Jake Brillhart – Response Paper #1
Mohandas Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was born in Porbandar, which was a Princely British Indian State at the time. He was born on October 2nd, 1869 to a father that was a senior government official. Gandhi grew up studying law in London and eventually became a lawyer. He would then become famous for fighting for Muslim and Hindu Indian’s civil rights in South Africa. Gandhi is remembered as one of the most famous spiritual/religious leaders of all time. However, depending on the historians you talk to, their opinions of Gandhi will all be a slight bit different. During his lifetime, Mahatma Gandhi became famous throughout the world by enforcing civil disobedience, the ideas of nonviolence, and initiating protest campaigns for India’s independence; however many people didn’t know he was also very racist against African-Americans. Personally, I have always thought of Mahatma Gandhi as one of the most influential and religious men of all time. However, Professor Mann showed me that every good person has their own flaws as well. Professor Mann told us a shocking story about when Gandhi’s father, Karamchand Gandhi, was on his death bed and was sickly ill. His father had been one of Gandhi’s main influences throughout his life so one would think that Gandhi would be right by his father’s side during his last moments. However, Gandhi was actually in another room losing his virginity. This story just shows me that even a prominent historical figure like Gandhi was a teenager once and did teenage things like the rest of us. It is just amusing that these kinds of stories are left out when we learn about a historical legend. In Professor Mann’s class we also learned about how Gandhi was westernized and secular during his early years, but then later became non-westernized and religious. He became