Mahatma Gandhi's Political Influence on the World

Mahatma Gandhi's Political Influence on the World

No doubt Mahatma Gandhi was a revolutionary figure who left a dominant mark in history. His influence reflected throughout his beliefs. Gandhi was one of the main leaders who changed India positively. Being a Politian helped him achieve his goal. His main goal was to make India an independent nation. He strongly believed in non-violence, which was his strategy in life. Knowing and understanding Gandhi's beliefs, mostly his non-violence movements and how he reached his goals peacefully can help us grasp his ideology and how we can apply it to our politics today.

Gandhi had many beliefs that he applied in his life. He was a moral man, making truth his only objection in life; he believed that truth is the substance of all morality and therefore lived to only speak of the truth (Bok, 1993). That's why he was always known as a moral and truthful man, which was an asset he had that helped him achieve so much and gain people's support. Also Gandhi believed in having a simple life, which made him a modest man who always tried simplifying his way of life. He made various experiments in deities and religion that in the end resulted in making him and his family strong believers in vegetation, even through the hardest times of illness refusing to take meat or any other non-vegan food to help him get cured. He believed in earth treatment and applied to his family (1993). Most importantly he believed in non-violence.

A leader by nature, Gandhi lead people by his non-violence beliefs and incidents that reflected the effect of his beliefs positively, which are the reasons he had accomplished so much in his life time. He was a man who tried to live up to his

ideas (Bilgrami, 2001). As a politician he used strict non-violence methods that were effective and made him known as a shrewd politician (2001). In the beginning, Gandhi went to South Africa to practice law. There he had encountered many obstacles from the nationals mostly because of their racist issues and discrimination between black and white. Gandhi's first struggle in South Africa after staying there for a year and being the anti colonial that he is, faced his first obstacle raising an argument wanting the white politicians to treat Indians equally and have equal political rights, and stop looking down on them as black Africans (Adams, 2010). Also Gandhi encountered many other obstacles, and threats from the whites, since he was an activist and always fought for his rights and beliefs. He was once asked how he would stick to his non-violence principle if the white carry out their threats. He replied saying:

"I hope god will give me the courage and the sense to forgive them and to refrain from bringing them to law. I have no anger against them. I am only sorry for their ignorance and their narrowness. I know that what they are doing is right and proper I have no reason therefore to be angry with them" (Bok,1993, p.190).

After returning from South Africa the major non-violence movements Gandhi made was getting India free from under the British colonization peacefully. He was the one who introduced the strategy of non-violence restraint, which are the essence of non-violence politics (Bilgrami, 2001). First