Mohandas Ghandi/Civil Disobedience
Hey there....
Civil disobedience is the act of not listening to the government or ruler in a non-violent way, but still accepting the consequences. Gandhi was a huge follower in this and led this practice in India when British rule was controlling India, especially its markets. Gandhi found this to be absurd, for if the people of India wanted salt, they would have to buy it from Britain even though they would grow it right in India. This was because Britain was huge empire and forced the people of India to grow the produce for them since they would sell it to other countries. Gandhi then decided to go against the British government and fight for Indian nationalism. As a way to defy the British, Gandhi led a 241 mile march, known as the salt march, towards the Arabian sea to make their own salt and rebel against the British empire. Throughout Gandhi's trip, he spoke to large groups of people influencing them to join the march, in which many people did, for by the time Gandhi and his followers reached the sea, the travel resulted in having thousands of people supporting him from behind. After the march took place, it sparked a huge wave of civil disobedience, for the idea of defying Britain expanded throughout all of India. This caused a huge increase in Indian nationalism and independence. However, it also caused many protesters to be arrested, including Gandhi. However, even though Gandhi was in prison, it did not stop the rebellion, for another march was made after this as well, but ended unfortunately, with policemen beating the protesters. When Gandhi was out of prison, he then traveled to a conference as the representative for Indian nationalism, but was not as successful as he hoped. He did, however, show to Britain how powerful he truly was, and was not just a revolutionist, but somewhat of a threat as well, for Gandhi was a very influential person, especially when it came to rebellion and eventually in August, 1947, India finally gained its independence from Britain.