Gandhi

Question

• How can people with very little power end the injustice that they face?

Gandhi in South Africa

• Gandhi spent 20 years in S. Africa trying to change the laws that discriminated against Indians there

• His ideas on nonviolent action developed there

Gandhi Quote

• “The British want us to put the struggle on the plane of machine guns. Our only assurance of beating them is to keep it where we have the weapons and they have not.”

World War I

• Indian nationalists increased their demand for freedom

• In 1919 the British invoked harsh new laws, such as banning public gatherings

Amritsar Massacre

• April 13, 1919• 10,000 Indians

gathered • General Dyer

ordered his troops to open fire

• 379 dead, 1,100 wounded

Gandhi united Indians of different classes behind the cause of independence from

Britain

Satragraha, or “Truth Force”

• Gandhi’s principles of nonviolent resistance

• The goal was to “convert the wrongdoer” by showing him the brutality of his actions.

What influenced Gandhi?

• Hinduism: nonviolence and respect for life

• Christianity: love, even for one’s enemies

• Henry David Thoreau: civil disobedience

Civil Disobedience

The refusal to obey unjust laws

Gandhi’s Appeal

• Gave up western ways

• Encouraged traditional Indian industries (cotton)

• Lived simply

Gandhi’s Appeal

• Gandhi rejected the caste system

• And he reached out to Muslims

Campaign of Civil Disobedience

• Boycott of British made goods - 1920’s

• Salt March - 1930

• British responded with force

World War II

• Indians did not want to fight for Britain

• “Quit India Movement” - Indians followed a policy of non-cooperation with the British

• 20,000 arrested

As independence approached, divisions grew between

Hindus and Muslims• Hindu Congress

Party• Muslim League

• The British encouraged the conflict

Muhammad Ali Jinnah demanded a separate Muslim

Nation• Indian

Independence Act of 1947

Ended British rule

Created India and Pakistan

Jawaharlal Nehru became Prime Minister of India

Muhammad Ali Jinnah became Governor General of

Pakistan

Partition led to an explosion of violence

• 500,000 people died.

• 15 million people took part in a mass migration between India and Pakistan.

Gandhi was killed by a Hindu Extremist in January, 1948.