Room 613 Student Blogs - 2005/2006

“You should be the change that you want to see in the world” says Gandhi at one of his protests!!!! Gandhi was a very wonderful and interesting man!! He did so many great things for our world.

Gandhi was born in the town of Porbander in 1869 on October 2nd. He was married at the age of 13 to a girl named Kasturba; Kasturba was even younger than Gandhi. He went to England in 1888, at the age of 19 to study for a degree in law. The adults in Gandhi’s life did not want him to leave India, but he was determined. His mother told him to promise that he would stay away from WINE, WOMEN, and MEAT!!! He went anyway. When he was studying for a law degree he met many people with new ideas. Many of the people he met were not satisfied with the way society operated. He earned a degree in law in 1891 at the age of 21. Then he worked in the high court of London.

After Gandhi worked in England for about a year he moved on to South Africa. When he was there he worked as a legal advisor to Dada Abdula, an Indian businessman. The Indians in South Africa did not have political rights, so the world was very different in that way as well. The European people in South Africa called them “coolies” which was a derogatory name! Gandhi himself experienced the racism when he had a first class railway ticket but he was forced to the back car because of his color. That incident drove him to thinking that he needed to work for the rights of people of all races. He believed in non-violent resistance, as a way of producing change. Gandhi thought that the way to get people to stop being racist was to get them to think about what they had in common with the people they were oppressing.

In 1915, at the age of 43, Gandhi returned to India. Back in India he became known for working for peoples rights but mostly for workers rights, in textile mills and indigo plantations. Gandhi started the noncoperation movement which was when the Indian people stopped using British institutions and became more self reliant. It was kind of like a strike. Gandhi was then arrested and sentenced to prison for 6 years because of his actions. While he was in prison he fasted for 21 days. He did such a thing because he was upset with the Hindus and Muslims because they had started to fight again.

For the remainder of his life he worked for peace and justice, until a crisis arose. On January 30th 1948 at the age of 79, Gandhi walked out into the garden for a prayer meeting. As he folded his hands to greet his followers, Nathuram Godse shot Gandhi 3 times in the chest, bringing Gandhi to his death. As blood stained his shall Gandhi blessed his assassin. Do you think Gandhi would have punished his assassin? I don’t think so. As Gandhi said, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”

Gandhi spent his whole life working for justice and human rights. In some ways Gandhi reminds me of Martin Luther King. They were both very religious. They both believed in equality for all people. They were both members of oppressed races. They both used nonviolent methods to achieve what they wanted. Unfortunately, they both got assassinated. However, they were both really wonderful men!

I got my info at http://sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Gandhi/gandhi5.html