Some Reminiscences of the Bar — M.K Gandhi

Most people plead not guilty and hope for the best. Gandhi, tried for sedition by the British government he had spent years opposing, stood up in court and pleaded guilty — then used his own sentencing hearing to explain, calmly and without asking for mercy, exactly why he believed breaking that particular law was his duty. It remains one of the most studied trial statements in modern legal history.

In two minutes

Gandhi's account of his own trial and defence describes how a lawyer trained to work within the system came to see disobedience of an unjust law as a duty, and how he used his own sentencing hearing not to seek acquittal but to place British rule itself on trial.

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