Gandhi and Mandela:Liberators for their People

by: Nichelle Trulove

Gandhi's BeginningsMohandas Gandhi was raised in a small town in India with both Hindu and Islamic practicing parents and also had Christian influences from passing missionaries. He had no real religious views of his own.

Gandhi, around nineteen years old, left for Britain to study to be a lawyer. He returned to India three years later, in 1891, to practice.

His law pursuit in India proved unsuccessful and was called on by a Muslim firm in South Africa where he remained for 21 years.

While traveling to South Africa, Gandhi experienced his first trouble with segregation against colored skin. “It was a turning point in his life. He resolved to stay and fight for his rights” And so it began.

It was there that he developed his 'satyagraha', his plan of non-violence, which he continued to develop throughout his life to free his people.

(Gandhi as law student)

(Parekh 1-6)

Gandhi's EffortsGandhi did return to India and “he became an influential national leader within four years of his return thanks to his well received work in South Africa and successful leadership of the Champaran and Kaira satyagrahas of 1917 and 1918 respectively and of the Ahmedabad textile workers' strike of 1918”.

• “Gandhi launched a Non-cooperation Movement in 1920 which lasted for about two years. This involved resignation from government services and refusal to use courts and schools. He promised independence from the government if non-cooperation was total”.

He was arrested because of his leadership in the protests. After he was released, “Gandhi was elected president of Congress in 1924”.

Ten years after his Non-cooperation movement, he “launched a satyagraha against the government's decision to tax salt. Along with 78 companions representing various regions and religions, he started his 24-day march south some 241 miles away. He was 61 at the time”. (Parekh 15-20)

(Gandhi's Salt March)

Mandela's BeginningsRolihlahla Mandela, later named Nelson by his school teacher, was raised in a small village of poverty born to a high-ranking family in the Eastern-Cape province of South Africa.

When Mandela was around ten years old his father died from disease. This was after Nelson was sent to live with a guardian for higher education, and he lived with a sense of abandonment for years.

Mandela's first major in college was native administration and his first job in the big city was a police man. He felt like the education he had up to now was in-sufficient and went back to study law. “Mandela's growth into political awareness was occasioned not by an 'epiphany' racial incident, but rather by the 'thousand indignities' he witnessed every day on Johannesburg's streets”.

After the 1943 bus boycott, Mandela “discovered himself to be 'devoted' to the liberation of his people”. And so it began.

(Mandela as law student)

(Boehmer 21-36)

Mandela's EffortsMandela helped set up the ANC Youth League which was “one of the most important important forces to shape South African politics in the second half of the twentieth century. It called for the African people to 'determine his future by his own efforts'”.

• “Mandela qualified as an attorney the same year he became a public political presence, and joined with a fellow-graduate in establishing South Africa's first back-owned law office”.

Two years later, Mandela was sent to the Treason Trial with fellow ANC colleagues for five years for their 'un-lawful' actions. “In 1961 the Treason Trail finally collapsed with a full acquittal for all”.

Four years after Mandela was released from his 27 years in prison, he “was inaugurated as South Africa's first democratic president”.

After he stepped down from office he continued his work by setting up multiple children's charities with his wife, significantly the Children's Fund, and he strove to gain awareness for HIV/AIDS.

(Boehmer 37-45; 76; 80-81)(Mandela at his Children's Fund)

Sources

Parekh, Bhikhu. Gandhi: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press, 1997. 60-66. Print.

Boehmer, Elieke. Nelson Mandela: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press, 2008. 60-66. Print.

Pictures from Google Images