Today marks the 100th and one anniversary of the Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi Revolution, in India, where Gandhi called on the Indian people to carry out a civil disobedience in protest of British colonial policy in the country, so workers and other sects of the Indian people went on strike and stopped dealing with the occupation authorities.
Gandhi, known as the Mahatma, meaning the Great Spirit, was born on October 2, 1869 to a family with a long tradition in political work, as his grandfather and then his father held the position of Prime Minister of the Emirate of Porbandar, the birthplace of Mahatma.
Gandhi studied law in Britain, spent most of his working life in South Africa, returned to India, in 1915, and within a few years became the most popular leader in the country.
Gandhi led national campaigns to reduce poverty, increase women's rights, build religious and national harmony, end ostracism, and increase economic self-reliance. Above all, he aimed to achieve India's independence from foreign domination.
In order to achieve his goals, Gandhi established what was known in the world of politics as the philosophy of "nonviolence", which is a set of principles that are based on religious, economic and political foundations at the same time summarized by courage, truth and nonviolence.
For more than fifty years, the Indian leader Gandhi endowed himself to spread the policy of nonviolence and peaceful change, as he used in this way the nonviolent civil disobedience, which he called while he was an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, during the period during which Indian society was fighting for his civil rights .
The policy of "peaceful resistance" or the philosophy of nonviolence, launched by Gandhi, aims to defeat the occupier by full and deep awareness of the imminent threat and to create a force capable of confronting this danger of nonviolence first and then violence if there is no other option.
The nonviolence policy takes several methods to achieve its goals, including fasting, boycott, sit-in, civil disobedience, prison admission, and fear that these methods will lead to death.
And nonviolence, according to Gandhi, does not mean negativity and weakness, as some imagine, but it is all the strength if it is believed by those who use it. It is not oneness.
Commenting on the policy of nonviolence, Gandhi said: "Nonviolence is the greatest force available to mankind ... It is stronger than the most powerful weapon of destruction created by human ingenuity."
Gandhi requires for the success of this policy, the opponent should enjoy the rest of the conscience and freedom that would eventually enable him to open an objective dialogue with the other party.
Gandhi returned to India in the year 1915, and began his campaign for the independence of his country in the wake of the massacre of the sacred Sikh city of Amritsar, when the British shot a demonstration, killing about 400 people and injuring 1,300 others.
Indians of all classes of society and religions adopted his call to protest nonviolently, and to encourage non-cooperation with British rule, which included boycotting British goods. In response, the British arrested Gandhi on charges of incitement and sedition and imprisoned him for two years.
Gandhi's goals were fulfilled when World War II weakened Britain's grip on its empire.
Mahatma won the independence of his country in 1947, but his hopes for Hindu and Muslim societies to coexist with each other in one state were dashed when the country split into two states: India and Pakistan.
The division created more violence, and Gandhi returned to Delhi to help protect Muslims who chose to stay in India and started fasting for Muslim rights.
Less than six months after independence, Gandhi was on his way to a prayer meeting in Medina, when a fanatical Hindu youth shot him, leading to his death, at the age of seventy-nine.
And people from all over the world united in mourning the death of a world peace figure, who had never seen his dream come true with the vision of "India", which is not divided by a particular religion, sect or class.
Gandhi lived modestly in a society of self-sufficiency, and wore the traditional Indian Doti and Shawl, whom we hand-spun to the sharkas. He ate simple vegetarian food, and he also fasted for long periods as a means of both self-purification and social protest.
Gandhi was officially honored in India as the father of the nation, as his birthday, 2 October, is celebrated as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and globally is the International Day of Nonviolence.