Be the Change
By
City Year
You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
- Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi led the Indian nationalist movement, which overthrew British colonial rule through nonviolence,
leading to the creation of a sovereign Indian nation in 1947. As a change agent, he lived his life
based on the principles of courage, non-violence, and truth. Much of his power drew from his commitment
to embodying these principles in his own life.
Gandhi believed that there were three routes to social change: the ballot (the process of voting and
elections), the jail (by which he meant civil disobedience – being willing to give up your personal freedom
to protest an unjust law or society), and the spinning wheel (which represented self-sustainability, nonparticipation
in economic oppression, and simplicity.)
He embodied his commitment to these pathways of change by living a simple life, renouncing personal
belongings. Gandhi spun the thread to make his own clothing, thus making the symbol of the spinning
wheel a reality in his own life. Additionally, he led thousands of people in non-violent civil disobedience,
or ‘Satyagraha,’ for which he was arrested many times throughout his life.
Perhaps the most famous example of ‘Satyagraha’ – and being the change he wished to see in the world –
was the Salt March of 1930, a march to protest the British salt tax that had legalized starvation-level
taxation for many Indians. The attention of the world was galvanized as Gandhi and his fellow marchers,
which began as a group of 79 and grew to thousands, marched 240 miles to the coast. Scooping up
handfuls of mud and salt, Gandhi announced to the crowd: “With this salt I am shaking the foundations of
an empire.”
Gandhi’s life is a powerful example of what ordinary people can accomplish through living the change you wish to see in the world.
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