Lesson 5: Gandhi

• Godsdienst
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 2

Prejudice

Chapter 2

Lesson 5

2022-2023

Program

1. Welcome!

2. Wrap up previous class

3. Gandhi: make notes

4. Assignments

Current political events

" De mensen ervaren een crisis. "

-> Consequences for people, democracy

Assignment

In the video other genocides are discussed

Look up information about the people that where involved in the following genocides:

- Rwanda

- Jugoslavia

- Armenia

Objectives Term 2

GANDHI

Mohatma Gandhi

Mohatma Gandhi

• Born in 1869 in British India
• Hindu by religion
• Worked as a lawyer in South-Africa 
• Became an important activist for equal rights
• Murdered in 1948

Mohatma Gandhi

"When I was on a train, a white customer complained to the guard that I was sitting in first class. Apparently Indians are not allowed to sit here. The guard asked me to leave the compartment, but I refused - I had paid for a first class ticket and I had every right to sit there."

What sort of discrimination is this?

1. Antisemitism
2. Racism
3. Hinduphobia
4. Sexism

Discrimination in South Africa

- Racism: anti-Black, but also anti-brown

- Segregation: enforced seperation of (racial) groups into different communities

- Religious discrimination: only Christian marriages recognised

Gandhi started fighting these, inspired by his religious beliefs.

Gandhi's beliefs: 

• Ahimsa: no harm should be done to any living thing
• People should live more humble and simply - fewer possessions
• The real self (atman) should not be found in the physical and temporal body but in the eternal spirit (Brahman)
• You should stick firmly to your religious beliefs and should apply them always and at any time

Caste system

• In India, Gandhi started fighting against the caste system: a Hindu belief that separates people into different 'classes'.
• You are born into your class and cannot move up or down
• Different classes have different rights and possibilities
• Lowest class: the Untouchables

Work!

• Read paragraph 2.2 & 2.3
• Make exercises: 
• 2.2 -  1, 2 and 3
• 2.3 -  1 and 2

Discuss and then answer: How could these principles help against different sorts of discrimination?

How could you 'break the structures' of the caste system?