Mahatma Ghandi:Man of Faith

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Background

Mahatma Ghandi was born in India on October 2nd, 1869. When he was 18 he went to London, the Imperial capital of the English empire, to study law. While he was there he stayed true to his religious requirements and did not eat meat or engage in promiscuos activity. He not only maintained his faithfulness to his religious precepts, but studied and intellectually accepted vegetarianism. He became actively involved in the Vegetarian Society and became one of its leaders. His experiences with this group helped him in learning how to organize institutions. This experience would be important in his later years when he organized non-violent protest groups. Some of the other members of the Vegetarian Society belonged to Theosophical Society. They encouraged Ghandi to read spiritual and religious works which he did.

Ghandi's Growth in Faith

Up until the point where he read spiritual and religious works due to the encouragement of his fellow members of the vegetarian society, Mahatma Ghandi was not a man of strong faith. He lived by the laws of Hinduism but he did not respect them fully or understand them. When he had read about the spiritual beliefs of his religion more thoroughly he began to change. These works were the beginning source of Ghandi's strive for peace as a tool for equality of all people. The major change in Ghandi's life came when he was in South Africa on military duty. Ghandi had not fully realized the opression of the people around him by Europeans. While he was in South Africa he was often beaten and put out of hotels and trains for not complying with the demand to give what he had to a European. At this point in his life Mahatma Ghandi began the major change in his life. He began to organize a movement against the treatment given to Indians in South Africa that only used peaceful protest as a tool to acheive the goal they sought. He encouraged Indians in South Africa to resist the treatment they were being given in a nonviolent way. His success in this case led Ghandi back to India where he used similar tools to acheive the unity and freedom of India from the British. Ghandi had so much faith in nonviolent protest against injustice that he was willing to starve himself until India achieved independence from the British. He encouraged those around him to also use nonviolent protest to achieve their goal. Mahatma Ghandi had unsurpased trust and faith in the fact that nonviolent protest and resistance to injustices could help him and those around him to acheive equality and freedom for all peoples.

SOURCES
wikipedia.com
historylearningsite.co.uk
lucidcafe.com