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How Tolerance & Cooperation Can Build Character & Leadership Skills

Poverty to Wealth: Mahatma Gandhi

Few other people from history are as synonymous with peace and tolerance as Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948). Born in India, Gandhi was a leader in the South Asian country’s movement for independence from British rule. He showed the world that through nonviolence, peaceful protest, personal sacrifice, and a

steadfast belief in one’s rights, powerful change could occur on a large scale. Among his many inspiring acts of tolerance and cooperation, Gandhi created an ashram (similar to a church) that was open to all the people of India, a country divided by an intricate caste system that many critics say promotes unjust treatment and discrimination. Gandhi was also well known for fasting and performing hunger strikes as a way to raise awareness about social issues of civil liberty and human rights within his country and the world at large. He inspired and unified millions of people through his belief that truth and discipline are at the heart of any healthy act of civil disobedience and fight for justice. Sadly, Gandhi was assassinated in 1948. His legacy of simplicity, humility, tolerance, and compassion live on to this day. As the leader famously said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

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