Gandhi Great Leader Essay

Colton Fuchs, Period 1
Great Leader Essay, 2/2/15

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2nd, 1869 in Sudamapuri, also known as Porbandar, which was a town on the south-west side of the Kathiawar Peninsula. His father Karamchand Gandhi, who died when Mohandas was 15 years old, was the chief minister of Porbandar. His mother Putlibai was Karamchand’s fourth wife, and the first of his wives to not die in childbirth. Mohandas had one older sister and two older brothers. In May of 1883 Mohandas Gandhi married a 14 year old girl by the name of Kasturbai Makhanji Kapadia in an arranged child marriage. Mohandas once said in regards to the day of their marriage, “As we didn’t know much about marriage, for us it only meant wearing new clothes, eating sweets, and playing with relatives.” Gandhi’s father Karamchand died early in the year of 1885, and soon after Mohandas’s first child died a few days after birth. Mohandas graduated college at Salmaldas College in 1887, and later had four more children with Kasturbai. The first, Harilal, was born in 1888 and the second by the name of Manilal was born in 1892. The third, Ramdas, was born in 1897, and the fourth, which was born in 1900, was named Devdas.
Gandhi left India in 1888 to travel to London, England, and then, in 1893, left to go to the Colony of Natal in South Africa. While in South Africa, Gandhi was thrown off of a train in the city of Pietermaritzburg after he refused to move from first-class. The very next day Gandhi protested and was allowed in first class. Later he was beaten by the driver of a stagecoach for refusing to make room for another passenger. Another incident while he was there involved the Durban court. Gandhi was ordered to remove his turban, but he refused to do so. All of these events Gandhi was victimized by showed him the cruelty of social injustice and he decided that he was going to make a change. While Gandhi was still there, he tried to aid the Indians in opposing a bill that would deny them the right to vote. The bill still passed, but it drew attention to the injustice that Indians in South Africa had to go through. Before Gandhi left, he helped found the Natal Indian Congress in 1894, which shaped the Indian population in South Africa into a strong political force.
In 1915 Gandhi arrived back in India, and, working with Congress for 15 years, got the Indian National Congress to declare the independence of India. In that time frame, however, Gandhi also had many rolls in many events. His role in World War I was that he called Indian combatants to assist the British. In end-May of 1918 Gandhi got the British Government to stop revenue collection on the cash crop Indigo and to release all of the prisoners taken because of refusal to plant and sell the crop at a set price. He also led the Dandi Salt March where 100,000 Indians marched over 240 miles to stop the British from their outrageous tax on salt.
Many great leaders have arisen over the years, but the greatest leader by far is Mahatma Gandhi, or more formerly known as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He was known by many as an amazing leader who only participated in acts of peace. He played a key role in the struggle for freedom of Indians, and his truly humane philosophy of non-violence and truth. In his lifetime he succeeded in leading India to its independence and inspiring many movements for freedom and civil rights across the entire world. He truly was a spectacular leader with amazing qualities.