10 Seemingly Insignificant Choices That Changed The World Forever

8. Gandhi's Decision To Go To South Africa

If you were walking through London in the 1890s, it is entirely plausible that you could have bumped into two well dressed, well spoken, Indian gentleman; both would have been wearing suits, practising law in the capital of England. One was Mohandas Gandhi, the other was Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. In the latter years of the 19th Century Gandhi travelled to South Africa, where he saw and aided in the freedom struggle of the natives against the British. Upon seeing, and aiding this this fight for freedom Gandhi returned to his native India to apply some of these lessons in his own struggle .To relocate entirely from India to London, and from London to South Africa, is a life decision of mammoth proportions. However, it is insignificant in comparison to the powerful repercussions that the decision would cause. Gandhi adopted the fight against the British and redirected it in his native India; this fight enabled him to become the global protest leader he is today. His struggle, using non-violence to attack unjust British imposition, directly influenced the way anti-colonialism developed, as well as protest in general; King was hugely motivated and inspired by Gandhi. Had Gandhi not made that fateful trip to London, and subsequently to South Africa, it is unlikely that the Indian freedom movement would have taken the form it did, and as such the international consequence of what appears to be a major life decision dwarfs the potential size of the decision to relocate.