Essay Gandhi: British Empire and India

Submitted By Michael71
Words: 1329
Pages: 6

Gandhi
Part 1
Gandhi is an Indian who gave the Indians independence. He stopped the British Empire from ruling India. It started when Gandhi was sitting on a train in first class, a member of the train staff asked him why he was in first class. Gandhi explained how he had a first class ticket but was told that only white people could sit in first class and that he had to move back down to third class. Gandhi disagreed with the rule and refused to move back to third class. As a result of this Gandhi is thrown off the train at the next stop.
Gandhi is left at the station annoyed and angry about how white people are considered superior to black people and wants this to change.
Gandhi takes action and organises protest but he has one rule to his protesters that it has to be peaceful protesting. This starts off as very small people and the fact that it is peaceful it seems like it won’t work. But Gandhi’s protest grows big quick and eventually they are happening all over India.
Soon after Gandhi started protests he is arrested, this makes protests bigger and when Gandhi is in court he questions the judge to what he has done wrong. The judge makes the decision that Gandhi can pay to be released, but Gandhi says he refuses to pay so the judge lets him go.

Part 2
A large group of Indians are having a meeting to stop the British from ruling India. Making big meetings like this are banned by the British Government. The British police that are working in India find out that a group is doing this, so they bring a few men in to break it up.
During the meeting a few of the men go in with guns and aim down their sights. The group of Indians go silent and stay still, they are very nervous.
The British police are ordered to fire their guns at the big crowd. As soon as they started firing the Indians were trying to escape (children were in this group of Indians). There was a big hole in the middle that the Indians had dug in advance to jump in in case something like this would happen.
At the end of this it was counted as 1516 casualties with 1650 bullets, this is known today as the massacre and is the darkest day in India’s history. The British government apologised after the massacre. A few years later a meeting is held with Gandhi and the leading British, Gandhi says in this meeting that 100,000 English people cannot control 350000000 Indian people that won’t co-operate.
Gandhi makes a huge meeting with Indians after and says how they will burn all cloth for sale and make their own cloth. The reason Gandhi said this was because the reason the british are in india is to make money and if the Indians don’t buy their cloth, they will lose money.

Part 3
The Indian protest to give India independence has become so big that many Indians start to break Gandhi’s rule of non-violence. There is a part where Indians burn a police station while police are in there.
When Gandhi here’s this news he is cross and upset as he strongly believes that violent protesting will not work in anyway. One of his friends reminds him of the quote ‘eye for an eye’, it is here where Gandhi says one of his most famous quotes ‘an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind’. This means revenge doesn’t work, it just makes things worse.
As Gandhi is strongly against violence, he chooses to fast from eating food until it stops. When Gandhi starts his fast it is only a few days/weeks until violence has stopped. Gandhi is happy to hear this and starts eating again but soon later he is told that he would be arrested. Gandhi questions the policeman and asks on what charge is he arrested. The policeman says that he is being arrested for trying to get rid of the government. Gandhi thinks if he goes to prison, that’s the best protest he can make.
When Gandhi makes his entrance into court everyone stands for him, including the judge. This is because everyone respects Gandhi for stopping the violence. Even though the judge respects Gandhi, he still has to