Gandhi and Martin Luther King

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R.S2 By Chris Drew

The teachings in R.S1 greatly influenced both Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi was a man who helped the country of India to independence. More importantly he did this without ever using violence. The fact that he never used violence helped, because, India got sympathy from other countries.

Mahatma Gandhi was born on 2 October 1869 in India, he got married at the age of thirteen, and then in 1888 he went to England to study law. Three years later he passed his law examinations and enrolled as a barrister. This would help him later on in life when he was in court for the breaking the law.

Gandhi's first effort to get equal treatment for Indians was in South Africa where all Indians that lived there had to carry identification papers. To try and get equal treatment he incited people to burn their identification papers, (he also burnt his own.)

The thing that made Gandhi try and get equal treatment for all Indians was when he was travelling to Pretoria by train. He had bought a first class ticket, but he was asked to move to a third class compartment. He refused and got thrown out onto the platform. He refused to be moved down to third class because he had been in England for three years and was still used to the way of life over there. (Not to say that there was no racism at all in England at that time, just to say that it was a lot better.) After this, he decided to stay in Africa and improve the conditions for Indians living there.

He invented two words for his method of fighting, (as he didn't believe in violence, they were obliviously not violent ways of fighting.) And they were satyagraha, which means standing up for something you're convinced is right, and ahimsa, which means love operating through non- violence.

Gandhi would have thought this because of Hindu beliefs and the fact that he had also studied Christianity that teaches to love thy neighbour. Because he believed this it meant that he could never be violent and he always encouraged others to be non violent.
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For the next twenty years he Gandhi fought to obtain equal for Indians. He often had to go to prison for breaking laws, (which Gandhi thought were unjust laws.)

In 1896 his search for religious faith became more earnest and he had talked to Christians and Muslims. Gandhi could see that there was truth in all religions. It is because of this that his beliefs are not all strictly Hindu because there is a lot about Hinduism that he did not like. He didn't like the dressed temples made to look nice and he also disliked the ...

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