HUM- Greatest Change Maker Mahatma Gandhi

For this Change Maker project I have chosen to do Mahatma Gandhi as the greatest change maker.

1. Category: POLITICS 2. Biography:

I am Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and I was born at Porbandar, otherwise known as Sundampuri, on the 2nd October, 1869 to Kaba Gandhi and Putlibai. I did my schooling in Rajkot which was a bigger town than Porbandar those days and from my childhood my mother taught me values of truth, simple living, worship and sacrifice. When I was in my high school I was married and my wifes name is Kasturi Bai. I got an offer from my fathers friend to go to London at the age of 18 yrs and I travelled to London to study for Barrister ( lawyer) . When I finished my Barrister studies and could not get a job in India, in 1893 went to South Africa where I got a job. This is where my mission of wiping racism started. I started the Natal Indian Congress in South Africa and abolished racial discrimination against Indians. I spent my next 21 yrs leading the Indian community in peaceful protests against the government attacks on their civil rights. This victory made me popular among the people and they called me Bapu which means Father and Mahatma which means Great soul. Since then I was called

Mahatma Gandhi. I wanted to free India from the foreign rule and my first step was to reject the foreign clothing and wear simple clothes like workers. In 1921, I became the leader of National Congress and led campaigns against British rule by boycotting foreign made goods, salt march in 1930 to protest against charge of taxes on salt. In 1933, I went on a 21 day fast for the unfair treatment of untouchables. I followed the rule of Satyagraha which means nonviolent resistance or fighting with peace in the Indian independence movement and also during my earlier struggle in South Africa. In 1942, I launched the Quit India Movement in which Indians refused to support the World War II. I was arrested and mass arrests took place for the many years and in 15th august,1947 India became an Independent Nation. Then the country was divided to make peace between Hindus and Muslims and thus Pakistan became a separate country.

3. CHANGE:
I have made a huge change in the entire world by my principles of non-violence. According to me no reforms can be made due to violence, non-violence is more powerful. My journey started with changing the racial discrimination in London and then in South Africa.

My second mission was to abolish poverty in India because many workers and laborers were under the poverty line and were treated very badly. They received very low wages. I am officially called Father of the Nation as I made reforms and changes not only in India but throughout the world. My principles of non-violence went on to inspire Martin Luther King Junior

who started the American civil rights movement, Nelson Mandela, Suu Kyi and others around the world. My movement of Satyagraha helped shape Nelson Mandelas struggle in South Africa and also Martin Luther King in United States and many other similar movements.

The Myanmar opposition leader Suu Kyi, an activist followed my footsteps and have made great development for her country. She was jailed but still followed only nonviolence ways to win the heart of people and has succeeded now. I taught many important leaders to fight for civil rights movement in a non-violent way. I struggled for years to make India an independent country from the British rule. Finally, India became an independent country on 15th August 1947. My teaching changed the view of the whole world by implementing that violence harms people and destroys nature and affects millions, to achieve anything non-violence way is the best method.

4. EVIDENCE:
I deserve the title of The Greatest Change-Maker because my methods have influenced and felt by millions of people all over the world. Without me India would never have gained independence from the British, racial discrimination would have continued in South Africa and the United States. Only because of me many Indians are freely moving all around the world without any restrictions. My change was felt by millions of people and is long lasting as many great leaders like Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Junior, Al Gore and Aung San Suu Kyi followed my principles and

teachings, thus they all were successful in making a big change to the world.

In addition, my teachings have inspired the British musician, John Lennon, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and Steve Biko who mentioned my name in their views about non-violence. In Europe, Romain Rolland was the first to discuss about me in his 1924 book Mahatma Gandhi and Brazilian anarchist and feminist Maria Lacerda de Moura wrote about me in her work on pacifism. This shows that my teachings have inspired many people all around the world.

My life has a message a message of peace over power, of finding ways to reunite our differences, and of living in harmony with respect and love even for our enemy. There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no cause that I am prepared to kill for. An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind according to me. I

also deserve to win the Greatest Change Maker title as I have been very determined to make a change in peoples lives and have also succeeded in doing this. Many of my greatest beliefs are: change yourself, forgive and let it go and without action you arent going anywhere. One of my most famous saying that people follow till now is You must be the change you want to see in the world. Quotes people have written about Mahatma Gandhi: If humanity is to progress, Gandhi is inescapable. He lived, thought, acted and inspired by the vision of humanity evolving toward a world of peace and harmony. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Generations to come, it may be, will scarce believe that such one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth. - Albert Einstein on Gandhi

5. IB LEARNER PROFILE CHARACTERISTICS:

The IB learner profile characteristics that I believe I represent are risk taker, caring, principled, communicator and knowledgeable. Knowledgeable: I believe that I am knowledgeable as I used my barrister studies for helping fight cases against injustice and this knowledge helped me file petitions, cases and win it too. Caring: I am caring as I could not see injustice to laborers, women and children. I could not see racist discrimination to any one as all humans have equal rights. I am called as Bapu which means father because I cared for everyone and all people of the nation were my children. Many people named me the Father of the Nation as I cared and helped many people, Principled: I am very principled as values of truth, sacrifice, caring were taught by my mother in my childhood itself. I used these principles for my Satyagraha movement which symbolizes truth, fighting injustice, sacrifice and patience and no place for lies, violence, and selfishness were there. Communicator: I am a good communicator and got my skills partially from being a barrister and arguing cases to fight against injustice. Being a communicator helps me fight injustice and do petitions and argue for downtrodden people in a lawful and non-violent way so that no trouble can fall on them.

Risk-taker: I am a risk-taker because without risks you cannot do even a small thing in that situation. I took a great risk and saw that racial discrimination was minimized, civil rights were given to people below poverty line, fought with the British to achieve Independence in a peaceful way without harming the people and nation.

Bibliography: (Links in MLA Format)

Information:
"Gandhi - Biography of Mahatma Gandhi." About.com 20th Century History. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2013. "Gandhi's 10 Rules for Changing the World." , by Henrik Edberg. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2013. "Lists." TIME.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2013. "Mahatma Gandhi Biography." Mahatma Gandhi. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2013. "Mahatma Gandhi." BrainPOP. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2013. "Zenhabits : Breathe." Zenhabits RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2013.

Pictures:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/03/MKGandhi.jpg/200px-MKGandhi.jpg http://www.historytoday.com/sites/default/files/Times_of_India_front_Page_15_August_1947.jpg http://youtubecollections.neelabook.com/images/Mahatma%20Gandhi%20in%20England%20&%20Sou th%20Africa.jpg http://www.myhero.com/images/guest/g226635/hero77826/g226635_u90054_Mahatma-Gandhi.jpg

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