Gandhi
Among the major theorists who changed the political and ideological configuration of the world in the twentieth
century, this man appears inflexible austerity and absolute modesty, who complained of the title of Mahatma (Great Soul'''') who had given him, against his will, the poet Rabindranath Tagore. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on 26 October 1869 in a remote part of India in the coastal town of Porbandar, Gujarat district. His father, Karamchand Gandhi, was Prime Minister of Porbandar and belonged to the caste of Banias, merchants proverbial cunning and skill in trade. She was deeply religious and austere divided his time between the temple and the care of their own, apart from frequent practice fasting. He sailed to South Africa in 1893. In the land of the old Dutchmen settlers lived a Hindu colony made up mostly of workers, whom the English called disparagingly Sami. He founded the newspaper The Indian Opinion "for uniting the Indian community and as an instrument of legal turmoil, established the Natal Indian Congress. Anglophile sympathies led him during the war against the Boers in organizing the Indian Ambulance Corps, an action that deserved harsh criticism from Indian nationalists. After 1904 Gandhi activity suffered a remarkable change: after reading the critique of capitalism contained in "Unto the Last" by John Ruskin, he changed his lifestyle and began to live a simple communal existence on the outskirts of Johannesburg where he founded a commune called Tolstoy. Gandhi arrived in India in 1915 as a true hero, in the glow of their campaigns abroad. The masses of Bombay paid him a warm welcome, the English governor turned to greet him and the poet Rabindranath Tagore welcomed the Free University in Santiniketan. In those early years, Gandhi gave up all political agitation to support the war efforts of Great Britain in the First World War, even to the recruitment of soldiers for the British Army. Gandhi went on to lead the opposition to the law. When he came to Delhi to appease the people, Gandhi was arrested. In the years following the slaughter of Amritsar, Gandhi became the undisputed nationalist leader, reaching the presidency of the Indian National Congress party founded by Alan Octavius Hume in 1885 - that he was able to translate into an effective instrument towards independence . Gandhi decided to retire from politics, to live as a hermit in absolute poverty and silence as a force for regeneration. Retired in his Ashram in those years became the spiritual leader of India, the religious leader of international fame that many Westerners in search of spiritual peace treated as a guru. At the head of the political struggle, Gandhi got that all parties in the country did the boycott of the committee. The small movement spread like ripples in a pond to reach across India: farmers planted green branches roads where would that half-naked little man with a bamboo stick, toward the sea and in front of a huge army peaceful. On the anniversary of the slaughter of Amritsar, Gandhi arrived at the lake and grabbed a handful of salt. Since then civil disobedience was unstoppable: deputies and local officials have resigned, the local notables abandoned their posts, the Indian army soldiers refused to fire on demonstrators, women joined the movement, while Gandhi's followers peacefully invaded salt factories. Furthermore, Gandhi was sent to London to participate in the conference that discussed the steps to establish a constitutional government in India. Several times in his life Gandhi resorted to fasts as means of pressure against the power, as a form of spectacular and dramatic fight to stop violence or draw the attention of the masses. Congress distanced to the disappointment caused to the political maneuvers, he dedicated himself to visit remote villages, with emphasis on popular education, the prohibition of alcohol in man's spiritual liberation. The outbreak of World War II was the reason that Gandhi once again return to the political spotlight. His opposition to the war was absolute and not share the views of Nehru and other Congress leaders, tend to support the fight against fascism. But the viceroy's decision to incorporate the sub-continent to Britain's military preparations without consulting with local politicians, clarified water, causing the mass resignation of ministers belonging to Congress. Following the capture of Rangoon by the Japanese, Gandhi demanded complete independence from India for the country to choose freely their decisions. Gandhi went to Noakhali, where the fighting had started, and walked from town to town, barefoot, trying to stop the massacres that accompanied the partition of Bengal, Calcutta, Bihar, Kashmir and Delhi. . . As Einstein said, "perhaps future generations ever doubt that a man like a reality of flesh in this world."