Mohandas Karamachand Ghandi was born in 1869, in the state of Gurajat, Western India. When he was a mere age of thirteen he was arranged to marry Kasturbai Makanji. In 1891, Mohandas and his family were sent to London. Where he would study law and become an attorney. It was in South Africa where Ghandi would begin to practice. But the treatment that he endured as an Indian citizen was far too much. Ghandi then used his knowledge of t It was in South Africa that Ghandi truly began to see the injustices of the British Parliament.
Colonialists harbored so much hatred, hostility and prejudices towards immigrant Indians that it was appalling. Mohandas K. Ghandi was infuriated and determined to fight for those who couldn’t fight for themselves. Ghandi’s major enlightening experience was when he resigned from law and enlisted in the Boer war. He organized the ambulance corps sub-unit of the Red Cross and assisted in the battlefields of Natal. During the war Ghandi was ordered to assist in stopping a Zulu rebellion. But the so-called rebellion was anything but a fai?? ade to allow the slaughtering of many Zulu villagers because of the color of their skin.
Ghandi then decided to pull out of the war and fight for those suffering from injustice. Ghandi was determined to right wrongs and improve the rights and status of his fellow Indian immigrants. He began to tackle issues one by one. Starting with small protests and opposition to unjust South African law, Ghandi managed to organize the Indian community. And they’re first battle would be against the South African Black Act. The Black Actr was just another means of oppressing both black natives of South Africa and the Indian immigrants. It forced the Indians of South Africa to register with the government.
All idians above the age of eight would have to register and carry a passbook containing a thumbprint and their information all the time. If an Indian or black for that matter, was seen without a passbook or wasn’t registered they would immediately lose their right to residence, be imprisoned for several year, obliged to pay a large fine and or even be deported. This enraged both Ghandi and the Indian community. The bill if passed would surely enslave the Indian populations taking away both their human rights and integrity as human beings. Outraged Indians crowded the Imperial Palace in Johannesburg.
Ghandi hoped that his strength in numbers could sway parliament into not passing the bill. Ghandi believed if the bill was passed the fate of Indian communities across Africa would be compromised. Parliament had consequently passed the bill. Civil disobedience, riots and bonfires of burning papers ensued. Thousands of Indians including Ghandi were imprisoned. Indians believed that any kind punishment or consequence would be better than submitting to the bill. After being freed from prison Ghandi journeyed to Britain there he had hoped to change the bill.
Meeting almost half-way with the colonial forces, the Black Act was amended and registration would from now on be voluntary. Many Indians were still unhappy and Ghandi was criticized for submitting to the Act. In 1910 ghandi founded the Tolstoy Farm, a cooperative colony for Indians. There they planned sit-ins, boycotts of colonial good and services, and preached Satygrah meaning ” truth and firmness”. The South African government would soon come into agreement with Ghandi’s demands. This included; the acknowledgment by law of Indian marriages, abolition of poll taxes and the right to business and residence.
By 1917 Ghandi had influenced the change of several other laws in South Africa, steadily, improving the quality of life for South African Indian immigrants. Through passive resistance, civil disobedience and Ghandi’s will to free his people. He was successful and it was soon time for his departure, for he was headed towards a much bigger fight, the freeing of mother India. It was now time for Ghandi’s campaign for home rule. Ghandi with his thousands of followers began to use satygrah ” soul force” as their method of combat.
Ghandi taught Indians that non-violence and passive resistance would be the only way for colonial forces to eradicate India. When word of Ghandi’s plans to free India reached the british parliamentary. They enacted the Rowlatt Acts. When Indian colonial forces were given these emergency powers to end revolutionary acts satygrah spread like wild-fire through all of India. The Rowlatt act entitled police to the use force as they saw fit. The Rowlatt Act resulted in the massacre of thousands of Indians at Amritsar. The british parliament failed to make amends and organized a campaign of non-cooperation with the colonial forces.
Indians resigned form public office, children were pulled out of government schools, Indians boycotted all british goods and services and were even sitting in the streets blocking the transportation of British Parliamentary workers. But it didn’t end there, in addition to the boycott of british made goods Ghandi preached to Indians to make their own cloth and food, to live moderately and buy only Indian manufactured goods. This resulted in more business for the farmers of India who were suffering from taxation from the British.
