Mohandas Gandhi: A Catalyst for Change

this video is brought to you by glasses USA more about them in a bit but if you want glasses is not 70% off retail follow the glasses USA link in the description you'll love it although give you your money back and let's get into it Mohandas Gandhi started out as a scared painfully young man yet he was transformed by injustice to step beyond his insecurities to become the 20th century's most influential champion of social justice and the standard bearer for nonviolent resistance his example of humility courage and quiet dignity has inspired millions and been the catalyst for the change to a better world in this week's by graphics we discover the inspirational story of the great soul Mahatma Gandhi [Music] [Music] Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October the 2nd 1869 in the coastal Indian town of poor Banda he was the youngest of six children which included two half-sisters from his father's previous marriage montez's father calm Chand was the deewan or political leader of Banda his mother but li Bai was deeply religious impressing strong Hindu beliefs on her children quran chants provided well for his family who lived in a three-story house and had servants laundress was known by all as Mohan he was especially devoted to his mother who he considered to be a saint her piety made a deep impression upon him when the boy was 5 his father was appointed the chief minister of the smaller inland city of ratch court after two years the family joined him there Bowen was a painfully shy child who kept to himself at school when his lessons were done he would run home in order to avoid having to talk to any of his peers he was also a fearful child he was terrified of many things but especially the dark he found his only at solace in books which were something of a constant companion when he was just seven years of age s was the Hindu custom Mahad became engaged to Kasturba Mohanji Kapadia who was a few months older than him the arranged marriage was completed when Mohan turned 13 the planning for the knavish wedding ceremony and adjustment to married life meant that he had to take a year off from his schooling he was an average student at best though he tried hard to please his teachers he had no interest in sports games or social activities with any of his peers he did however make one friend around this time he was a Muslim boy by the name of Shaikh matam Sheikh was all Durin's more street smart than Mohan he was also physically larger and stronger than him he tried in Mohan about his frail condition and told him that if he ate meat he would get much bigger and stronger now this was strictly against the Hindu beliefs but Mohan met his friend in secret one day and he had his first taste of meat even though they caused him to vomit he continued to eat it for the next year without letting anyone else know during that period Shaikh took him to a brothel and experian which was an embarrassing disaster for the impressionable team realizing that shake was a bit of a bad influence e cutoff association with him and returned to a strict vegetarian diet Bowens father kam Chong's died when the boy was 16 years old the grief was compounded when Marne and Kasturba spher child died less than a week old the couple would go on to have four more children with the first being born in 1888 no one completed college at the age of 18 and enrolled in some modest college however he disliked the lecture style of teaching and dropped out after only a few months he had set his sights on becoming a lawyer and eventually becoming a Diwan like his father the family friend suggested that he should go to England to study where it was easier to pass the bar it was agreed that this would be the best course for the shy Hindu boy was now headed for the bright lights of London on August the 10th 1888 maan left his family including his wife and his one-month old son Harilal and he headed for Bombay where he boarded a ship that was bound for London before leaving though he was summoned by the leader of his caste who warns him that if he went to England he would be tempted to break the rules of Hinduism he was told to either abandon his plans or be excommunicated from the caste Gandhi accepted this consequence and he continued upon his way fitting into Western culture though it was a it was a shock to the 18-year old everything it was so different what he had known back in India still he did his best to fit in buying a fine suit complete with leather gloves top hat and silver tips cane he also paid for lessons in elocution manners and dance his biggest challenge was with regard to his diet he had vowed to his mother that he was not going to eat meat but he was finding it very difficult to find restaurants that catered to vegetarians his chronic shiners prevented him from requesting alternatives to what was on offer finally though he found a vegetarian restaurant along with a whole community of vegetarians and it was at this point that he joins the London vegetarian society despite his difficulties with fitting into London life Gandhi did well academically he passed his lore exams in June of 1891 his friends at the vegetarian society they held a celebratory evening in his when it came time to give a speech however Mohan was so nervous that he simply rose and only said thank you on his return to India Mohan was met at Bombay harbour by his older brother who bought some terrible news his mother but li Bai had died in his absence moans grief was compounded with the consequences of his overseas for a he was now disfellowshipped from his caste in order to please his family members he agreed to bathe in a sacred River in order to wash away the sins of England this precipitated his re-entry into the caste Gandhi looked for work as a lawyer in Bombay however his chronic shyness was still preventing him from making any advancement he recalls how he felt presenting his first case before the court saying my head was reeling and it felt as if the whole court was doing likewise he retreated to the less imposing town of rajkot and established a small law office there shortly thereafter he received an offer from a merchant who had been a friend of his father this man was now based in South Africa and he needed a lawyer to help with a court case the year-long job was offered to Gandhi and he accepted her too despite recently becoming a father again he kept his wife and two young sons under the care of his brother and he headed off the Durban South Africa in April of 1893 after settling into his new surroundings Gandhi took the trains Pretoria where the court case was to be tried he purchased a first-class ticket however on one of the stops the European man boarded the car that he was in the man resented seeing an Indian in first class and left to find the train conductor the two men returned and Gandhi was ordered to go down to the third-class section Gandhi showed them his first-class ticket and refused to move after that train security was called and Gandhi was kicked off the train he had to go the rest of the way in a horse-drawn carriage however the white passengers of their carriage they refused to let an Indian sit inside with them and he was made to sit on the outside footboard he later recalls the insult was more than I could bear this was the watershed experience of mahon dress Gandhi's life as if by miracle he shook off his timid nature and stepped forward as a leader of the oppressed when he arrived in Pretoria he called a meeting of the Indian community and gave the speech of his life calling for the Indians to stand up for their rights once his work on the court case was complete Gandhi decided to stay and continue to fight for Indian rights in 1894 he established the natal Indian Congress to give Indians a political voice he established himself as a leader in the local community giving free legal advice and offering support in 1896 after three years in South Africa Gandhi returned to India to collect his family he returned with his wife and two sons who were now aged nine and five along with a nephew Gandhi demanded that his family dresses Europeans and eat with knives and forks as was the way with Indians in South Africa this caused tension within his family still two more songs were added to the family in the coming years when the burr war broke out in 1899 Gandhi fell to that if the Indian supported the government they would be rewarded with that a treatment he organised an Indian ambulance corps who were a valuable asset to the army but the loyalty it went unrewarded with the harsh treatment continuing during this time Gandhi develops the life philosophy which was to guide him for the remainder of his days he called it satyagraha which means devotion to the truth the three core tenets of the belief were non-cooperation non-violence and non-possession in 1906 the South African province of Transvaal enacted a law that required all Indians to register and be given identity cards the police were allowed to stop and demand their registration at any time no other group had this requirement Gandhi advocated the use of satyagraha to counter the law he told people not to register as a result he and many others were thrown in jail but Gandhi taught that righteous imprisonment was an honorable thing the concept of satyagraha took hold and Gandhi established a number of cetera settlements the people in these settlements they practiced non-possession living a simple and austere life Gandhi also organized a large coal miners strike the men practiced non-cooperation by refusing to work and non-violence by refusing to react when they were attacked by authorities in July of 1940 in the South African government passed the Indian Relief Act which went some way to righting the wrongs that had been heaped upon the Indian community the 20 years of struggle that Gandhi had put in the cause were largely responsible for these changes and after this he was ready to return to India bringing his philosophy with him and you know what else he brought back to India with him his famous glasses yes I absolutely just did that welcome to an unexpected abri brought to you by glasses USA and you can bet that Gandhi wish they existed back when he wore glasses because they're just excellent these ones they're called Elias and I've also got two others that you see me wearing from time to time there's one this there's also a bigger pair which I don't have on my little table here but you can also get them in a whole bunch of other stars they've got a huge range some four thousand options are available and hey they've also got designer sunglasses you saw me wearing these at the beginning of the video now this isn't actually on the talking points but I believe what is perhaps the biggest testament to glasses USA is that this is my second pair of sunglasses from them a few months ago I lost a pair while I was on holiday and by lost I mean I literally flushed them down the toilet by accident I really couldn't be making this stuff up and I had such a good experience with glasses USA that I just went on the internet and bought the same identical pair they already had my prescription I just plugged it in and I bought a new pair that's exactly the same I think that really says a lot about how great it is you can also try them on online with a virtual mirror and the best thing of all it's super affordable glasses USA they cut out the middleman giving you prescription glasses at up to 70% off retail and frames and lenses they start at just $30 plus you buy quality lenses they're every good as bit as my old glasses that I had ages ago they were overpriced and just not as good and if you're not happy you can just send them back there's a hundred percent money-back guarantee you can check out glasses usa.com in the link below and get a special deal on your first pair and let's get back to Gandhi and his non glasses USA specs [Music] Gandhi was surprised to receive a hero's welcome back to India his efforts on behalf of South African Indians had been well reported over the years an indian poet referred to him as Mahatma meaning great soul and the name took hold as a sign of respect the shy young man who had left in 1893 returned in 1915 as a leader and he was a leader with a mission and that of course was Indian self-rule Gandhi also challenged his own people to look at the unfair treatment within their own culture he challenged the caste system and especially the terrible treatments of the lowest class known as The Untouchables he established a said gareja settlements in which the people spun yarn and farmed fruit trees Gandhi accepted Untouchables into this community and taught the local peasants proper hygiene and encouraged factory workers to wage peaceful strikes against their unfair working conditions despite his belief in non-violence Gandhi did support the British war effort during World War one at the war's end the government passed an act making it illegal for any group to organize in opposition to the government Gandhi called for a mass strike to protest the Lawrence for one day the whole of India came to a standstill it was clear evidence of the power that Gandhi was able to wield yet when reports filtered in that some Indians had resorted to violence on the day of peaceful protest he was bitterly disappointed he knew at that point that his people as a whole were not ready for satyagraha now the British were concerned that there would be further outbreaks of violence and so a law was passed banning any gatherings of Indians in the city of Amritsar one of the places where violence had occurred the following day was the beginning of the religious new year about 10,000 people gathered in the town square they had not yet heard the news of the ban as they were peacefully listening to a speech 90 soldiers and two armored cars turned up they blocked off the only exit and proceeded too far their weapons into the unarmed crowd of men women and children 379 people were killed that day with more than a thousand being wounded [Music] in 1920 Gandhi became the leader of the Indian National Congress advocating his nonviolent resistance and instituting strikes and boycotts to bring pressure on the system Gandhi told the people to boycott British cloth and spin their own he vowed to spend time spinning every day and took to wearing clothing made of hand spun cloth he made the spinning wheel a national symbol of Indian independence Gandhi traveled throughout the massive countryside going mostly on foot he never - with the downtrodden in their makeshift dwellings and listened to their problems to them he was a saintly figure and they referred to him as Babel meaning father in March 1922 Gandhi was arrested for sedition the trial gave him the platform to expound upon the unfair treatment of Indians and his refusal to cooperate with unjust laws pleading guilty he was sentenced to six years imprisonment gandhi though he was not deterred using his time of confinement of read and study after two years he was released his focus was now on creating harmony between Hindus and Muslims for centuries the two groups had been at loggerheads with one another with violent clashes often breaking out Gandhi saw that independence would be impossible without unity and he was determined to bring these two groups together Gandhi undertook a hunger fast as a tool to bring the Hindus and the Muslims together for three weeks he only drank water as their Babu grew weaker by the day the Hindus and Muslims finally agreed to put aside their differences in order to stop his suffering on March the 12th 1930 Gandhi began a month-long track from his ashram in under about to the sea hundreds and then thousands of followers of all religions and carson's joins him along the way news of the March a filled papers around the world the British had long imposed a law making it illegal for anyone to make salt from seawater in India as a result they were able to make huge profits from their salt tax 24 days after setting out on his march to the sea Gandhi arrived at dandy on the gulf coast of Cambay the following morning Gandhi walked out into the sea water to bathe on his return he picked up a handful of salt in defiance of the salt act this act was a signal for his countrymen and up and down India's coastline thousands of others began collecting seawater in order to make and sell salt many were arrested including Gandhi who was thrown in prison for a second time yet the British could not silence Mahatma officials now realize that this man held a powerful sway over the masses he simply could not be ignored any longer furthermore the British government both in India and at home were being pressured by other governments to release Gandhi from jail finally the British Viceroy in India Lord Irwin met with Gandhi after lengthy discussion they came to a truce Gandhi would call off the demonstrations the prisoners would all be released and Indians would be allowed to make their own salt in 1931 Gandhi traveled to London to represent the Indian National Congress at an international roundtable conference he called for Indian independence from Britain he keep complete independent net we want rather than mix with the other delegates in their 5-star hotels Gandhi stayed with an old friend and spent his days walking around the slums dressed in his traditional homespun kadhi and his sandals he was by now the famous international figure and newsreels of his visit were shown in movie theaters all around the world [Music] shortly after returning to India Gandhi was again arrested for inciting civil disobedience while he was in prison the British government passed a law that discriminated against the untouchables in court proceedings Gandhi was infuriated and announced that he would not eat until this law was revoked fearing that his death would create a martyrdom that would doom them in the eyes of the world the authorities caved in and the law was rescinded when Britain declared war on Germany in 1939 Gandhi told the authorities that Indians would only join the war effort if they were promised their independence three years later he started a quit India movement as always he planned for the campaign to be nonviolent but things soon got out of hands and riots broke out across the country the authorities blamed Gandhi and once more he was thrown in jail his beloved wife Kasturba was also imprisoned at this time indeed she soon became ill dying in custody On February the 22nd 1944 following his wife's death Gandhi grew weak with malaria the authorities agreed to release him in May of 1944 and he went to Bombay to recover and recuperate the end of World War two saw a Great Britain on its knees though victorious it had spent exorbitant amounts in the war effort and now no longer had the resources to maintain its rule within India with little choice in the matter Britain offered India its independence it was the grand victory that Gandhi had been fighting for for the past 30 years even though the nation was now free to rule itself India was still plagued with deep division between Hindus and Muslims the only solution seemed to be to divide the country up into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan this was a move that was greatly displeased to Gandhi who longed the unity between these two groups in the weeks following the creation of Pakistan there were violent clashes between Muslims and Hindus up and down the country Masek has occurred throughout 1947 with both sides being equally responsible for the bloodshed hundreds of thousands of people died and there were riots in most of the major cities On January the 13th of 1948 the 78 year old Gandhi began a fast in order to get the madness to stop he was so despondent that he refused to even drink water despite the physical pain that still led prayer-meeting from his bed his words were broadcast around the entire country five days into his fast Muslim and Hindu leaders agreed to a peace accord [Music] however Gandhi was still very concerned about the direction the fledgling nation was taking the new Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was constantly at odds with his deputy Vala PI Patel and Gandhi counseled both men to make peace on January the 30th 1948 he was in a meeting with Patel just after 5:00 p.m. he came out into the garden of Villa house in Delhi to offer prayers weakens from his recent fast he leans on two of his followers for support as he walked a crowd of some 500 people were waiting to greet him as he made his way to the platform a Hindu extremist angered at Gandhi's leniency towards the Muslims stepped forward he bowed before the Mahatma and then pulled out a pistol and fired three shots in succession a point-blank range within half an hour the last breath of life had seeped out of his body and the great soul was no more when he heard the news of Mahatma's death the Prime Minister stated the light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere Mohandas Gandhi was a light not just to the people of India but those of the entire world his funeral procession through the streets of Delhi was attended by more than two million people and years after his death countless other millions including a young Baptist minister from Georgia named Martin Luther King would find inspiration in his words and in his legacy so I really hope you found that video interesting if you did do give us a like below and don't forget to subscribe also check out glasses USA it's just a great deal you'll find a link in the description below and as always thank you for watching [Music] you

Channel: Biographics

Views: 261,164

Keywords: Mahatma Gandhi, gandhi biography, biography of gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi bio, mohandras gandhi, who was gandhi, what did gandhi do, life of gandhi, what happened to gandhi

Id: N1pOKoUMz7s

Length: 21min 15sec (1275 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 27 2018