Gandhi

Austin Shvarts

Laura Neuman

English 802

21 September 2010

Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi had a dream of changing India’s views on violence. To me, it’s nothing more than a dream. There are so many violent people in the world, and in order to change that a miracle is needed. Gandhi wishes to make nonviolence a universal practice for India. Gandhi believes children should be taught nonviolence before anything. In present day, self suffering and nonviolence would work on some people, but others are so barbaric that it would fail.

Gandhi’s outlooks are based on truth and love, in other words satyagraha. Gandhi says, “All religious sects and divisions, all churches and temples, are useful only so long as they serve as a means towards enabling us to recognize the universality of satyagraha”(449). Recognizing the universality of satyagraha is important because one must realize that truth and love should be everywhere. Without satyagraha, nonviolence is not possible. Not even Gandhi has perfected nonviolence.

Nonviolence isn’t something someone can just pick up. It takes many years of practice, considering Gandhi hasn’t perfected it. Gandhi lets his fear of snakes and scorpions interfere with his method of nonviolence. He wishes to be able to play with snakes and scorpions without fear, but he has let his people kill snakes and scorpions while he could have prevented it. This is once flaw of Gandhi’s ability to use nonviolence. There are cases where it is okay to kill animals, but this is not the case. For example, Gandhi says “To allow crops to be eaten by animals in the name of ahisma while there is famine in the land is certainly a sin”(450). Killing an animal in order to better mankind is an exception to nonviolence.

Gandhi believes suffering must be a part of one’s life. “No country has ever risen without being purified through the fire of suffering. Mother suffers so that her child may live. The condition of wheat-growing is that the seed...