How to be a rebel

Buy at AllPosters.com

'Non-violence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed.'
March 18, 1922, Gandhi said in a speech in his defense against the charge of sedition.

Gandhi was born in India in 1869 and went on to study law in England. In 1893 he sailed to South Africa where he led the protests against the compulsory requirements that all Indian nationals be fingerprinted and required to carry identity papers.

On his return to India his focus became the liberation of India from the British yoke of colonialism and in 1919 he began the Satyagrata movement in protest against the Rowlatt Acts and the deprivations of civil liberties by the British colonialists that all Indians faced.

He ended his peaceful rebellion against the British authorities after some of his followers became involved in disturbances that violated his own policy of nonviolence

In 1930 he led the salt march to the sea to collect salt to protest the British salt tax

In 1932 he fasted to stop the ill treatment the Untouchables, a group of people excluded from the Hindu cast system.

He again fasted to end the violence between Hindus and Muslims in Calcutta

He was assassinated by a Hindu extremist, on January 30, 1948 his murder started riots and protests throughout India

Did you know:

Gandhi was a devout Hindu who was also influenced by his education in England and took inspiration from many diverse sources, including Christ, Leo Tolstoy, and Henry David Thoreau.

His English teacher was an Irish man and Gandhi spoke with a thick Irish accent

He was called Mahatma (Sanskrit for 'Great Soul'), a title reserved for great sages by the Indian people on his return from South Africa.

He carried his dentures in his robes and only used them for eating.

The Mahatma inspired many people the world over and to this day he is the symbol of non violent protest and civil disobedience

Rosa Parks was born in 1913 in Montgomery , Alabama. In Rosa Parks days blacks and white were segregated on public transport, the front rows on the buses were for whites only, blacks or "coloreds" had to sit in the back rows.

When the buses filled up white people had priority over the seating and more often then not black people were made to move further back or had to give up their seats altogether and get off the bus even though they had already paid their fare.
Incredibly if white people already sat on the bus, black people paid their fare, then had to disembark and re enter the bus by the back door, this they had to do at speed because very often the driver would just leave them stranded after they paid.

On the 1st of December, 1955 Rosa made history by refusing to give up her seat at the driver's request, he called the police and Rosa Parks was arrested, she was charged with disorderly conduct and sent to trial.

A nation wide protest was launched and black people were urged to stay off the buses, this event started the career of Martin Luther King Jr. and a 382 day long Montgomery Bus Boycott. Rosa Parks rebellion brought about the end of segregation.

On the 13th of November, 1926, the United States Supreme Court passed a court order which deemed the racial segregation on buses to be unconstitutional. The bus boycott ended seven days later once the news reached Montgomery.

Rosa Parks died on 24th of October, 2005 in Detroit aged 92.

For a more detailed look at Rosa Parks check out wikipedia

Buy at AllPosters.com

Be different and do not follow the "trend"

Be yourself

You don't need any kind of uniform to be a rebel

There is no need to adopt a way out cause that you don't really believe or dress a certain way or have dreadlocks.

You can stand out from the crowd if you so wish, if not be the quiet one and just do your stuff.

Ask questions and don't take anything for granted.

Do not believe something just because "the establishment" wants you to, make up you own mind and find your own truth.

Don't watch TV

Pursue your own dream and be daring

Let go of fear and become fearless.

Dare to be adventurous

Take risks

Stand up for Truth and Justice

Help the less fortunate and be a champion for the poor and oppressed

What makes someone become a rebel?
It is difficult to say that one thing or another is the exact reason why someone will rebel. If we take the case of Rosa parks for example we see that it was a series of circumstances and many injustices against which she may initially have felt powerless. Rosa parks rebelled when she became so fed up she had no choice but to make a stand to regain her dignity. This is without a doubt what made her a rebel, she so truly believed that she had a right as a human being to sit wherever she pleased and that she was equal to any white man, for this she was ready to risk going to jail, in a strange twist once she made this decision she became free.

James Dean (1931-1955) actor, had a short acting career that started in 1952, he went on to star in East of Eden in 1954 and Dean finished filming Rebel Without a Cause (with Sal Mineo and Natalie Wood) in June 1955 and Giant later that year.

James Dean, died at the age of 24 while driving his new Porsche Spider in a head on collision. He was buried in Fairmount, Indiana, on October 8, 1955, more than three thousand people attended his funeral.






Buy at AllPosters.com

Buy at AllPosters.com

Joan of Arc, by her French name Jeanne was born into a simple but prosperous peasant family in Domremi situated in Lorraine in Eastern France. She started having visions and receiving messages from God from the age of 14, by the time she was !7 her visions told her to liberate France from the English and put Charles vii on the throne.
Jeanne was no warrior, young, illiterate and ignorant of the ways of men and the French court she nevertheless convinced the Dauphin [ the future king] to let her lead his army.
France at this time was in the middle of The Hundred Year War with the English and the country was left devastated and in ruins.
In the years from 1337 to 1453, the two fought many battles over Aquitaine, a rich area in south-western France.
England had gained control of this area in the twelfth century and was holding fast, France was just as determined to send the English away back across the Channel.
In 1428 the English attacked and laid siege to the city of Orleans situated about eighty miles south of Paris. But they were stopped by the French, who were led by 17 year old Jeanne.
Jeanne rode to Orleans at the head of the French army dressed in a white suit of armour given to her by the Dauphin and defeated the English.
Jeanne became known after that as "La Pucelle D'Orleans" the Maid of Orleans. She galvanised the French army and went on to win several more battles in which her army cleared the English from the Loire valley.
Jeanne brought Charles to Rheims in triumph for his coronation on july the 17th 1429.
Her battles did not stop and she was captured by the Burgundians who sold her to the English, put to trial for heresy she was eventually burned at the stake in Rouen on May 30 in 1441 for wearing men's clothes [ she had refused to put back her woman's clothing after being raped in jail]

For more details on Jeanne check out those sites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc
http://www.gale.cengage.com/free_resources/whm/bio/joan_of_arc.htm

Jeanne D'Arc is the patron saint for martyrs; captives; militants; people ridiculed for their piety; prisoners; soldiers; Women Appointed for Voluntary Emergency Service; Women's Army Corps.

I had to include Jeanne simply because she represents for me the ultimate rebel/heroine. Imagine for one moment the enormity of what she achieved and how much she had to overcome. In her time women just did not speak up nor wear man's clothing or take up arms and lead armies.
All this because she had visions and believed she spoke to God and God gave her instructions, she made very accurate predictions and prophesies and this alone would have branded he a witch.

Imagine a 17 year old peasant girl leading armies...

Buy at AllPosters.com

Some rebels changed the world as we know it and made it a better place
There are many real rebels through the ages and of both sexes, who defied conventions and stood up for their beliefs, fought injustice and authority. They have suffered imprisonment and sometimes torture and death to pursue their vision of a better and just world.

Queen Boudica also known as Boadicea

Queen of the Iceni in ancient Britain, she led a rebellion against the occupying Romans. Her rebellion came about after the death of her husband when a Roman official decided to confiscate all her worldly goods and make her responsible for her husbands outstanding debts [ the creditor was no other than Seneca]. When she could not pay she was stripped and publicly beaten and had to watch her daughters being raped by the soldiers.
This led her to rebel and unite the warring tribes in a uprising against the Roman occupiers.
Described by the historian Dio as a flaming red hair, she was an amazing warrior and totally decimated a whole Roman army and torched Londinium, to this day you could still find the ash remains under modern London.
For more on Boudica go here

Buy at AllPosters.com

Buy at AllPosters.com