Mahatma Gandhi was born on 2 October 1869 in Porbandar, India. His full name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi was an Indian lawyer and activist who used non-violent protests such as hunger strikes and civil disobedience in order to separate India from the United Kingdom. When Gandhi was alive, Britain occupied India as British Raj, and the treatment towards the Indians - especially the poorer ones - was very rude and racist. During the eighteen sixties - Mahamat’s birth decade - the American Civil war was happening. This may have sparked the start of the recognition that India could revolt and become its own nation. Continuing on from that, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, which again, may give citizens ideas of revolution and protest. The 1860s was also a very evolving era, with skiing being invented, the Suez Canal opening, and the world-superpower, Austria-Hungary, being formed. During that time period, the prime minister of the U.K was William Ewart Gladstone. Did you know, that Gladstone was the fifth longest-serving Prime Minister in the U.K ever! 12 years and 126 days. William was very opinionated towards the Indians when he declared: “I am one of those who think that to the actual, as distinguished from the reported, strength of the empire, India adds nothing”.
Mahamat was mainly associated with India, or British Raj as I mentioned above. It was his birth and death place and he may be the most associated with the uprising of India from the U.K. Although it may not be known when he was first realized by governments, his first obvious revolutionary act was when he was working as a lawyer in South Africa, in 1893. He withheld to comply with racial separation rules on a train and was ejected at Pietermaritzburg.
The reason I chose Gandhi is that he is such a role model to me, as he rose even in a time of such corruption and despair for the Indians, in racism and prejudice. He also did this in such a way where no one got hurt, because he used nonviolent protests, kind of like the silent protests that Greta Thunberg did. Therefore, he was widely acknowledged as the founder of the modern nonviolent protest. Martin Luther King took great inspiration from this and led America to his non-racist dream. Gandhi is also a great inspiration to not just me, but so many others. Without him, many Indian sporting greats such as Milkha Singh and Sachin Tendulkar, would not be alive today. Gandhi's life taught me that you can have political change without war or death. Although his life was cut short by Nathuram Godse, he will never stop affecting others.