Mahatma Gandhi Turning Point

Throughout most of present and past, countless stories are told about people who have started with nothing but have worked hard to be successful. However, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is one of the few distinct people in the world who chose to give up wealth and become poor. Mahatma Gandhi or the “great-souled one” was born into a wealthy family of a higher caste, as his father was a prime minister. Not only was Gandhi’s family rich, Gandhi also received an extraordinary education at a prestigious law school in London. Shortly after graduating, Mohandas moved to South Africa to work for a wealthy Indian company but soon later would work for the poor people. Despite all the advantages that Gandhi grew up with such as wealth and education, Mohandas …show more content…
Starting with Gandhi’s arrival in South Africa, Gandhi bought a first class ticket to Pretoria where he was to deal with a court case but instead he was kicked off the train after refusing to forcefully move down to third class due to his skin color. This is the true turning point of Mohandas’s life as it was due to this specific event that Mohandas decided to “Redress for wrongs I should seek only to the extent that would be necessary for the removal of the colour prejudice.” But before Gandhi resolved to champion and promote the rights of third class people, Gandhi lived in a luxurious lifestyle by wearing fancy clothes and eating fancy meals until the train incident “forced him to reconsider his loyalties, his identity, his purpose.” With the already existing geographical racial segregation, the train event led Gandhi to change his identity from first class to third class and his purpose to not representing the wealthy but the poor. To further his motive, Gandhi would dedicate his life, that he described as “a precious instrument of a greater purpose”, to furthering the rights of poor people and ending racial barriers. The Mahatma would then gain even more incentives to changing his lifestyle by his experience with a poor Indian indentured …show more content…
Balasundaram was an Indian indentured servant who came to Gandhi for help when he was beaten by his master. Gandhi seized this opportunity to help Balasundaram by using his law skills to switch Balasundaram’s master. Balasundaram’s case proved to be successful and sparked not only a series of hope and opportunities for other indentured servants but also for Gandhi himself. Gandhi’s story spread and “reached the ears of every indentured labourer, and I came to be regarded as their friend.” Mohandas, instead of stopping his goals and motives with Balasundaram, took this moment to help even more indentured servants that have similar cases to Balasundaram and described it as “the best opportunity of learning their joys and sorrows.” The Mahatma would then return back to India after 21 years and start his “satyagraha” or passive resistance movement in India against British rule. One such passive movement such as the Salt March was an important one because salt was “the only condiment of the poor” and Gandhi believed that the salt belonged to the people not the government. Gandhi also believed that the tax on salt “prevents the public from manufacturing it and destroys what nature manufactures without effort.” To fight against British control over the salt, Gandhi marched over a hundred miles