Civil Disobedience Both Mahatma Gandhi

Civil Disobedience

Both Mahatma Gandhi and Rosa Parks embodied the idea that change can occur nonviolently. Both figures acted in a spirit of civil disobedience, but they did so in a passive manner which made their oppressors look vile and tyrannical. Both Gandhi and Parks prove than one can start a revolution without firing a shot or physically striking someone. Passive civil disobedience can result in real change. Gandhi effectively ended British rule in India and Rosa Parks began a civil rights movement in the South which led to higher equality for African-Americans.

Mahatma Gandhi was acting in civil disobedience against the tyranny and oppression of British rule in India. The British Empire had ruled over India for generations. Rosa Parks acted out against the inequality faced by African-Americans faced in the South. Several states enforced laws which lessoned the status of African-Americans in the middle of the twentieth century. Rosa Parks refused to obey these laws when she refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man.

The actions of Rosa Parks set off a bus strike all over the South. Thousands of African-Americans refused to ride the public bus which led to the eventually repeal of the bus legislation which Rosa Parks was in violation of. Both acts of defiance were great challenges, but Gandhi's march was most challenging. He, along with his followers, faced mortal danger; but yet they still chose to march.

Both the British Empire and the American South shared a prejudicial view of minorities. Both set themselves up as superior to those who were forced to obey their laws, and believed that their citizens were inferior due to their race.

Rosa Parks is now known as "the mother of the civil rights movement." Her actions began a series of events which ended much of the inequality faced by African-Americans in the South. Like Gandhi, she took down her oppressors. She thought this of herself, "I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and posterity for all people."