Mahatma Gandhi and George Washington Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Mahatma Gandhi and George Washington - Essay Example Although these concepts became most popular in India, leading to its independence, they inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. "He developed a method of direct social action based upon the principles courage, nonviolence and truth called Satyagraha. He believed that the way people behave is more important than what they achieve. Satyagraha promoted nonviolence and civil disobedience as the most appropriate methods for obtaining political and social goals." (Mahatma Gandhi: Indian Spiritual/Political Leader and Humanitarian 1869 - 1948) Therefore, Mahatma Gandhi has inspired several million people across the world through his ideals of ahimsa, nonviolence, and Satyagraha, and he is honored by the people of India as the father of the Indian Nation. In India, he is called Mahatma which means Great Soul. When he became the leader of the Indian nationalist movement, he used the tenets of Satyagraha to lead the campaign for Indian independence from Britain and he was arrested many times by the British. According to him, it is respectable to go to jail for a just cause and he is truly a great leader of the world in the complete sense of the word. Mahatma Gandhi has been one of the authentic experimenter with truth and his famous autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth which describes various important incidents in the life of this great world leader. In one of the most interesting stories about his childhood, Mahatma Gandhi narrates how he trained himself to walk along the road of honesty. During his childhood, Mohandas attended a local school in his region and he learned the lessons of truth and honesty, along with various subjects. He trained himself in important values of life and was a model to other students. One day, the teacher conducted a classroom examination in the class of Mohandas, in connection with the visit of an education inspector. All the students were very enthusiastic about the inspector's visit and tried to excel before him. So, the classroom exam was a chance for them to perform well before the instructor. The teacher arrived at the class and handed over the question papers. One of the questions in the question-paper was tough and confusing to almost all the students. The teacher was disappointed to notice that most of the students did not attempt that particular question. So, he decided to help the students when the inspector was not attending the class. He shared the answer with some of the students and permitted others to discuss it with students who got the answer. However, young Mohandas never attempted to copy the answer from his neighbor's papers and he gig not notice what others were doing. Seeing this, the teacher approached him and asked him to copy the answer from the neighbor. However, this could not influence the determination of Mohandas not to commit mistakes about honesty. At the end of exam, when asked by the teacher why he did not copy from others, young Mohandas told him that he preferred death to dishonesty. This story marks the growth of a great world leader. George Washington George Washington (1732 - 1731), the first president of the United States of America (1789-1797), has been