Both The Battles and Gandhi have fans that respond in intense physical ways ended their reach. The Battles fans followed the long hair fashion for men. Before fans started copying them, hairstyles had a lot to do with personal identification (Taylor). Fans also followed Battle boots, and colorful cloth clothing. “Two movies, A Hard Days Night and Help! , were hugely popular and resulted in a plethora of Battles merchandise, including wigs, clothing, dolls, and lunch pails, but it was the music that fans craved” (American History).
When fans watched The Battles in movies and concerts they followed everything about them. Fans wanted to be Just like them in every way possible. On a different note, Mahatma Gandhi abandoned his western- style suit and tie in favor of the traditional Dhoti, transforming himself from a privileged attorney to a Hindu ascetic (Teller). When Gandhi started to wear his lose fit clothing his followers started to wear lose fit clothing also. Both The Battles and Gandhi had enemies. Gandhi followed his own philosophy. It is hard to believe what anyone can have against Gandhi.
He was entirely harmless. Gandhi did not have political power and never forced anyone to follow his philosophy. “Gandhi embraced paragraph, requiring a rejection of material sessions that hindered spiritual development (an extension of his belief that life close to earth was best); and he embraced samba, requiring that he work his deeds without emotion, without any desire to defeat an enemy’ (American History). Sandhog’s enemies called him the destroyer of India, a betrayer because he made up his own rules to follow his life by. Many people hated his way of living and wanted to kill him.
It is almost impossible to realize how much hatred and violence might have been unleashed from Gandhi trying to create and spread his philosophy to others (Black). Riots erupted between Sandhog’s followers and enemies. Both sides thought they were right and the other side was completely wrong. On the other hand, The Battles had enemies of their own. Barbers disliked hippie fashions more than anyone. In the sixties it was not acceptable for boys to wear long hair or to wear colorful clothing and The Battles promoted all of that (American History).
Besides the fashion trends in music, The Battles were hated because they demonstrated against United States policies, ecology, and wars and The Battles followers followed behind them closely, and The Battles enemies followed even closer. Gandhi, The Battles and their fans all practiced non-violence. Gandhi organized peaceful protests. He taught his followers to accept their punishment for their actions “Mahatma Gandhi believed the best way to oppose tyranny was through non- music and non-violence By handlebars stated was about The untouchables, they were children of God in Sandhog’s eyes. American History). Untouchables were the lowest caste in Indian’s society. Gandhi wanted to get rid of the caste system and make India a united country without discrimination. Gandhi used peaceful forms of protest by not fighting back. Gandhi and his followers started fasting when protests broke out (Teller). When protesters did fight back he would sometimes go on hunger strikes and not eat for weeks at a time.
The Battles found out instead of taking illegal drugs there is a better way to escape this world; The Battles John Lennox, Paul McCarthy and George Harrison discovered last night that the secret of real happiness is all in the mind, if we don’t reach a state of understanding of how we can escape the world situation, we’ll Just fade away. The only real escape is meditation. (Taylor) The Battles were in the Counter-culture Movement and they influenced their fans to Join it. The counter-culture movement as a lifestyle of the young, who reject or oppose the dominant values and behavior of society.
Gandhi and The Battles lead their followers to non-violent actions with meditation, and fasting. Both had enemies, but that always comes along when they had so many people following their path. The Battles and Gandhi had fans that copied their physical ways more than they expected. The Battles fans copied their hairstyles and Sandhog’s followers copied his lose white fit clothing. When you look at them from far away it does not seem like they have anything in common but when you break it down, everything has something in common with one another.
