Biographical Comparison Paper on Mohandas Gandhi and Sukarno

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Sydney Chappell HIS 218 The World in the 20th Century Biographical Comparison Paper Mr. Mark Moser 1/15/13 Mohandas Gandhi of India and Sukarno of Indonesia are two of the most well-known independence leaders during the 20th century. Though their views on certain things were very different, they seemed to have more in common than one would think. Though Gandhi and Sukarno never met, they both had one very important objective: to bring independence to their countries. In this paper I will talk about the backgrounds, leadership qualities, motivations, and the ways that theses influential men dealt with their country’s issues. Mohandas Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869 to a distinguished family in India. It was common in that day to have an arranged marriage. At age 13 he was arranged to be married to Kasturba. This union lasted until she died at the age of 74. At one point Gandhi stated that his mother was his biggest influence, he followed her example by being a strong advocate of nonviolence and vegetarianism. As a boy, Gandhi secretly smoked, ate meat, told lies, and wore Western clothing. When he did these things, he became very guilty. Feeling this way is what caused him to make resolutions about his moral behavior that he followed for the rest of his life. In 1888 at the age of 18 Gandhi went to London to study law. When he came back to India he was not a very successful lawyer, so he took a job offer in South Africa. He took his trip there on a train where he first experienced the racial intolerance that was shown to anyone that wasn’t white. He was thrown off the train along with his luggage. After this incident, Gandhi assumed leadership of the protest campaigns in South Africa. While doing this he gradually developed his techniques of nonviolent resistance, this was also called satyagraha. On the other hand, Sukarno had a somewhat different

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