Discussion

1

Philosopher Lecturette Transcript

Gandhi Lecturette

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born at Porbandar, a

coastal city in Kathiawad (now a part of the Gujarat State,

India.) on the 2nd October 1869. He was the youngest child of

his parents, Karamchand and Putlibai.

http://www.mkgandhi.org/intro_autobio.htm

Mohandas Gandhi Otherwise known as Mahatma ('Great-Soul')

Gandhi led the Indian nationalist movement against British rule.

He is considered the father of his country. He is famous for his

doctrine of non-violent protest to achieve political and social

progress. (BBC,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/gandhi_mohandas.shtml)

Gandhi trained in London to become an attorney where he met the socialist,

George Bernard Shaw, whose ideas contributed greatly to the shaping of his

personality and politics. He returned to India in 1891, to begin practicing law at

an Indian law firm in South Africa. (BBC)

Racial intolerance in India was rampant. He was evicted from train carriages,

barred from hotels and beaten up. These actions caused him to enter into

political activism for equal rights. In 1894 he opposed a bill that would deprive

Indians of their right to vote. Although he failed to stop the bill, his entry into the

political scene was thus established. (BBC)

Gandhi refused to accept the treatment of his people but also refused to lower

himself to the standards of his oppressors. To reconcile these moral imperatives,

he used only nonviolent civil disobedience to force governments to change

their policies and to achieve independence for India. As a result of his success,

nonviolent civil disobedience has been adopted by movements seeking social

change or revolution in many parts of the world, including the Civil Rights

Movement in the United States and revolutions in the Philippines and Russia.

Gandhi also campaigned for Hindu/Muslim brotherhood, against oppression of

2

the untouchables, and for reform in the treatment of women. He is personally

responsible for saving hundreds of thousands of lives in India through fasting

which stopped communal rioting. (Teach with Movies.com,

http://www.teachwithmovies.org/guides/gandhi.html)

Gandhi was imprisoned for his political efforts in March 1922. His two year

imprisonment saw the split of his party and the minimizing of his political

influence, until the Calcutta Congress in December 1928. He demanded

dominion status for India, and threatened a nation-wide campaign for

complete independence. In 1931 he attended the Round Table Conference, in

London, as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress, but resigned

from the party in 1934 in protest at its use of non-violence as a political

expedient. (BBC)

Gandhi‟s multifaceted personality showed in his thoughts, creative activities,

different movements, organizations, and his own life- style. His creative activities

cover mainly political, economical, social, educational, religious as well as

medical fields. Gandhi believed that economic self sufficiency for an individual

and for a nation is required. This led him to think about and study upon various

economic problems of the country and device action plans for solving them. His

writings were not educational fancy—he believed that a person or country

could never be without ETHICS and NONVIOLENCE. Even in his economics

policies he espoused Ethics and Nonviolence. He suggested work oriented, skill

oriented and nationality oriented basic education. (Chaturvedi, “Gandhi - A

Unique Practical Economist,”

http://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/gandhi_economist.htm)

Soon after Gandhi‟s resignation, killings and riots raged between Hindus and

Muslims. Gandhi's appeals for calm were ignored, and so he began fasting. This

stopped the riots in Calcutta in September, and in Delhi in January 1948 - but

only days later, Gandhi was shot dead in Delhi by Nathuram Godse, a young

Hindu fanatic. (BBC) Gandhi‟s economic principles including his views on non-

violence and ethics were incorporated. He warned that they would take 50

years or more to take affect on the country. Although not specifically tied to

Gandhi, it is interesting to note that in the „90‟s, India‟s economy really began to

take off. (http://www.imf.org/external/np/speeches/2002/012202.htm)

A summary of Gandhi‟s ethics can be stated through his talisman:

3

Gandhi’s Talisman

"I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes

too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and

the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the

step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gain

anything by it? Will it restore him [her] to a control over his [her] own life and

destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and

spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and yourself melt

away."

- One of the last notes left behind by Gandhi in 1948, expressing his deepest

social thought.

Source: Mahatma Gandhi [Last Phase, Vol. II (1958), P. 65].

From: http://www.mkgandhi.org/gquots1.htm