SAT写作中事例素材的积累至关重要。本文将为大家介绍印度独立运动的领袖——圣雄甘地。
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
Gandhi's campaign of nonviolent civil resistance to British rule of India led to India’s independence in 1947. A member of the merchant caste, Mohandas K. Gandhi, later called Mahatma (Sanskrit for “great soul”), studied law in London. As a lawyer, and later as a political activist, he effectively fought discrimination with his principles of truth, nonviolence, and courage.
Gandhi became the international symbol of a free India. He lived a spiritual and ascetic life of prayer, fasting, and meditation. His union with his wife became, as he himself stated, that of brother and sister. Refusing earthly possessions, he wore the loincloth and shawl of the lowliest Indian and subsisted on vegetables, fruit juices, and goat's milk.
Indians revered him as a saint and began to call him Mahatma, a title reserved for the greatest sages. Gandhi's advocacy of nonviolence, known as ahimsa (Sanskrit “noninjury”), was the expression of a way of life implicit in the Hindu religion. By the Indian practice of nonviolence, Gandhi held, Britain too would eventually consider violence useless and would leave India.
Gandhi's death was regarded as an international catastrophe. His place in humanity was measured not in terms of the 20th century but in terms of history. A period of mourning was set aside in the United Nations General Assembly, and condolences to India were expressed by all countries.
Religious violence soon waned in India and Pakistan, and the teachings of Gandhi came to inspire nonviolent movements elsewhere, notably in the U.S. under the civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
甘地（1869-1948）
1947年，甘地领导的反对英国统治的非暴力抵抗运动为印度带来了独立。莫罕达斯·甘地（后被尊称为“玛哈塔玛”，即梵语中“圣雄”）来自商业贵族家庭，留学英国学习法律。作为一个律师及政治活动家，他秉承着真理、非暴力和勇气的原则，积极地抵抗社会上的歧视政策。
在国际社会上，甘地是自由印度的象征。他毕生过着一种圣洁的、禁欲的生活，祈祷、绝食和沉思。如他自己所言，他和他妻子的结合就像是兄妹之间的关系。甘地拒绝一切世俗的财富，像最底层的印度人一样粗衣素食，只靠蔬菜、果汁和羊奶维持生命。
印度人把甘地尊为圣人，称他为“圣雄”，这是只有最伟大的圣人才能享有的称号。甘地对于非暴力的拥护正是印度教的教义之一。甘地认为，在印度人民对非暴力原则的践行和坚守下，英国统治着终究会意识到暴力的无用并且离开印度。
甘地的逝世被认为是国际社会的一大损失。他在人类社会中的地位，不仅仅在20世纪得以体现，更在整个人类历史举足轻重。联合国大会为他特别设立了哀悼日，世界各国都向印度人民表示深切的同情和慰问。
宗教暴力冲突在印度和巴基斯丹很快消亡了。甘地的非暴力的主张也影响了其他地区的非暴力运动，其中最著名的是对美国民权运动领袖马丁·路德·金的影响。
