One of the single most influential people of his time and region, and of the world, was a man known by the name of Mohandas Gandhi. In January 1948, before three pistol shots put an end to his life, Gandhi had been on the political stage for more than fifty years. He had inspired two generations of India patriots, shaken an empire and sparked off a revolution, which was to change the face of Africa and Asia. By the end of 1947 he had lived down much of the suspicion, ridicule, and opposition, which he had to face when he first raised the banner of revolt against racial exclusiveness and imperial domination. His ideas, once dismissed as quaint and utopian, had begun to strike chords in some of the finest minds in the world.

Though his life had been the continual unfolding of an endless drama, Gandhi himself seemed the least dramatic of men. It would be difficult to imagine a man with fewer trappings of political eminence or with less of the popular image of a heroic figure. With his loincloth, steel-rimmed glasses, rough sandals, a toothless smile, and a voice, which rarely rose above a whisper, he had a disarming humility. He used a stone instead of soap for his bath, wrote his l

It is often assumed that within India Gandhi suffered the fate of all political saints, which was to be placed on a pedestal and forgotten. This is untrue. The ideas of Gandhi continued to be debated among his followers, his opponents, especially the Indian communists, and the ruling elite, particularly during the rule of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Vinoba Bhave took over the Gandhian constructive movement, giving it a more radical edge through his attempt in the Bhoodan Movement to bring about a voluntary redistribution of land to the poorer peasantry, above all, to the landless. He was to be strongly supported by Jayaprkash Narayan, whose socialism took on an increasingly Gandhian complexion, and who began to devise sophisticated programs for the modernization of Indian villages but still inspired by the Gandhian anarchist vision of decentralization and self-sufficiency. Narayan, or J.P., as he was familiarly known, displayed enormous moral influence by the 1970s and became the leader of national opposition to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi during the Emergency period of 1975-77. His leadership does much to explain the astonishing defeat of the Congress Party in the 1979 elections.

Gandhi's South African legacy introduced two themes in particular: the fate of South African Indians and the debate on whether to pursue a non-violent or violent strategy against apartheid. Gandhian-style resistance to apartheid was part of the wider struggle against colonialism and neo-colonialism. With India being the first colonial society to acquire independence, it was inevitable that Gandhi's method should be keenly studied within the Third World and, as Nehru became increasingly important in international affairs as the moving spirit behind the Non-Aligned Movement, India's example became all the more influential. Nkrumah, for instance, was seemingly to adopt Gandhian methods in leading Ghana to independence by 1957.

etters on little bits of paper with little stumps of pencils which he could hardly hold between

Some topics in this essay:
Africa Asia, Nehru Patel, Bible Belt, Congress Party, British Indian, South Africa, Movement India's, National Congress, Panchayati Raj, African Indians, prime minister, south africa, gandhian ideals, south african, twentieth century, mohandas gandhi,