Gandhi Speech

My fellow Indian people, I am Mohandas Gandhi. I was born into a middle class family in the small state of Porbandar. I have a wife who I have been married to for 48 years and have had four children with. I have studied law in London, but have had little success. I went to South Africa to do legal work and experienced prejudice for the first time there. Due to this discrimination I have become an advocate for the rights of all Indians. This is why I’m here to talk to you now. Our people are politically and economically oppressed by the British. I believe that our people should be treated just as others are. I have learned that we cannot just cooperate with the British, we need to become independent! The British have shown the cruelties of imperial rule at the Amritsar Massacre in 1919. British troops under Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer opened fire on an unarmed crowd. Almost 400 of the 5,000 men, women and children present died. We must act on the unfairness of the British rule in India. The British have passed many unlawful bills, monopolies, and laws. Under the Rowlatt Acts the colonial Indian government could arrest suspects without a warrant and jail them without a trial. The Acts also curtailed press freedom. The British have made it illegal to make your own goods and we are forced to buy British goods, such as cloth.

To achieve independence we shall not use violence. Violence will not solve anything and will not help us to be independent. We must strike or stop working, boycott or refuse to buy the British goods. Fasting or not eating will help get worldwide support in our movement for independence. Civil disobedience is one of the better types of non-violent protests. Civil disobedience is when you refuse to obey unjust laws. Non-violence has the power to change men’s hearts. However, non-violent protests are much easier said than done. I am going to lead a Satyagraha campaign. Satyagraha or “truth force” is the inner strength to help endure the difficulties of non-violent resistance. It is going to be very difficult to make personal sacrifices, but we must do this for the good of India! I have gone to jail before, and if I go again I will be proud, as should you, for helping India. I am embarking on a march for salt next year, in protest against the Salt Acts. The British have gone as far as to make it a crime to own salt, which is a natural mineral, not bought from the government. I wish that you join me on my walk to show civil disobedience and to change the political and economical course of India forever.

I have a dream that someday India will be an independent nation, free from British rule. I wish India will become a united secular state, where Church is separate from State. I want people from different religions to be able to get along in the same country. I want India to be a place where everybody is equal, and nobody is discriminated.