Gandhi and the Independence of India

1. The director of the movie is Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough (29 August 1923 – 24 August 2014) who was an English actor, film director, film producer, entrepreneur and politician. He was the President of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. As a film director and producer, Attenborough won two Academy Awards for Gandhi in 1983. He also won four BAFTA Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. As an actor, he is perhaps best known for his roles in Brighton Rock, The Great Escape, 10 Rillington Place, Miracle on 34th Street and Jurassic Park. His most recent films as director and producer include Chaplin (1992) starring Robert Downey, Jr., as Charlie Chaplin and Shadowlands (1993), based on the relationship between C. S. Lewis and Joy Gresham (the star of the latter was Anthony Hopkins, who had appeared in four previous films for Attenborough: Young Winston, A Bridge Too Far, Magic and Chaplin). Between 2006-07, he spent time in Belfast, working on his last film as director and producer, Closing the Ring, a love story set in Belfast during the Second World War and starring Shirley MacLaine, Christopher Plummer and Pete Postlethwaite. According to some of the films he produced, we came to the conclusion that he was probably interested in developing films which correspond to a certain time in history and in most of them, war was one of the main themes. Besides that, we can say that in most of his films there were some kind of lessons or morals in order to make people see things in another perspective. 2. Gandhi was born in India on October 2nd, 1869. He left his country at a young age to attend school. Once he got his degree in London, he moved to South Africa to practice law there. In 1893, Gandhi was traveling to South Africa when a white passenger in the first-class area complained about his presence, so a railway employee tried to make him move to the third-class area where the colored people belong to despite of having a first-class ticket.Gandhi refused to do so and he was ejected from the train after been insulted and mistreated. After that incident, he decided to start a non-violent protest campaign in order to fight for the rights of all Indians in South Africa. Gandhi called this philosophy “Satyagraha” (which means to nonviolently resist oppression and discrimination through civil disobedience). What we learnt about him after he had had this incident was that he was an upright and educated man who defended his principles and rights and that is what we should all do. What he saw in Africa was injustice, discrimination and violence. Referring back to injustice and discrimination, Gandhi saw the way the Indians were treated, for example, they were not allowed to walk on the sidewalk with white men. As regards violence, he saw that the British solved problems by using violence instead of talking. 3. Was answered together with number 2 4. Gandhi was proud of being Indian and he fought for the independence of India with dignity. At the beginning of the film he argued with his wife because she wanted to be treated differently from the rest them for being Gandhi’s wife. However, in Ashram everybody was equal so if she wanted to live there, she had to do what everyone did. Another way to demonstrate how proud he was of being Indian was the fact that he wore handmade clothing like the rest of the Hindus. He lived without any luxuries or privileges even though he was very powerful and popular. 5. Gandhi faced the British Empire through revolutionary protests, disobedience and strikes. The first confrontation was at the Congress Indian Party where Gandhi and his followers were burning their passes. Passes that they had to carry all the time whereas Europeans didn’t even need them. Suddenly the police came and started hitting him, but he didn’t stop although he was threatened to be taken as a prisoner. The result of this protest was the elimination of the Law of Passes. Another action he performed for his country was the creation of a new community called “ashram” at Ahmedabad. People living there had to be nonviolent and truthful, had to do farming and spinning for their living and had to have no servants or personal possessions. At the ashram, women enjoyed full freedom and equal rights, there was complete religious tolerance and caste distinctions were ignored. Gandhi’s second confrontation with the government was at the mines where the miners joined him to free their imprisoned colleagues. As a consequence, the police came by horse and stepped on them. The officers put Mahatma in jail because of his disobedience. 6. Not all white people supported the British. We thought that the two most important were The Clergyman (Charlie Abrush) and Miss Slade. The cleric believed in Gandhi’s cause and helped him to spread his thoughts and Mirabhen (the name given by Mahatma) accompanied and followed him in all his adventures. 7. The first episode of slaughter and massacre which helped unveil British cruelty for the world to see what was going on in India was when the Hindus were parading against slavery. All this started because Gandhi wanted to embarrass the British for how they were treating the Hindus and Muslims. He asked the nation to fast and to pray, that is why the country stopped working, people, buses and factories stopped working. The British decided to put Mahatma in jail to cease the situation but that did not stop them. After they had paraded peacefully the British started shooting at them without hesitation. The police officer in charge was asked why he gave the order to kill so many Hindus and Muslims and he answered that “they had to respect the British law”. The second episode started when Gandhi decided to walk to the sea to gather sea salt and to raise the free Indian flag. He was sent to prison but this did not stop the Hindus and the Muslims. As a consequence of this, people went to the entrance of the prison and faced the British peacefully. The police started hitting them until they were almost dead. 8. Mahatma Gandhi’s death does not represent a defeat for us. At some point, his death gave the people the strength and the power to continue fighting for their rights. We think that they may act as Gandhi would have acted. All his life he tried to preserve all the troubles, strikes, deaths, burdens and obstacles in order to succeed that is why he was remembered as a symbol of strength. 9. We do not think that the British deserved to conquer the world because they were better in the natural selection proposed by the theory. According to Darwin, stronger species survive and the weaker ones do not deserve any help from the former ones. In the film, Gandhi was considered one of the most powerful and influential man. However, he helped the people in need as opposed to Darwin’s theory. 10. “They may torture my body, break my bones, and even kill me. Then they will have my dead body, but not my obedience.” By saying this, Gandhi showed his followers that he was going to fight for the cause but in a non-violent way. What he meant was that the British Empire could do whatever they wanted to but still he was going to react peacefully. We thought that this quote was important because it shows Gandhi’s determinism to change people’s life but always by the means of serenely acts.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi * Film: Gandhi directed and produced by Richard Attenborough