Gandhi, King and Mandela: What Made Non-Violence Work?

All through history governments and empires have been overthrown or defeated primarily by the hysteria of those who oppose them. This violence was usually successful however, there have been several situations, when violence failed, that protesters have had to bending to other methods. Non-violent protesting never seemed to be the right course of action until the ideology of Mohandas Gandhi spread and influenced successful protests crossways the world. Non-violent methods were successfully used, most nonably, by Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, jr., and Nelson Mandela.Mohandas Gandhis methods not only led to Indias independence from Britain hardly also had victories over racial discrimination in reciprocal ohm Africa. Gandhi saw, upon his return to India from South Africa, that Britain had run Indias people into poverty and subordination. Indians were not allowed to manufacture or own their own salt. This affected the poor creation most because of how often they used salt . Gandhi began by writing to the English Governor in India describing his plan to interchange the British people through nonviolence and to make them see the wrong they have done to India (Document 1).He felt that the British rule was a curse. Even though Gandhi worn out(p) a thoroughgoing of 2.338 days in prison, he did not feel the slightest hesitation in entering the prisoners box (Doc. 7). People followed Gandhi in his protests and many followed him into jail feeling firm in their resolution of toss their terms in jail in perfect happiness and peace (Doc. 7). While he was in jail, Mme. Naidu, an Indian poetess, filled in his position in leading protests. She encouraged the protesters by reiterating that they must not use any violence they would be beaten but they must not resistnot even raise a hand to ward off blows (Doc. 4). The author felt that the western oral sex finds it difficult to grasp the idea of nonresistance, but this was not the case.Just 25 years later Martin Luther King, Jr. found his own kind of victory using Gandhis techniques. King began his career of peaceful protests as a follower, not a leader. In 1960, he toke part in the lunch counter sit-ins in order to bring the whole issue of racial in thoice under the scrutiny of the conscience of capital of Georgia (Doc 2). King hoped to help not just the African-American population but the white population as well. By 1963, King had been chosen as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference which sought-after(a) to aid in the efforts to put an end to segregation. He accepted volunteers to serve in their non-violent army knowledgeable that they would have to accept and endure violence without retaliating (Doc. 5).Their will to contest was from the conviction that they were right. Kings followers were so empowered that, for their participation in the Montgomery bus boycott, people had rushed vanquish to get arrested they were now proud to be arrested for the cause of freedom (D oc. 8). King got white and blacks to work unitedly for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (Doc. 11). He wanted them to b able to sit plenty together at a table of brotherhood.Nelson Mandela used the same Gandhian principles of nonviolencethat seeks to reserve through conversion (Doc. 3). He lived under the strict laws of apartheid that separated the white Dutchmen from the native African population. In similar circumstances as M.L. King, Mandela supported the same acts of nonviolence in order to gain rights for South Africans. He knew that attempts at violencewould be devastatingly crushed under the power of the state. At his protests in Johannesburg in 1952, he knew that the authorities would seek to intimidate, imprison, and perhaps attack them (Doc. 6) however, like Gandhi, he encouraged the volunteers not to retaliate.Mandela spent 26 years and 8 months in jail as punishment for his protesting however, he felt that no sacrifice was too great in the struggle for free dom (Doc. 9). He spent time in jail with other protesters that all felt that whatever sentences they received, even the death sentence their deaths would not be in vain (Doc. 9). Freedom for the South African people from apartheid finally came in 1993. To Mandela this was not just the freedom of his people but the freedom of all people, black and white (Doc. 12). South Africas modern Democracy rose after years of continuous nonviolence from the populace.Gandhi, King, and Mandela each fought for their causes with a method that was actually rarely used but even less rarely successful. Their efforts at peaceful protest without requital to attacks were successful in overthrowing trans-continental rule and ending segregation of races. Gandhi transformed the idea of non-violence into a way to fight for freedom and justice which would ultimately end in success and peace.