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Mohandas Gandhi | A Natural Leader | |

Few men have ever had as much of an effect on our world as Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948), though he used the message of peace and love, rather than war and destruction. One time a prominent lawyer in South Africa, Gandhi gave up practicing law and returned to India in order to help ease the suffering of the repressed people of his homeland. Gandhi's love for people and his religious fervor made him a revolutionary in many of his ideas and actions. He desired to see India freed from British rule in a bloodless revolution. Knowing that violence only begets violence, he began the practicing of passive resistance, or as he called it, Satyagraha which means holding onto truth. Though many were beaten, arrested and killed, no one fought back. Over the course of his life he led three major crusades, rallied support for nonviolent strikes, urged Indians to boycott anything British, and championed women's rights. Gandhi exemplified many characteristics of a great leader. His love for the people of India was boundless; he wanted nothing more than to serve and help them. He showed that passiveness is not synonymous with weakness, and became a leader in the truest sense of the word. Perhaps Gandhi's greatest contribution to the world continued long after his assassination in 1948. Few realize that had it not been for his influence, we may have never witnessed in this country Martin Luther King Junior's I have a dream speech, the lunch counter sit-ins, Rosa Parks, or Nelson Mandela's struggle against antiapartheid oppression in South Africa. These people and many more that have followed in his footsteps bear witness to Gandhi's leadership ability and his legacy that will continue for many centuries to come.
He developed a method of action based upon the principles of courage, nonviolence and truth called Satyagraha. He

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