Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Young Gandhi

My hero is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. This man became known to the world as Gandhi, the Mahatma or “Great Soul” of India. Gandhi was born in India. He was a terribly shy lawyer. He was married. All that changed one day when Gandhi was denied a seat on a stagecoach in South Africa. The racist driver had made him sit outside in the hot sun on a long trip to Pretoria, simply because he wasn’t white. Gandhi, until now too shy to speak to the judge, sued the railroad company and won. From that day Gandhi became the number one spokesman for all powerless non-whites in the world. After twenty years Gandhi returned to India to learn more about his country. When he went to India he picked up the fight against British oppression.

Instead of encouraging native Indians to take arms and force the British colonists out of their country, Gandhi created a policy of non-violent protest. “Non-violence,” he said “is a weapon for the brave.” That meant that if you are with a weapon it is very easy to fight but the difficulty is not to use weapons and fight without violence. For many years, non-violent protests, marches and strikes by the Indians wore down British resistance. Gandhi wanted to be equal to his soldiers of peace only wearing a plain cloth and accompanied by millions of followers armed not with weapons but with love and truth. British government in 1946 finally tired of the protests and gave India the wanted freedom, their independence. Gandhi always said that if an Indian hit or killed or was violent to an Englishman, he would die.

Like that was life, always threatening the Indians that he would die if an Indian was violent and as no Indian wanted Gandhi to die they weren’t violent. When England gave India its independence nobody could believe that India, without a fight or a battle was independent. Sadly after this great victory India wanted to separate into two countries, Pakistan for Muslims and India for Hindus. India was all fight in the frontier. Gandhi was disappointed. After two years that fight finished and it was divided. A fanatic Hindu killed Gandhi because he was not in agreement with him. Gandhi’s legacy lived long after his death, showing the world that one can be a hero without guns or swords or hatred. As Gandhi said “It is non-violence only when we love those that hate us.”

I chose Gandhi because he was the first man who fought without violence; he taught the world that the weapon for the brave is non-violence. He defeated the biggest and most powerful empire in the world without any fight or battle only with love and truth. He made a difference in my life because he taught me that you only win when you love the ones that hate you and I know that it is difficult but if you do it you will make a difference in this world.