Gandhi In the twentieth century Gandhi stimulated fresh expressions of Hinduism in independent India. Gandhi was a Hindu leader who was against the British government, served time in British jails, and in 1947 became one of the leaders of a new India where Hinduism is still the dominant religion. Gandhi studied in Britain and practiced law in South Africa. He was keenly aware of the injustices imposed by the British, and of the the injustices imposed by Hindus on untouchables. In Hinduism an untouchable is a person, often a Shura, who is considered by upper cases too impure to allow physical contact. But Gandhi referred to them as Harijan’s or Children of God.
In life he worked for their welfare, in death he inspired continuing care for them. He tried to kindle, by example, the light of truth available to the simple virtues of Hinduism. The masses of Hindus loved Gandhi for his organization of mass demonstrations, nonviolent resistance and emphasis on fasting in prison until others did his bidding which the British did not appreciate. Gandhi had a sound spiritual foundation for his program of reform. Influenced by Isha Upanishad, two doctrines shaped his personal commitments and public actions, satyagraha and ahimsa. Satyagraha, or truth force meant to Gandhi that God is truth.
A persons entire life should be a commitment to seek and fulfill truth. Ahimsa is non-injury or nonviolence but can also mean love. For Gandhi this meant that to love God is also to love the being in whom God dwells. There is no room for hatred or violence among any humans. Before anyone can correct the impurities and injustices within the world, they must purify themselves. Gandhi was perhaps the bets example in the twentieth century of using spiritual force to effec political change.
The Term Paper on Hinduism India Gods Hindus
Hinduism, religion that originated in India and is still practiced by most of its inhabitants, as well as by those whose families have migrated from India to other parts of the world (chiefly East Africa, South Africa, Southeast Asia, the East Indies, and England). The word Hindu is derived from the Sanskrit word sindh u ("river"-more specifically, the Indus); the Persians in the 5 th century BC ...
He said that having rejected the sword, he had nothing to offer his opposition but love. He lived in expectation that in some future life he would be able to hug all humanity as friends. Gandhi s spiritual approach was influential in moving the British government to grant independence to India in 1947. Gandhi influenced such people as Martin Luther King, Jr.
with his nonviolent resistance methods, which won recognition of the Civil Rights movement of African-American people in the United States.
