Mahatma Gandhi Nonviolence Essay

610 Words3 Pages

Mohandas Gandhi is one of the greatest nonviolent activists ever. Gandhi came up with the word ahimsa, which meant nonviolence. He also introduced to the world the word satyagraha, which meant peaceful civil disobedience. In 1930 Gandhi and a group of followers began a march of more than 200 miles. Three and a half weeks later they made it to their destination, the sea. At the sea, Gandhi picked up a handful of salt. This act went against the British law mandating that they buy salt from their government and this law did not allow them to collect their own salt. That act was made to let the British government know that the Indian people were tired of being under Britain’s rule and they were tired of following all of the unjust laws that were …show more content…

He thought that if he died that it would make national headlines and people would see how unjustly the Indian people were being treated. Gandhi was imprisoned many times, but this did not stop him and his movement towards freedom. There was a point in the movement when it started to get violent and Gandhi made sure to suspend the movement and emphasized to the Indian people the importance of nonviolence. The Indian people were very disciplined. The first reason they were disciplined is because of their leader Gandhi. Gandhi always made sure that they kept the movement nonviolent. They had meetings on how they were going to approach the movement, they were organized and had a plan. Gandhi got many of his ideas and principles through reading the bible, reading the Bhagavad Gita, and writers like Henry David Thoreau. Gandhi and the Indian people created some dilemmas to throw the British government off balance. Gandhi told the Indian people to boycott all British goods and only buy Indian goods. Boycotting the british goods hit the foundation of the british economy and at the same time buying Indian goods was good for the local economies. The turning point was when Gandhi and the Indian people made the salt march to the