Martinez | 1 Fabiana Martinez Creating a Hero Sonja Linman Dec.

19, 2013 Mahatma Gandhi Heroes Around Us Everyone has a different meaning or representation of a hero. For many a hero is a man or woman in a disguise in a cape others their parents and family members, mine is Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi was a renowned freedom fighter of India Nationalism, a man of nonviolent civil disobedience that led India to independence. He inspired all around the world to people to fight for their rights and freedom and he made everyone hear his cry for freedom through simplicity. Born on Oct. 2, 1896 in Porbandar, India, born and raised into a Hindu family. His parents were Karamahad and Putlibai Gandhi. He studied law in London, England, in 1893 he went to South Africa to practice law, there he acted on his first act of civil disobedience. There he spent 20 years opposing the discrimination legislation against Indians. He became the primary leader of India's independence movements and also the architect of a form of civil disobedience that would influence the world of his time, he did this by resisting through non-violence civil disobedience. He still remains one of the most potent philosophers in freedom struggles throughout the world today. Mahatma Gandhi faced lots of challenges throughout his life and is goal was to help poor people, farmers and laborers through protesting discrimination. He struggled to alleviate poverty, liberate women and put an end to discrimination, with the ultimate objective being freedom for

Martinez | 2 India. Following his civil disobedience campaign 1919-22, he was jailed for conspiracy 1922-24. In 1930, he led a landmark 200 mile march to the sea to collect salt in symbolic defiance of the government monopoly. On his release from prison 1931, he attended the London Round Table Conference on Indian constitutional reform. In 1946, he negotiated with the Cabinet Mission which recommended the new constitutional structure. After independence, 1947, he tried to stop the Hindu-Muslim conflict in Bengal, a policy which led to his assassination in Delhi by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu fanatic in January 30, 1948. Although he had a lot of followers than anyone else at that time, there were many other leaders more powerful who didn't share the same points of view. Gandhi for example is known for his non-violent attitude and viewpoints on politics. Other freedom fighters of the time like Subhas Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh and many more believed on violence and war as the solution to the problem of freedom unlike Gandhi. Such a challenges faced by Gandhi also led to the formation of other parties like the "Forward Bloc" led by Bose. Gandhi helped in acquiring freedom for India through boycott movements, he emphasized on the citizens,and arrested for what he believed in but never denied his true feelings even after all they had put him through. Convincing such a large population was a big challenge indeed specially because their economy and supplies were largely based on foreign products which made it hard to avoid using them was not easy. Even though Gandhi was trying to be put down by many powerful leaders he had a large amount of general people following him. This majority helped him in his mission of freedom for India. Gandhi was a great leader, because challenges come to everybody; but big challenges can only be solved by great people, he was one of them.

Work Cited

Martinez | 3 "Mahatma Gandhi Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2013. <http://www.biography.com/people/mahatma-gandhi-9305898>.