Regan Spinks

Mrs. McBride
Social Studies
December 10, 2014

Mohandas Gandhi
You must be the change you wish to see in the world are the famous words once uttered by
Mohandas Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi may have been a small person, but he was always willing to
die or starve himself for what he believed in. His non-violent methods inspired freedom fighters from
Nelson Mandela to Martin Luther King, Jr. in their own struggles for equality. Gandhi joined the
Indian National Congress and reached out to Hindus and Muslims, rich and poor, to join him in his
acts of civil disobedience which he performed to try and gain freedom for Indians. He was willing to
risk imprisonment, torture, and even death to fight for his beliefs. Gandhi believed that it was okay to
die for your cause, but never to kill for it. He fasted and dressed in rags as part of his non-violent
protests.
When Gandhi learned that Indians worked in near slave existence on British-owned indigo
plantations, he organized a protest. The British government passed the Rowlatt Acts in 1919, Gandhi
organized a strike. Gandhi spent no less than 7 years in jail in over 4 separate trips. It wasnt always
easy for him to urge his followers to stay calm, especially when British rifles were pointed at you!
His greatest test came in 1919 when thousands gathered to protest the arrest of two Indian
nationalists. The mass demonstration broke a recent law banning public gatherings and the troops
were called in to break up the crowd. Unfortunately for the crowd, the commander of the British
forces was a trigger happy Brigadier General who ordered his troops to fire on the defenseless crowd.
They continued to fire even while people tried to flee the scene. The Amritsar Massacre left four
hundred dead. Many wanted revenge, but Gandhi called for peace. His greatest protest came in The
Great Salt March of 1930, when he walked 200 miles to scoop up handfuls of salt from the ocean,
which defied the law. As soon as he scooped up his first handful of salt, the British arrested him,
along with 60,000 followers.
All in all, Mohandas Mahatma Gandhi was a small person with a large heart. He never
failed to stand up for what he believed in, even if it could result in imprisonment, torture, and even
death. Famous freedom fighters, Nelson Mandela, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and others looked up
to Gandhi as an inspiration. Gandhi was, and still is, and inspiration to many people.