Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand

INTRODUCTION

Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand (1869-1948), Indian nationalist leader, who established his country's freedom through a nonviolent revolution.

Gandhi, also known as Mahatma Gandhi, was born in Porbandar in the present state of Gujarāt on October 2, 1869, and educated in law at University College, London. In 1891, after having been admitted to the British bar, Gandhi returned to India and attempted to establish a law practice in Bombay (now Mumbai), with little success. Two years later an Indian firm with interests in South Africa retained (keep) him as legal adviser in its office in Durban. Arriving in Durban, Gandhi found himself treated as a member of an inferior  (lower in standing / not as good) race. He was appalled (to shock/disgust sb) at the widespread (spread far apart) denial(refusal) of civil liberties and political rights to Indian immigrants to South Africa. He threw himself into the struggle for elementary rights for Indians.

PASSIVE (not operational) RESISTANCE (struggle)

Gandhi remained in South Africa for 20 years, suffering imprisonment many times. In 1896, after being attacked and beaten by white South Africans, Gandhi began to teach a policy of passive resistance to, and noncooperation with, the South African authorities. Part of the inspiration for this policy came from the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy (Tolstoy, Leo Nikolayevich (1828-1910), Russian writer and moral philosopher, one of the world’s greatest novelists. His writings profoundly influenced much of 20th-century literature, and his moral teachings helped shape the thinking of several important spiritual and political leaders) whose influence on Gandhi was profound (showing great understanding). Gandhi also acknowledged his debt to the teachings of Christ and to the 19th-century American writer Henry David Thoreau, especially to Thoreau's famous essay “Civil Disobedience.” Gandhi considered the terms passive resistance and civil disobedience inadequate for his purposes, however, and coined another term, satyagraha (Sanskrit for “truth and firmness”). During the Boer War, Gandhi organized an ambulance corps for the British army and commanded a Red Cross unit. After the war he returned to his campaign(planned action) for Indian rights. In 1910, he founded Tolstoy Farm, near Johannesburg, a cooperative colony(group of similar people/ country controlled by other) for Indians. In 1914 the government of the Union of South Africa made important concessions ( special privileges/unwilling) to Gandhi's demands, including recognition of Indian marriages and abolition(outlawing a sth/official ending of a law) of the poll tax for them. His work in South Africa complete, he returned to India.

CAMPAIGN FOR HOME RULE

Gandhi became a leader in a complex struggle, the Indian campaign for home rule (national / internal /self government). Following World War I, in which he played an active part in recruiting campaigns, Gandhi, again advocating(supporting/ defending) Satyagraha, launched his movement of passive resistance to Britain. When, in 1919, Parliament passed the Rowlatt Acts, giving the Indian colonial authorities emergency powers to deal with so-called revolutionary activities, Satyagraha spread through India, gaining millions of followers. A demonstration against the Rowlatt Acts resulted in a massacre of Indians at Amritsar by British soldiers (see Amritsar Massacre); in 1920, when the British government failed to make amends(improve/ correct/behave better), Gandhi proclaimed(declare sth publicly/ publicize) an organized campaign of noncooperation. Indians in public office resigned, government agencies such as courts of law were boycotted(refuse to deal with Sth~ تحریم), and Indian children were withdrawn from government schools. Through India, streets were blocked by squatting(crouch down: to crouch down with the knees bent and the thighs resting on the calves )Indians who refused to rise even when beaten by police. Gandhi was arrested, but the British were soon forced to release him.

Economic independence for India, involving the complete boycott of British goods, was made a corollary(natural consequence) of Gandhi's swaraj (Sanskrit, “self-ruling”) movement. The economic aspects of the movement were significant, for the exploitation (If someone exploits you, they unfairly use your work or ideas and give you little in return) of Indian villagers by British industrialists had resulted in extreme poverty in the country and the virtual(معنوی، مجازی) destruction of Indian home industries. As a remedy for such poverty, Gandhi advocated revival of cottage industries; he began to use a spinning wheel as a token(slogan) of the return to the simple village life he preached, and of the renewal of native Indian industries.

Gandhi became the international symbol of a free India. He lived a spiritual and ascetic (  ریاضت کش، زاهself denial) life of prayer, fasting, and meditation (emptying or concentration of the mind). His union with his wife became, as he himself stated, that of brother and sister. Refusing earthly possessions, he wore the loincloth(breech cloth/ leung) and shawl(شال) of the lowliest Indian and subsisted (live)on vegetables, fruit juices, and goat's milk. Indians revered(treat somebody with admiring respect) him as a saint ( ( مقدسand began to call him Mahatma (Sanskrit, “great soul”), a title reserved for the greatest sages (sagacious personaltities). Gandhi's advocacy of nonviolence, known as ahimsa (Sanskrit, “noninjury”), was the expression of a way of life implicit (بدون شرط  ) in the Hindu religion. By the Indian practice of nonviolence, Gandhi held, Britain too would eventually consider violence useless and would leave India.

The Mahatma's political and spiritual hold on India was so great that the British authorities dared not interfere with him. In 1921 the Indian National Congress, the group that spearheaded the movement for nationhood, gave Gandhi complete executive authority, with the right of naming his own successor. The Indian population, however, could not fully comprehend the unworldly ahimsa. A series of armed revolts against Britain broke out, culminating(coming to highest point/به حد اعلی واکثر رسیدن ) in such violence that Gandhi confessed the failure of the civil-disobedience campaign he had called, and ended it. The British government again seized(stop) and imprisoned him in 1922.

After his release from prison in 1924, Gandhi withdrew from active politics and devoted himself to propagating communal unity. Unavoidably, however, he was again drawn into the vortex(whirlpool) of the struggle for independence. In 1930 the Mahatma proclaimed a new campaign of civil disobedience, calling upon the Indian population to refuse to pay taxes, particularly the tax on salt. The campaign was a march to the sea, in which thousands of Indians followed Gandhi from Ahmadābād to the Arabian Sea, where they made salt by evaporating sea water. Once more the Indian leader was arrested, but he was released in 1931, halting (not repeatedly) the campaign after the British made concessions to his demands. In the same year Gandhi represented the Indian National Congress at a conference in London.

Attack upon the Caste  (سیستم طبقاتی)System

In 1932, Gandhi began new civil-disobedience campaigns against the British. Arrested twice, the Mahatma fasted for long periods several times; these fasts were effective measures against the British, because revolution might well have broken out in India if he had died. In September 1932, while in jail, Gandhi undertook a “fast unto death” to improve the status of the Hindu Untouchables. The British, by permitting the Untouchables to be considered as a separate part of the Indian electorate, were, according to Gandhi, countenancing (supporting) an injustice. Although he was himself a member of the Vaisya (merchant) caste, Gandhi was the great leader of the movement in India dedicated to eradicating the unjust social and economic aspects of the caste system.

In 1934 Gandhi formally resigned from politics, being replaced as leader of the Congress Party by Jawaharlal Nehru. Gandhi traveled through India, teaching ahimsa and demanding eradication of “untouchability.” The esteem in which he was held was the measure of his political power. So great was this power that the limited home rule granted by the British in 1935 could not be implemented until Gandhi approved it. A few years later, in 1939, he again returned to active political life because of the pending federation of Indian principalities with the rest of India. His first act was a fast, designed to force the ruler of the state of Rājkot to modify his autocratic ( ruler with absolute authority / استبدادی ) rule. Public unrest caused by the fast was so great that the colonial(مستعمراتی) government intervened((داخل شدن; the demands were granted. The Mahatma again became the most important political figure in India.

INDEPENDENCE

When World War II broke out, the Congress Party and Gandhi demanded a declaration of war aims and their application to India. As a reaction to the unsatisfactory response from the British, the party decided not to support Britain in the war unless the country were granted complete and immediate independence. The British refused, offering compromises(مصالحه/ توافق/ سازش ) that were rejected. When Japan entered the war, Gandhi still refused to agree to Indian participation. He was interned in 1942 but was released two years later because of failing health.

By 1944 the Indian struggle for independence was in its final stages, the British government having agreed to independence on condition that the two contending(مخالف) nationalist groups, the Muslim League and the Congress Party, should resolve their differences. Gandhi stood steadfastly against the partition of India but ultimately had to agree, in the hope that internal peace would be achieved after the Muslim demand for separation had been satisfied. India and Pakistan became separate states when the British granted India its independence in 1947. During the riots that followed the partition of India, Gandhi pleaded (beg earnestly: to make an earnest or urgent entreaty, often in emotional terms)

with Hindus and Muslims to live together peacefully. Riots engulfed فراگرفتن / غوته ور شدن)) Calcutta (now Kolkata), one of the largest cities in India, and the Mahatma fasted until disturbances ceased. On January 13, 1948, he undertook another successful fast in New Delhi to bring about peace. But on January 30, 12 days after the termination of that fast, as he was on his way to his evening prayer meeting, he was assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu fanatic.( متعصب/دیوانه/  extremist) 

Gandhi's death was regarded as an international catastrophe(disaster). His place in humanity was measured not in terms of the 20th century but in terms of history. A period of mourning was set aside in the United Nations General Assembly, and condolences to India were expressed by all countries. Religious violence soon waned(getting smaller or less) in India and Pakistan, and the teachings of Gandhi came to inspire nonviolent movements elsewhere, notably in the U.S. under the civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.

ABRAHAM   LINCOLN

By  R.K.    &    M.I.R.  Polkinghorne

Abraham Lincoln was born in a little log cabin set in the midst of a barren and desolate wilderness in the State of Kentucky, on February 12, 1809.  The States of America were spreading westward through brave pioneers. Some were quite new frontier towns in Lincoln's time, where settlers were beginning to make homes, but in the east there were fine towns and buildings, and much cultivated land

Abraham, or Abe, as he was called, heard many tales about the Ted Indians, but now they had gone farther north and west, and were less often to be seen. In the wild forests and country round there lived many wild creatures, beasts and birds, especially fierce turkeys.

Abe and his sister helped their parents. Abe at six could do all sorts of useful chores, fetch water, use a small axe, and gather sticks for fires, which were so much needed on cold winter days.

His father, Thomas Lincoln, was inclined to live a roving life and not settle down in one place. He had never learned to read or write. He had no use for reading or writing. As the farm in Kentucky was not very successful, Thomas decided to try his luck in the new State of Indiana. It meant a journey of about a hundred miles. He took most of their belongings by boat. His wife and two children went on foot with the help of two horses, which carried some bedding, and on whose backs a tired child could sometimes have a ride.

The first thing they did when they reached the place where they were going to live was to build some sort of shelter. The first house had a roof, but it was enclosed on only three sides, so big fires had to be kept burning for warmth and to keep off wild creatures. Abe helped all he could, even using a small axe.

When more land had been cleared corn and vegetables were planted, and a much better house built, with a proper door and window. It had a strong wooden fence, or stockade, around it as a protection. Inside it they were safe. Abe helped to keep the enclosure tidy, and even to make chairs or tables.  

As soon as he was eight his father began to teach him to use a gun. This delighted Abe.

One day some turkeys came near the stockade, for there were many in the woods around. He asked his mother if he might try to shoot one. She fixed the gun in one of the loopholes for guns and told him to be careful. The turkeys began to strut towards the stockade. Bang! Went the gun, and backward fell Abe. He quickly jumped up and rushed out. There on the ground lay a big turkey!

"I've killed him!" shouted Abe. "What a monster!" Of course, it was really an accident, and the fault of the turkey for strutting in front of the bullet! But all the same it was a great event for Abe.

One of the pleasures of those early days was hearing his mother reading aloud form the Bible every Sunday and sometimes on other days. It was Abe's first story-book, and, indeed, reading-book.

His first great grief was the sudden death of his good mother. Sarah, his sister, was only eleven years old, and could not manage the housework very well, although Abe was very handy and helped her all he could. It was then that his father brought him books from the house of a man for whom he often did some work—Pilgrim's Progress, Aesop's Fables and Robinson Crusoe. These books opened a new world for him.

Then life became brighter. Thomas Lincoln married again. The new stepmother brought comfort with here. She was a widow with seven children, and they became a merry family. She soon made the log cabin very comfortable with her furniture, and thought of many improvements. She insisted on all the children going to school; she saw that Abe dressed properly, and not in any odd clothes. The old schoolmaster thought Abe a very intelligent boy and tried to teach him to behave like a gentleman. At fifteen Abe was six feet high, and he did not know in the least how to deal with his long arms and legs!

When he became a man he earned his living in a variety of ways-by splitting rails for fences, keeping a country store, acting as postmaster and surveyor, and working on the river as a boatman. On one of his river trips he went down the Mississippi to New Orleans, where he saw something of slavery, which made a lasting impression on him. He admired the strange buildings he saw in New Orleans, a half-Spanish town.

He was popular with many people, and when he was twenty-five his neighbors elected him to a term in the Illinois Legislature. He then read law, and was admitted to the Bar at the age of twenty-eight. His hard work at law developed in him a great power of lucid argument. The Southern States had Negro slaves who worked in the cotton-fields. In the Northern States the idea of slavery was not popular, and Lincoln spoke eloquently against it.

In 1861 Lincoln had become so popular in the Northern States that he was chosen President of the U.S.A, but the Southern States were not pleased, and they chose their own President, Jefferson Davis. But Lincoln and many other Americans would not allow the Southern States to secede. A Civil War (1861-65) was fought. The fighting went on over a vast area, across the woods and hills of Tennessee and Virginia and along the Mississippi. After four years of war Lincoln and the Union won.

A few days after the war Lincoln was shot by a mad man at a Washington theatre (April 1865), just as he was having almost his first moments of his real peace since the struggle began. "And now," as some one who was with him said, "he belongs to the ages."

Like Washington, Lincoln showed himself a true patriot. "Let us have faith," Lincoln said, "that right rules might, and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we see it."

He was a unique man because with little formal education he became one of his country's greatest orators. His humor, his patience under misunderstandings and unjust attacks, his courage when others wanted to yield, his steady grasp of events when the fate of his country seemed desperate, the "matchless beauty" and eloquence of his Gettysburg Address, made him a man never to be forgotten. The whole world recognized his greatness. Today in the most prominent places in London and Manchester there stand monuments to the great American.

A VALIENT BOY

Read the story carefully and suggest a moral for it.

Alexander was a great king. He conquered many lands. The father of Alexander the great was King Phillip II. When Alexander was about fourteen, King Phillip’s men brought some wild horses from the hills. There was a big black horse which no one could control. Alexander saw that the horse was not a bad horse but it was afraid of something. Alexander knew the problem with the horse. “Father,” he said “I can ride that horse.” “How can a mere boy like you ride that wild horse? My best horsemen have failed to go near that horse.” said King Phillip.

Alexander said, “Let me try father, I am sure I will be able to ride the horse.” The King said, “All right my boy, go ahead.” The young boy went up to the horse. The horse was enraged, and the boy caught the bridle. He turned the horse towards the sun. All the people were astonished and afraid.

Alexander spoke soft words to the horse. The horse became quiet and soothed. Then he boldly leaped on to the back of the horse. He rode for a while and then dismounted from the horse.

“Bravo!” said King Phillip proudly. “But how did you do it?”

Alexander explained,” Father, it was easy. At first the back of the horse was towards the sun. So his own shadow fell in front of him. This black moving shadow frightened him. I made him face the sun and he did not see his shadow. He became quiet all the time I rode him.

“My son, you are not only valiant but also very clever. You will be a great king one day.”

King Phillip’s anticipation became true and his son was known as Alexander the Great.