The Chinese Communists

In class we are learning about the Communist rise to power, a topic which interests me very much. I decided to explore the possible reasons of why their rise to power was successful, so that is what i will be dedicating this blog to. 
It is well know that there are many reasons why the communists were successful in their movement, but in my opinion, the main reason for their success was the mass support they gained.

By 1949, communism was becoming popular. The Nationalists lost public support to China because their government was corrupt and inefficient, unable to build an effective army, incapable of halting the inflation, and unmindful of the peasants' demand for land and the workers' demand for better living conditions. This was the perfect time for the communists to come in, take charge, and gain support. They taxed the rich, broke up the large estates, gave land to the peasants, encouraged the formation of cooperatives to foster industry, and maintained an effective fighting force, assisted by military supplies from Russia. Although these are a few reasons why the communists gained popularity, there are two main reasons. These reasons are, a) they provided a means of criticizing the western dominance, thereby slaving Chinese pride, and b) they were anti-Japanese. With this stance, the Chinese could blame Chinas pitiful weakness on foreign capitalism invasion. It promised salvation soon. In addition, because the communists were anti-Japanese and the Japanese aggression was the main factor in Mao’s power, aligning with people against the Japanese made the communists popular with the common people, especially the peasants who were the vast majority of the population.

photo --> http://rationalrevolution.net/war/maoist_china.htm

Gandhi, the Failure

When one thinks of “Gandhi,” they usually think of an incredible man who was an intellectual leader, and a brave representative for India's independence in the 20th century. When I think of Gandhi, I think of a failure. I believe that although Gandhi did help India in their goal towards independence, his main goal, a united India, failed. Although Gandhi had some success with his campaigns, his success was more in his ‘legacy,’ because he is so well known for his movements towards independence.

In my opinion, Gandhi is a major failure. He set out to achieve one of the biggest tasks in the history of mankind, an independent and united India, and failed miserably. This was a huge challenge and Gandhi had unrealistic opinions if he truly believed that unification could be achieved. To believe that he could have convinced people who had been fighting for years to live amicably, respect each other’s differences, and tolerate diversity, was absurd. Although Gandhi stated that people are always different, he did believe that unification was the only way that independence would be achieved properly. I believe that Gandhi could not deal with the issue of diversity, since he wanted everyone to be alike. One can see this in the example of the spinning wheels. Gandhi wanted everyone to have a spinning wheel in his or her home so that they could create and wear the same garments – making everyone alike, and eliminating the class system.

Unfortunately, this did not go according to plan, and Gandhi could not keep the partition from happening. Gandhi’s main goal failed, and as a result there were close to a million deaths from people fleeing their homes during the time of the partition.

Photo - http://www.room111heroes.com/labels/gandhi.html