There are many great people all over the world. I know a lot of great people but I actually don't know what they have done and why they are famous. I just memorized their names for tests at school. I think it is good to know what the great people achieved because you can learn lessons from them. Last time I chose Mother Teresa and I chose Gandhi this time.
Mahandes Karamchand Gandhi was born in 1869 in Porbandar, the west India. He was born in a Hindus family. When he was young he was not religious and made some mistakes. He stole his brothers money, listened to his friends bad ideas, ate meat even though it was prohibited among Hindus and so on. He spent an ordinary life as a lot of young people did. In 1882, His parents found him a wife Kasturbai. He was only 13 years old but getting married early was normal among Hindus. When he was 18 years old, He went to London alone to study law. After studying in London for 3 years, he became a lawyer and returned to India.
When he was 29 years old, he got a first job in South Africa. Again he left his family in India and moved to South Africa. There, he experienced strong color discrimination and he was called "colored" like other Indians. Ghandi was supposed to stay there only for 1 year but he decided to stay there and fight against the discrimination for Indians lived there. He stayed there for the next 20 years. In the third year there he brought his family to South Africa. In 1907, he was caught in prison. It might be strange but he was willing to go to prison. It was a nonviolent protest. His nonviolent protest was reported in the Indian newspapers. This protest worked and Indians got more rights in South Africa. But it was not enough. He started to think about independence of India.
He came back to India with his wife in 1915. He arrived there wearing simple, white Indian clothes unlike other Indian leaders. He didn't know India very well, even though it was his country, since he had lived in other countries for about 25 years. What he did first was visiting a lot of places in India and meeting many ordinary people. He traveled by train, of course sat in third class, like ordinary Indian people. At that time India was a class society. There were mainly four classes which are holy men, soldiers, farmers and Untouchables. He worked hard for poor people to make five things come true. His wishes were to keep peace between Hindus and Muslimes, get the same right for Untouchables as for other Hindus, let Indian wear Indian clothes, give women the same rights as for men, and let India become independent from British rule.
In another 26 years, The situation lasted bad and after ninety years of the British Empire, India finally won Independence on August 15, 1947. Then, Gandhi's concern sifted to the Hindu-Muslim problem. His work never ended. He stopped some violence stopping eating. He announced to public that he would eat again when the violence stops. The violence slowly stopped. On January 30, 1948, the world was all shook up with the sad news. Gandhi was shot by a poor Hindu man with a gun. Since his death, a lot of great people such as Martin Luther king, Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama studied his life. They used Gandhi's ideas to get their countries independence. Gandhi's ideas are still followed by many people now. He didn't win every fight and made mistakes but his truth still shines for many people in present days.
Like Mother Teresa, Gandhi seemed to be a religious person. They both lived for poor people doing things which no one had done. They sacrificed their whole life. I felt a great power of religions. I think great people have some common sense. I want to acquire the sense.
[672words][6666words]
0 comments:
Post a Comment