The
preeminent leader of the Indian independence movement in British ruled-India
Mahatma Gandhi presented the Quit India
speech on the 8th of August in 1942 calling for abiding support in his case to resolve
an Independent India. His speech, as most political speeches, contains decisive
rhetoric reinforcing the message he is imposing onto his audience; gaining
their votes in favor of his manifestation to achieve peace amongst the British
and the Indians disregarding British Imperialism. Gandhi is able to persuade
his audience by the use of various rhetorical devices influencing the urgency
of the mood and tone of the speech, achieving a meaningful takeaway to his case
by implementing allusions and metaphors, and lastly executing a strong
consistent style and structure which enforces his audience to focus.
Gandhi
intensifies the tone and mood of the speech by using highly personal diction and
evokes a sense of urgency, which encourages his audience to undertake action
and acknowledge the essence of shared responsibility and collaboration. The
mood that is created through the imperative mode calls for urgency and
undertaking. Gandhi uses the rhetorical device metanoia to express his respect
towards the British people. He wants to accentuate the fact that British people
are great friends to him and that this is completely irrelevant to the issue
regarding British imperialism in India. Gandhi achieved this objective by
recalling this statement in a stronger and more powerful manner to persuade his
audience that peace and respect are the two key elements to attain the goal of
a substantive India. He is hereby also able to stress the urgency in which he
imposes his manifestation; he wants to resolve to peace as fast as possible. In
addition, Gandhi uses anastrophe in his speech to lend emphasize on his aim to
achieve freedom without the use of violence but with the ideal of achieving
equal freedom.
Gandhi
is also explicit when it comes to shaping meaning in his speech: he uses the
rhetorical device metaphor to evoke empathy amongst his audience in his case to
strive for non-violence, he said: ‘when the earth is being
scorched by the flames of Himsa and crying for deliverance’. Gandhi is a historical phenomena due to
his incredible mindset in which he promoted peace and equal respect. The second
paragraph following the introduction, Gandhi uses the rhetorical device
allusion provoking a sense of emotion amongst his audience, as he recalls his
aspirations in life and reassures his audience that he strives harder in his
case to peace. This emotional pull also derives from the device pathos, in
which Gandhi is able to attract compassion from his audience in addressing his
case to end all violence. Gandhi refers to the witty knowledge of God, which means
he uses allusion to seek compassion from is audience. He implicates God as the
holy father of Ahimsa and all the positive attributes in life, which is
extremely useful in his attempt to free India: religion is very important in
their culture and serves as the covenant between the Indians. Furthermore, Gandhi
is a man who treats everyone in equal respect; he is not to befall as
aggressive or unkind. He remains this reputation by implementing metaphors such
as this one: ‘cutting off the friendly hand that is stretched out to
help them’. Gandhi does not
want to sound very harsh in his view points regarding India’s current struggle
to become an independent nation, he does not want to place the British in a bad
perspective.
The
structure and style of the speech cleverly contributes to persuading the
audience to treat each other with equal respect and eliminate hatred towards
the British people to aim for an independent India. Gandhi implements the
rhetorical device metabasis, which is originally used to lead in a transitional
summary. However Gandhi uses metabasis in his introduction to exact the
attention of his audience. He is also very conscious of his diction: he uses
personal pronouns suggesting a direct connection to his audience, invoking a
sense of collectivity and shared responsibility. Hereby we can identify his
audience to be the people of India who stand by his side supporting non
violence, as he says “Before you discuss the resolution” suggesting the
addressed audience is eager to impose on possible resolutions after Gandhi has
shared his point of view on the case. In context of Gandhi’s roots, he is
encouraged to include traditional diction to provoke credibility (ethos)
amongst his audience, especially considering his audience includes the
population of India who praise him. Ahimsa means ‘do not harm’ and
‘compassion’, so by promoting this aspiration Gandhi is able to gain moral
support and ethical appreciation to his attempt to restore peace amongst the
Hindus and the Muslims but also strive for an independent India. Also, Gandhi
is well aware of his word choice; he uses fancy words because audience has
grown to global beholders meaning his speeches should carry a sense of
sophistication.
There
is excessive use of conjunctive adverbs present within Gandhi’s speech to
insert a break, which encourages the public to absorb his knowledge. In
addition, the substantial use of punctuation, especially the comma, supports
the pace of the speech: it causes the speech to be more rhythmic and dramatic.
The content of the speech is very important in order to activate the audience
in voting for a resolution. The pauses created due to conjunctive adverbs and
commas enforce the audience to take note of the phrase previous and preceding
lines.
In
conclusion, Gandhi approached his audience in an urgent mood and tone to
activate and motivate the Indians to strive for an independent India, acquiring
this goal without the use of violence or hatred towards the opposition. At the
same time, Gandhi also acquired sensibility and trigger emotion amongst his
audience by using allusions and metaphors persuading them to vote for an
independent India. Lastly he executed a strong and consistent style and
structure which enforced his audience to focus on the message Gandhi send out.
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