I think Mohandas Gandhi was one of the most significant persons in the 20th century. He was the one who proved that it is possible to fight very successful without violence. He fought his whole life with humanity, tolerance, ideas and without violence. He showed the way to a better world. And still today there are many people who love him and who use his philosophy to change the world. A very important example is the fight against wars. Usually people who fight against a war try to fight without violence. They march through cities and try to convince people not to go to the war or something like that.
Another very popular example is the fight against nuclear energy or nuclear weapons. Demonstrators sit on the road in front of a nuclear power station or block the way of trucks or trains, which carry nuclear waste. Or, very popular example, the French tests of nuclear weapons in the pacific. People opposed them and the press all over the world was talking about these tests. That was non-violent resistance. Marches all over the world and other non-violent actions. And another good example is “Greenpeace”. They fight for the nature and their most important weapon is the public.
They don’t use violence but they use the press. The actions, they do are very spectacular and interesting for the whole world. Many people all over the world agree with what they are doing. An example for not using violence even if others use it against them was when they went very close to where the French wanted to test their nuclear weapons and the French soldiers entered their boat and destroyed lots of things and hit the Greenpeace activists. And all that was filmed by Greenpeace and these pictures were sent all over the world and came in the news everywhere.
Also Martin Luther King didn’t use violence in his fight for the ights of the black people in America. An example, which all of us see and experience from time to time is the strike. Gandhi made the strike as a way of fighting popular and it is still used today very often. At the start of the 20th century the British Empire was the biggest empire in the world. India was it’s biggest colony and was very important to Britain. Gandhi managed to get India independent of the British. The biggest Empire in the world lost a war of independence against a country like India which not even used violence and good weapons for it’s fights.
That was a sign for the world. And especially for the other countries ruled by the British. It was then that many of those countries saw their chance for independence. Gandhi showed them the way. And that was one of the main causes for the independence of many of those countries. In the 1960’s most colonies in Africa became independent and also Indochina became independent. I think that was also one of the things Gandhi caused or helped causing. Gandhi fought for the rights of minorities and people who were pushed down his whole life. He encouraged every one to stand up for their rights and to fight against cruelty.
He showed the whole world how easy it is to fight for rights and how successful it can be if there are many people fighting for the same thing together. Many people in the whole world decided to start fighting for their rights when they realized how successful Gandhi was. That was the start of many fights for humanity and for rights of minorities. Good examples are the fights of the blacks in North America. Especially Martin Luther King fought under the influence of things Gandhi had said. Or the fights in South America under Che Guevara or even the fights of Aborigines in Australia.
But those are only a few examples. Fights for rights happened and still happen all over the world again and again because there are always people who push others down. I think Gandhi played a big part in the fight for humanity and the rights of minorities. I think Gandhi was and is still a very significant person. He changed people’s minds and opened lots of peoples minds. Still today when people see the movie that was made about his life and his fights they think about this person and how successful non-violence and rebellion can be. And that it is important to save the (human) life and not to destroy it.
