Gandhi: a very Short Introduction

Gandhi: A Very Short Introduction is a work that is truly inspiring, and I believe that it was written for many reasons. Bhikhu Perekh can summarize the impact that Gandhi had on the Indian Nation. This would include the time before his assassination as well as the time after. The author is also able to show and explain the major philosophical insights that Gandhi had. Along with this, Bhikhu had access to some extraordinary woks by Gandhi himself, making his introduction very detailed and intriguing.

Lastly, we see that the author outlines Gandhi’s views on anthropology as well as his view on politics, as well as theories he had developed.

I do not believe there was a single audience that this was written for, I believe it was written for everyone to read about how this man was able to impact a whole nation, and how that impact continued even after his assassination.

How has Gandhi been able to impact the world, especially India? Gandhi was a leader able to spiritually alter the lives of so many. Those who lived in the southern region of India were mostly impacted by his spiritual leadership. Gandhi’s methods and his extension of influence throughout society started as something small and then was changing the world. With India’s increase in economic, social, and political values there was a lack of stability and this is one of the reasons the impact started so heavy. With Gandhi in favor of non-violent protest we see that a strong background in culture as well as independence began to grow. With Gandhi being able to claim independence from Britain through non-violent protest, there became a transformation of poverty in India. Equal labor and income rights for workers were then established, Gandhi truly investigated the rights of common people. Aside from India in particular, Gandhi was able to associate himself with overcoming problems worldwide such as sexism, labor rights, lack of education, racism, and even poverty. He was also a human rights activist.

Gandhi was a man who had high hopes to lead people because of their change in hearts and minds, while advocating non-violence in all aspects of his life. Gandhi was committed to Hinduism all his life. With he was also very critical of every single faith. Also critical about hypocrisy of organized religion. For Gandhi we see that religion was a role played a constructive role in politics. Gandhi was able to lead India to independence with a struggle founded on religious beliefs. Gandhi’s mission was to win self-rule, otherwise known as Swaraj. For Gandhi, releasing God on earth was his main goal, and winning independence was just a part of it.

Gandhi’s actions and even his life truly gives the essence of what it is to be human. Throughout his life we see that he made personal sacrifices, and this is how he can teach people the love of humanity along with the sincerity. Every person on this earth has the right to live in peace, and to Gandhi, he perused these rights with hope for everyone to become non-violent. At every chance he got, Gandhi wanted to challenge different conditions that were able to destroy peace in life. Gandhi had many ways in which he thought could help save humanity. The largest threat to humanity is violence. This violence can be created by nuclear weapons to religious fundamentalist. Methods given by Gandhi would include decentralization, village industry and spinning-wheel. Industrialization and globalization have been increasing in todays society and they possess both a positive and a negative impact on society. These negative effects include poverty along with hunger, unemployment, and lastly disparity. Gandhi would like to an uplift of the poor.

According to Gandhi there was never a place for violence in the human experience. He believed that is was every human’s right to live in peace, and this would mean there needed to be no violence. The real significance in Gandhi’s impact on India and the world is that in his eyes was that he was able to make a large impact without using violence. He objected to violence constantly. Not only did Gandhi see that those who were not armed stood no chance, but because he considered violence to be a weapon that was unreliable, creating more problems than it was able to solve while leaving a trail of hatred.

I think this book was assigned in order to highlight Gandhi’s actions and how they were able to impact a large scale of people. We see that Gandhi was able to progress in his believes because of his actions. Now days we see protest and they can be very effective, but most times these protests lead to violence and rather than people discussing the issue the protest was trying to over we see numbers of people injured or dead during said protest. We see that violence is an act used for people to be able to obtain what they want, and most importantly we do not see peace in humanity. As a teaching tool I believe this book does an outstanding job of outlining how one can impact billions. I think as a teaching tool this book can discuss humanity and the rights; we should be able to have but do not. I also think that this book does a phenomenal job of showing how Gandhi was ale to use his spiritual beliefs in politics without corrupting the system or damaging the country. I believe the importance of the era I read was that there was a struggle between man and humanity, and there was also a non-violent solution. I see that during this era there are some minimal differences to the society I now live in, but for the most part, there is still poverty, and there is still racism, sexism and many more problems being faced today much like there were back when Gandhi lead millions. I think that there is something to be learned from Gandhi, and that was his purpose.

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