Mohandas Gandhi more commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi meaning great soul is considered as a hero throughout our history. A hero is a person who shows courage and bravery and inspires everyone with its selfless nature; they perform good deeds and are admired for their noble work. Mahatma Gandhi, who is a well-recognised hero, was known for his inspirational non-violent protests against prejudice towards Indians. Injustice being served to Indians and the immigrants in South Africa influenced Gandhi to stand up for his people and fight for their right, which he was very successful in. By using his non-violent resistance he brought India into independence. Mahatma Gandhi's recognition as a hero can be put forward through the following investigation on the historical context, his contributions and achievements, the qualities and attributes that he possesses and finally the ideology of "one man's hero, another man's villain."
To begin, the historical context of Gandhi’s life greatly influenced him in becoming a hero. To explain, Gandhi who belonged to a Hindu political family and whose beliefs were influenced by Jainism (a non-violent religious group), led Gandhi into becoming a powerful leader. His greatest source of inspiration was the 'Bhagavad Gita' which was a book written thousands of years ago. In 1893, when Gandhi went to South Africa to work, he found that there was a lot of prejudice towards Indians. This influenced Gandhi to begin his inspirational non-violent protests. In India, Gandhi realised the Hindus had been discriminating the "untouchable" also known as the poor and less educated people in the caste system, who were also part of the Hindu culture. At the time Gandhi was born, the caste system had been in place for more than 3,000 years and it controlled the Indian society by ranking people’s social position. Gandhi for this reason decided to end this issue of discrimination against their own people and made Hindus realise, that what the...