Gandhi
...from his studies that he began as a political activist in South Africa. Upon his return to India from England, he had had a rough start as a lawyer and accepted an offer to work on a case in South Africa. He ended up staying in South Africa for more than twenty years. In South Africa Gandhi became a leader of the Indian immigration population. Gandhi had to learn skills to overcome caste, class, and religious divisions to build a base for dramatic mass actions. In the process, Gandhi's religious development influenced his politics. He believed that the search for truth was the goal of human life, and since "no one could ever be sure of having attained the ultimate truth, use of violence to enforce one's own necessarily partial understanding of it was sinful."
Gandhi had worked out the basic strategy of nonviolent resistance, which he called satyagraha. It consisted of training a core of volunteers who helped to lead mass marches and mass violations of specific laws that resulted in intentional mass arrests. Three satyagraha campaigns made him famous in India even before he returned. While he was still in South Africa, Gandhi wrote about India in his pamphlet, "Hind Swaraj," and targeted industrial civilization because he thought that was the real enemy.
The appeal of Gandhi's non-violence strategy appealed to two groups of people. It appealed to masses of villagers because it was a collective way to resist, trying to rise above all the violence and show the dignity of their cause. It also appealed to the wealthy merchants, landlords, and small-holding peasants who supported Gandhi because it offered the hope of getting rid of the British while not threatening to destroy their property or endanger their economic and social position.
Gandhi returned to India and joined the Indian National Congress during the First World War. The war was...
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