Al Ahram Al Massai, p.7, (18/5/2007)

Gandhi

A legendary figure that fought against colonialism

By: Nabil Abdel Moeti

The first person who called Gandhi with the term Mahatma was the Indian poet Tagore. He was the legend of fighting racism in South Africa and followed the method of peaceful resistance to drive the British occupation out of India.

He was the only son of his father and mother. He studied in London and worked as a lawyer. In one of the incidents, he was defending one of the defendants but he was amazed when the judge sent him out of the courtroom because he refused to take off the Indian turban.

Gandhi suffered a lot because of racism. But why did Gandhi chose the road of peaceful resistance and did not resort to violence? It is an important question but we can not decipher. Gandhi succeeded to make the racist regime in South Africa amend some of its laws.

Gandhi went back to India in 1919 and laid the foundation stone of the Congress Party that comprised the elite of intellectuals in India. He called for civil disobedience without using violent methods. He called for the evacuation of the British troops and he succeeded to achieve his goal.

The only weapon Gandhi had in his resistance was his hand loom by which he used to make his cloth. Gandhi, the half naked man, was the symbol of the Indian struggle against occupation. He was nominated for Nobel Prize in 1937 but did not take it for differences among the jury of the prize. Gandhi was assassinated. Yet, he is the man of the twentieth century and the legend of all centuries.

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