Mahatma Gandhi's Life Spreading His Message
Mahatma believed that peaceful protesting was a much better problem solver than using violence. He created several ashrams, which are spiritual communities where his followers lived without any comforts or conveniences. A vegetarian diet and cleanliness were enforced in Gandhi's ashrams. Mahatma led a peaceful strike against low wages in a textile mill and when that didn't work, Gandhi went on a personal hunger strike, not eating until his demands were met.
Mahatma started spinning cotton into thread because previously all raw Indian cotton had to be sold to England, then imported back as expensive finished goods. He led a boycott of foreign clothes, throwing British made clothes into a bonfire. Mahatma did this to promote social freedom through the dignity of labor, and it eltablished political freedom for the Indians by challenging the British textile facilities. This act also prepared the people of India for self-government.
Gandhi protested the British law that said that it was a criminal offense for anyone but the British to make or sell salt. He rallied his followers and walked with them 240 miles to the Gujarat coast, which came to be known as the Salt March. When they reached the coast, Gandhi picked up some salt that the tide brought in, and in doing so, broke the law. Soon, thousands of Indians were gathering salt, directly defying the British. He was put in prison for acts of civil disobedience.
When Gandhi read about a British proposal that would hurt even more the members of the lowest possible caste, the untouchables, he went on a fasting strike that lasted 21 days. They eventually repealed the Act and Gandhi was appeased. Finally, untouchables could draw water at public wells and enter temples to worship, things that they had before been prohibited to do, they could now do.
Gandhi said that, "Nonviolence is a weapon of the strong."