Thursday, 9 October 2014
Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi became one of the pivotal figures, if not the main figure, in India's history in the Twentieth Century. Along with Jinnah and Nehru, Gandhi shaped India's history up to its independence in 1947.
Mahatma Gandhi was born on the 2nd of October 1869 and he died on the 30th of January 1948.
Gandhi was born in Porbander in western India. In 1888, he went to London to study law. He returned to Bombay to work as a barrister but went to South Africa to work in 1907. In South Africa, he took part in passive protests against the Transvaal government's treatment of Indian settlers who were in the minority in the region. In 1915, he returned to India and, after joining the Congress movement, he emerged as one of the party's leaders.
Gandhi encouraged Indians to boycott British goods and buy Indian goods instead. This helped to revitalise local economies in India and it also hit home at the British by undermining their economy in the country. Gandhi preached passive resistance, believing that acts of violence against the British only provoked a negative reaction whereas passive resistance provoked the British into doing something which invariably pushed more people into supporting the Indian National Congress movement.
Gandhi was imprisoned in 1922, 1930, 1933 and in 1942. While in prison, he went on hunger strike. His fame was such that his death in prison would make international headlines and greatly embarrass the British at a time when Britain was condemning dictators in Europe.
In 1931, Gandhi came to Britain for the Round Table conferences. Nothing was achieved except for the publicity that Gandhi received for dressing in the clothes of an Indian villager; Gandhi saw this type of dress as perfectly normal for a man who represented the Indian people. The British representatives at the conference were more soberly dressed in formal morning dress.
When in India, Gandhi took on the British where possible. He famous walk to the sea to produce salt was typical of his actions. Britain had a monopoly on salt production in India and Gandhi saw this as wrong. Hence his decision to produce salt by the sea.
Tuesday, 7 October 2014
Mahatma Gandhi
There is no school equal to a decent home and no teacher equal to a virtuous parent.”
read this.
I have realized; it is during the times I am far outside my element that
I experience myself the most. That I see and feel who I really am, the
most! I think that's what a comet is like, you see, a comet is born in
the outer realms of the universe! But it's only when it ventures too
close to our sun or to other stars that it releases the blazing "tail"
behind it and shoots brazen through the heavens! And meteors become
sucked into our atmosphere before they burst like firecrackers and
realize that they're shooting stars! That's why I enjoy taking myself
out of my own element, my own comfort zone, and hurling myself out into
the unknown. Because it's during those scary moments, those unsure steps
taken, that I am able to see that I'm like a comet hitting a new
atmosphere: suddenly I illuminate magnificently and fire dusts begin to
fall off of me! I discover a smile I didn't know I had, I uncover a
feeling that I didn't know existed in me... I see myself. I'm a shooting
star. A meteor shower. But I'm not going to die out. I guess I'm more
like a comet then. I'm just going to keep on coming back.”
learning.
Growing up means learning what life is. When you're little, you have a
set of ideals, standards, criteria, plans, outlooks, and you think that
you have to sit around and wait for them to happen to you and then life
will work. But life isn't like that, for anybody; you can't fall in love
with a standard, you have to fall in love with a person. You can't live
in a criteria, you have to live your life. You can't wait for your
plans to materialize, because they may never materialize the way you
think they will. You can't wait to watch your ideals and standards walk
up to you, because you can't know what's yours until you have it. I
always say, always take the first chance in case you never get a second
one, but growing up takes that even one step further, growing up means
that you have to hold on to what you have, when you have it, because
what you have- that's yours- and all the ideals and criteria you have
set in your head, those aren't yours, because those haven't happened to
you.”
learn by this
I have learned all kinds of things from my many mistakes. The one thing I never learn is to stop making them.”
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