This movie is an excellent account of the world-wide impact of Gandhi. It chronicles much of his life as a peacemaker. I believe that Gandhi is one of the greatest leaders that the world has ever seen (even Dr. Martin Luther King borrowed from him). Gandhi was the person who helped make the necessary movements to gain India's independence, which is portrayed beautifully in this movie. Here are my thoughts on Gandhi's contributions to his country's independence, as seen in the movie.
India had struggled for many, many years to gain unity as a country, but they had trouble for multiple reasons. India still had these problems when the British came to their country and ruled. While the British were in India the Indians were treated horribly and were very poor, while the British were rich and powerful. Mohandas Gandhi saw what was going on in India and he knew there were changes that had to be made to make India an independent country.
Until Gandhi became part of the nationalist movement there had been little done to achieve independence in India. Gandhi had experienced discrimination in South Africa that was much like the discrimination that was going on in India. It was there that Gandhi started to develop the nonviolent resistance techniques (what he called "satyagraha") for which he would become famous. The Mahatma thought that a person being violent when he or she was wrong was the ultimate sin. That made him develop the nonviolent ways to protest what he felt was wrong because his view of the world could have been wrong. Gandhi taught that to gain spiritual freedom there needed to be political and social change.
Mahatma Gandhi felt that through self-control, patience, sympathy, and suffering, the Indians could change the hearts of the British. Gandhi said, "Suffering opens the eyes of understanding." Part of Gandhi's nonviolent tactics included fasting, work stoppages, and civil disobedience. Through those nonviolent protests, such as the Dandi Salt March in 1930, the Indians gained support from around the world and they eventually gained their independence from the British.
Gandhi's philosophy gathered a lot of support, first locally in India, then from around the world. The peaceful protests that Gandhi led gathered many people, including people who were not Hindu. The world noticed how much abuse the Indians had taken and they only fought back by asking for them to change laws and by asking for their independence. This added a lot of pressure to the British to let them have their own country.
One of the main reasons that Gandhi's philosophy helped to gain independence was because nonviolence wouldn't give the British a reason to fight back. If the Indians responded to something like the Amritsar Massacre by attacking the British then it would justify the British's reasons for attacking the Indians. If the Indians had tried to attack the British then the Indians would have been crushed by Britain's superior army. This made it so that the nonviolent protesting of Gandhi was the only method of protesting the Indian's poor treatment.
Gandhi's philosophies helped India in great ways, by giving them their only realistic way to achieve independence. Those methods gained support from many people. The philosophies of Gandhi weren't the only thing that he added to the drive for freedom. He also united the Indians together to show them that what was happening was wrong and that it had to be stopped. Mohandas Gandhi was the leader that India needed to become independent from the British.
This Oscar-winning biopic is the acclaimed dramatization of the life of Mohandas "Mahatma" Gandhi from his beginnings as a South African-educated lawy...More at Family Video
Sir Ben Kingsley stars as Mohandas Gandhi in Lord Richard Attenborough s riveting biography of the man who rose from simple lawyer to worldwide symbol...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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