Gandhi's Ahimsa Strategy. Gandhi has been described as The most famous Indian since the Buddha and the most influential political campaigner of the 20th century by historian Patrick French.
Emilie Sønderup
History, 1i
January 7th 2011
Gandhi's Ahimsa strategy
Gandhi is for some people a symbol of freedom and nonviolence; for some people a man with nonrealistic ideals and for others he was just another Indian. The majority of people view him as a huge hero, leaving behind a legacy resulting in India’s independence. The reason why I think he got so famous and attracted so much attention was because he tried to reach all his goals using acts of non-violence. During Britain’s occupation of India no one had ever tried to stand up against the British without violence. The British had never seen anything like this and didn’t know what to do about it. Gandhi was a man with many ideas and campaigns but he was also living at the right time under a British rule that was open for changes.
Gandhi has been described as “The most famous Indian since the Buddha and the most influential political campaigner of the 20th century” by historian Patrick French. (Britain and India 1845-1947 pg. 63) He was famous because he used new methods and introduced new ways of fighting for independence. He was influential because so many people followed him and would do whatever he said without even thinking about it. He was according to himself the voice of India but as stated in Paul Johnsons ‘A history of the modern world’ how can someone who has never done anything else than politics represent the working and starving population? Gandhi would never have been able to represent all religions, classes or castes. Gandhi had the ability to gather people and get mass support. Huge groups of people attract a lot more attention and have the potential to change a lot. The first example of this was the 1919 and 1920 non-cooperation movements which were campaigns intending to be all over India boycotting English clothing, law courts and elections. These campaigns were very popular and a lot of people showed up for demonstrations. In 1921 they went out of control. The Prince of Wales was visiting India and the people made demonstrations, it ended violently and 30,000 people were arrested. In December 1921 a mass civil disobedience campaign was agreed upon, but was later called off by Gandhi because of the growth of communal violence. Finally, on February 6th 1922 Gandhi declared the noncooperation movement over. He did not allow the burning of 22 policemen during a protest in the town of Chauri Chaura the day before due to his beliefs. Gandhi was anti-violent, saying “Let the opponent glory in our so-called defeat, it is better to be charged with cowardice than to sin against god” (Britain and India 1845-1947, pg. 66). Gandhi was very religious and believed in ahimsa, which means nonviolence. Gandhi fought for independence using inaction, withdrawal of cooperation, resignations, hartals, boycotts or just silence. Throughout his political career he would never stand for violence and wouldn’t hesitate to call off campaigns or demonstrations if they were not peaceful.
