Fasting - and momentary peace.

Mohandas Gandhi once said, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world". Gandhi's message to the world was peace through non-violence… Oh how the world has changed since his death, we as human beings are more violent than ever, and can anyone really see an end anytime time soon? Fasting is the abstinence from food or drink or both for ritualistic, mythical, ascetic, or other religious or ethical purposes. As we all know, human beings need food to survive. It is embedded in our brains from the moment we are conceived. Gandhi used fasting as a tool to bring about peace and equality. He did the complete opposite of what humans have been attempting to attain for ages… immortality. Out of his own will Gandhi rested with death many times, yet life could not bear his embarking.

Gandhi barely stood 5 foot 3 inches, and weighed a measly 100 pounds. This is comparable to an adolescent. Yet he was infinitely healthier than most people today. One could say that Gandhi’s stature is attributed to fasting, but I concur. When Gandhi was eating, his diet consisted of assorted fruits and vegetables, soups, and milk. Gandhi considered fasting as an important tool for exerting mental control over the biological activities. He believed that fasting would also put the body through unusual hardship, which in turn would cleanse the spirit, by stimulating the courage to withstand all impulses and pain. Gandhi’s foreboding of sustenance was used in 1932 when he fasted to provide Untouchable Hindus the right to vote.

In 1932, a year after the salt endeavor, Gandhi began another movement of civil disobedience. After being arrested twice, Gandhi fasted several times; these fasts were immensely effective against the British, for if Gandhi died, a revolution would have been imminent. Later on in the year, Gandhi fasted to remove the status of the “Untouchables” the British had placed on the poorer people of India. Gandhi said, “By permitting the “Untouchables” to be considered as a separate part of the Indian electorate, the British were countenancing an injustice. Again we see Gandhi using the tool of fasting to remove the shackles placed on humans.

As 1944 approached, the Independence of India was in its final leg. The Brits having agreed to the independence only had one condition; the two political groups (the Muslim League, and the Congress Party) had to mediate their differences. The Muslim League was the Muslims and the Congress Party were Hindu’s. Gandhi was opposed to the idea of the separation between Pakistan and India, but to obtain lasting peace Gandhi had to agree in hope that the separation would bring prosperity to the region. Following the separation of states in 1947 India had its independence. Riots began shortly after; to make the transition of peaceful living between Muslims and Hindu’s, Gandhi began fasting to quell the riots that had engulfed Calcutta, one of the largest cities in India. Gandhi fasted until the turmoil ceased. And cease it did, when the realization donned on the raging people that their figure head was on his death bed, the fighting stopped. It’s ironic- the Muslims and the Hindu’s had to eat in order to riot, and kill. Yet, Gandhi did not eat, and his goal was peace.

Food for Gandhi was not a necessity of life. Living a life free of hate, and oppression was ten times more valuable than food. Gandhi’s message has been around the world and back, yet as individuals, do we really understand the value of life, and the meaning of our own existence? As humans, is it necessary to kill for land, power, and wealth? Shouldn’t life be considered a little more valuable than that of material possessions? By continued oppression, what humans do to other humans is simply evil. An individual can be looked at as his or her own universe. For within themselves they have gone through millions of changes, millions of ideas, millions of explosions, and still continue to be human. By allowing oppression to continue, we allow the destruction of individual universes. Through non-violent resistance Gandhi would have given his life for the extinction of oppression, and the flourishing of peace and equality… some say he did.