How Does Gandhi Use Ethos In Defending Nonviolent Resistance

For nearly half of the Nineteenth Century, India was ruled by the British Empire. Mohandas Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, in Porbandar India. He was important and known for his role as a civil rights leader in his campaign of nonviolence and peaceful protest in India, where he brought attention to the corruption of the British government, and their harsh treatment toward Indians. On March 10, 1922, Gandhi delivered a salient speech in front of a court, consisting of British officials, his fellow Indians, and the judges. This speech was given prior to his six-year prison sentence, which he was being given because he was stirring up rebellion. Gandhi’s use of ethos, pathos, and logos in his speech, “Defending Nonviolent Resistance”, contributes to his intended purpose to incite change in the government.
In the beginning of his speech, Gandhi uses an ethical approach, or ethos, to gain the trust of his audience, which was made up of the British government, his fellow Indians, and the judges. Gandhi wanted to let the court know that he “would like to state that [he] entirely endorse[s] the learned advocate

Gandhi’s “first contact with British Authority in that was country was not of a happy character. [He] discovered that as a man and as an Indian [he] had no rights” (29-30). Gandhi’s first experience with the British government was unpleasant merely because he was an Indian man. Gandhi goes on to explain the suffering that the Indians experienced due to the passing of the Rowlatt Act of 1919, which caused the “Punjab horrors beginning with the massacre at Jallianwala Bagh and culminating in crawling orders, public floggings, and other indescribable humiliations” (30). Gandhi’s intent is for the audience before him to take what he is saying to heart, to fully understand how the British are treating the