement the forceful registration of
all Indians in South African. Throughout his life Gandhi showed the
world what a powerful force non-violence is.
Gandhi was shot dead by a young man on January 30, 1948.
Gandhi showed what non-violence can attain when he organized
the non-violent burning of registration cards the government of
South Africa issued to the Indians. They were to be completed and all Indians were to get there
finger prints taken. If
they did not do this they would be faced with imprisonment or
deportation. Gandhi saw
this as an insult and wanted stop the government from enforcing this
and making it required. In
order to show the government that the Indians would not take this he
organized a meeting of 2000 people in which they all burned their
registration cards. As
a result hundreds of Indians were arrested and put in jail.
They did not put up a fight in court.
Gandhi was also imprisoned.
The government realized they could not simply imprison the
whole Indian population. The
government compromised with Gandhi and agreed to free the prisoners
and repeal the �Black Act� as long as the Indians would
voluntarily register themselves.
This met Gandhi's demands and he voluntarily registered.
They simply refused to take part in the registration process
because they believed it was insulting, and was simply a tool for
the white rulers to hold the Indians of South Africa down.
The government in this case stated it was against the law to
not register. They
assumed that most would obey, and they would possibly have to jail a
minority who didn't. By organizing a large group to protest, and refuse to
register themselves, it creates a problem because the government
can�t put that many people in jail.
They don�t have the resources as well as they would look
like villains in the eyes of others when the populous finds out how
many people were being jailed simply because they didn�t register. |
