ABSTRACT
Mahatma K. Gandhi preferred Henry David Thoreau's phrase "civil disobedience" to Leo Tolstoy's "passive resistance," but he also twisted Thoreau's phrase into "civil resistance." In South Africa, Gandhi spent 249 days in jail; in India, 2089. Gandhi even made a pair of leather sandals for his jailer, General Jan Smuts, which he presented to him before leaving South Africa. Gandhi especially liked two points about Thoreau's essay. He admired the willingness to put one's ideas into actions, and suffer the consequences of one's choices. He also liked Thoreau's realization that the government treats us as physical bodies. Birmao Ramji Ambedkar and Gandhi never became friends, but they continued to fight for the same cause. When Gandhi started the fast, on September 20, 1932, Ambedkar refused to meet him and renegotiate the proposal. At Ambedkar's repeated insistence, the British included separate electorates for the untouchables in the proposed constitution of independent India.
