Mahatma Gandhi ji

Gandhi's journey against racial discrimination                  In the life of Gandhi feel of racial discrimination started when he in South Africa. He faced humiliation on many occasions but made up his mind to fight for his rights. This turned him into an activist and he took up on him many cases that would benefit the Indians and the other minorities living in South Africa . Indians were not allowed to vote or walk on the footpath as those privileges were limited strictly  to the Europeans.Gandhi questioned this unfair treatment and eventually managed to establish an organisation named 'Natal Indian Congress' in 1894.After he came across an ancient Indian literature known as' Tirukkural', which was originally written in Tamil  and later translated into many languages, Gandhi was influenced by the idea of Satyagraha (devotion to the truth) and implemented non violent protest                                                                                    During his stay in Pretoria, Gandhi read about 80 books on religion. He came under the influence of Christianity but refused to embrace it. During this period, Gandhi attended Bible classes.Within a week of his arrival there, Gandhi made his first public speech making truthfulness in business his theme. The meeting was called to awaken the Indian residents to a sense of the oppression they were suffering under. He took up the issue of Indians in regard to first class travel in railways. As a result, an assurance was given that first and second-class tickets would be issued to Indians "who were properly dressed". This was a partial victory.These incidents lead Gandhi to develop the concept of Satyagraha .He united from different communities, languages and religions, who had settled in South Africa.By the time Gandhi arrived in South Africa the growing national- perpetuated by the White ruling authorities and the majority of the White citizenry - anti-Indian attitude had spread to Natal (now kwaZulu-Natal). The first  Law of 1885 was passed in the South African Republic, or the Transvaal. The right to self-government had been granted to Natal in 1893 and politicians were increasing pressure to pass legislation aimed at containing the 'merchant [Indian] menace'.                                                                                                         

Satyagraha

Influenced by the Hindu religious book, the Bhagvad Gita, Gandhi wanted to purify his life by following the concepts of aparigraha (non-possession) and samabhava (equability). A friend gave him the book, Unto This Last, by John Ruskin; Gandhi became excited about the ideals proffered by Ruskin. The book inspired Gandhi to establish a communal living community called Phoenix Settlement just outside of Durban in June 1904. The Settlement was an experiment in communal living, a way to eliminate one's needless possessions and to live in a society with full equality. Gandhi moved his newspaper, the Indian opinion established in June 1903 and its workers to the Phoenix Settlement as well as his own family a bit later. Besides a building for the press, each community member was allotted three acres of land on which to build a dwelling made of corrugated iron. In addition to farming, all members of the community were to be trained and expected to help with the newspaper.

Gandhi believed that his taking the vow of brahmacharya had allowed him the focus to come up with the concept of   Satyagraha in late 1906. In the very simplest sense, Satyagraha is passive resistance. However, Gandhi believed the English phrase of "passive resistance" did not represent the true spirit of Indian resistance since passive resistance was often thought to be used by the weak and was a tactic that could potentially be conducted in anger.

Needing a new term for the Indian resistance, Gandhi chose the term "satyagraha," which literally means "truth force." Since Gandhi believed that exploitation was only possible if both the exploited and the exploiter accepted it, if one could see above the current situation and see the universal truth, then one had the power to make change. (Truth, in this manner, could mean "natural right," a right granted by nature and the universe that should not be impeded on by man.)In practice, Satyagraha was a focused and forceful nonviolent resistance to a particular injustice. A Satyagrahi (a person using Satyagraha) would resist the injustice by refusing to follow an unjust law. In doing so, he would not be angry, would put up freely with physical assaults to his person and the confiscation of his property, and would not use foul language to smear his opponent. A practitioner of Satyagraha also would never take advantage of an opponent's problems. The goal was not for there to be a winner and loser of the battle, but rather, that all would eventually see and understand the "truth" and agree to rescind the unjust law.                                                                                        FROM WHERE GET THE TITLE MAHATMA                                                                       It  was during his first year back in India that Gandhi was given the honorary title of Mahatma ("Great Soul").  Many credit Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize for Literature, for both awarding Gandhi of this name and of publicising it. The title represented the feelings of the millions of Indian peasants who viewed Gandhi as a holy man. However, Gandhi never liked the title because it seemed to mean he was special while he viewed himself as ordinary. However other sources claim it was Nagar Sheth of Jetpur, Shri Nautamlal B. Mehta (Kamdar), who was the first to use and bestow "Mahatma" for Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on 21 January 1915 at Kamri Bai School, Jetpur, India. From then on, Gandhi was known as Mahatma Gandhi. It is commonly believed that Rabindranath Tagore first bestowed the name. However, this is incorrect.                            IMPORTANT LITERATURE WORK BY MAHATMA GANDHI JI                                                 HARIJAN IN GUJARATI, INDIAN OPINION WHILE IN SOUTH AFRICA, YOUNG INDIA IN ENGLISH ,NAVJIVAN GUJARATI MONTHLY ,AUTOBIOGRAPHY MY EXPERIMENT WITH TRUTH SATYAGRAHA IN SOUTH AFRICA  ,HIND SWARAJ OR INDIAN HOME RULE POLITICAL PAMPHLET, VILLAGE SWARAJ ,KEY TO HEALTH.                                Important quotesof Mahatma Gandhi ji                                                                      Be the change that you want to see in the world.

A man is but a product of his thoughts. What he thinks he becomes.

I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.

Nobody can hurt me without my permission.

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong.

An ounce of practice is worth a thousand words.

A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.

Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served.

If you want real peace in the world, start with children.

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

In a gentle way, you can shake the world.

If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.

Hate the sin, love the sinner.

Glory lies in the attempt to reach one’s goal and not in reaching it.

Whenever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love.

An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.

The future depends on what you do today.

To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.

The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace.

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.

You don’t know who is important to you until you actually lose them.

I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.

You may never know what results come of your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results.

I cannot conceive of a greater loss than the loss of one’s self-respect.

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.