Mohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi 1869-1948

Wedding Day

Gandhi and wife, Kasturba

Gandhi 1905-6, lawyer in South Africa

Gandhi (middle center) with members of the non-violent resistance movement in South Africa

Gandhi’s two-fold mission

• India’s independence from Britain

• Peace among Hindus and Muslims

On being free

Every one of you should, from this very moment, consider yourself a free man or woman and even act as if you are free and no longer under the heel of this Imperialism. This is no make-believe. You have to cultivate the spirit of freedom before it comes physically. The chains of a slave are broken the moment be considers himself a free man. He will then tell his master: ‘I have been your slave all these days but I am no longer that now. You may kill me, but if you do not and if you release me from the bondage, I will ask for nothing more from you. For hence-forth instead of depending upon you I shall depend upon God for food and clothing. God has given me the urge for freedom and therefore I deem myself to be a free man.

“Salt March” to Dandhi, March/April 1930Protest against the British Salt Tax in Colonial India

Successful – 60,000 were imprisoned

Fasting in March 1933Protest against British Rule after release from prison

Gandhi engaging Muslims in 1947 “If a man reaches the heart of his own religion,

he has reached the heart of the others too.”

GANDHI

-- Truth unifies all humankind

-- Love, not violence, is the proper relation among people

-- Satyagraha is strength -- “soul-force” – and not weakness

-- The life of a satyagrahi:

-- living simply, in accordance with needs, in tranquility

-- does not fear death, is always willing to sacrifice for justice

-- disobeys and accepts the punishment that goes with it

-- Truth always wins

-- Swaraj -- independence

GANDHI

-- Truth unifies all humankind

-- Love, not violence, is the proper relation among people

-- Satyagraha is strength -- “soul-force” – and not weakness

-- The life of a satyagrahi:

-- living simply, in accordance with needs, in tranquility

-- does not fear death, is always willing to sacrifice for justice

-- disobeys and accepts the punishment that goes with it

-- Truth always wins

-- Swaraj -- independence

GANDHI

-- Truth unifies all humankind

-- Love, not violence, is the proper relation among people

-- Satyagraha is strength -- “soul-force” – and not weakness

-- The life of a satyagrahi:

-- living simply, in accordance with needs, in tranquility

-- does not fear death, is always willing to sacrifice for justice

-- disobeys and accepts the punishment that goes with it

-- Truth always wins

-- Swaraj -- independence

GANDHI

-- Truth unifies all humankind

-- Love, not violence, is the proper relation among people

-- Satyagraha is strength -- “soul-force” – and not weakness

-- The life of a satyagrahi:

-- living simply, in accordance with needs, in tranquility

-- does not fear death, is always willing to sacrifice for justice

-- disobeys and accepts the punishment that goes with it

-- Truth always wins

-- Swaraj -- independence

GANDHI

-- Truth unifies all humankind

-- Love, not violence, is the proper relation among people

-- Satyagraha is strength -- “soul-force” – and not weakness

-- The life of a satyagrahi:

-- living simply, in accordance with needs, in tranquility

-- does not fear death, is always willing to sacrifice for justice

-- disobeys and accepts the punishment that goes with it

-- Truth always wins

-- Swaraj -- independence

Gandhi’s Optimism

What is the good, they ask, of only one person opposing injustice; for he will be punished and destroyed, he will languish in prison or meet an untimely end through hanging. The objection is not valid. History shows that all reforms have begun with one person.

GANDHI

-- Truth unifies all humankind

-- Love, not violence, is the proper relation among people

-- Satyagraha is strength -- “soul-force” – and not weakness

-- The life of a satyagrahi:

-- living simply, in accordance with needs, in tranquility

-- does not fear death, is always willing to sacrifice for justice

-- disobeys and accepts the punishment that goes with it

-- Truth always wins

-- Swaraj -- independence

Swaraj

So long as we act like machines, there can be no question of morality. If we want to call an action moral, it should have been done consciously and as a matter of duty. Any action that is dictated by fear or by coercion of any kind ceases to be moral.

Mere withdrawal of the English is not independence. It means the consciousness in the average villager that he is the maker of his own destiny, he is his own legislator through his chosen representatives.

Self-government means continuous effort to be independent of government control whether it is foreign government or whether it is national. Swaraj government will be a sorry affair if people look up to it for regulation of every detail of life.