Film Lesseon: Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi was one of he most influential figures of all history. Leading a bloodless revolution across Africa, he was one of the very few fathers of nations who fought for independence for his people without violence. From 1916 to 1945, Gandhi continued to challenge the British authority over the “coolies”, as the British called Indians, until the formation of the creation of India and Pakistan in BLAH. In the accurate biography about his astonishing life, titled “Gandhi”, various of Mahatma’s methods and his philosophy were revealed and brought to a more public light.

The first of the methods used by Gandhi was civil disobedience. This is a practice of resisting an an unjust rule by means of strikes, boycotting, and general neglection of that law. However, while Gandhi did encourage this, he told his followers not to lay a single hand on the British, and to take every one of their blows. His view was most accurately portrayed in the movie during the scene of part of the Salt March. He organized a group of rebel Indians, and marched them to a British salt factory in the desert. However, British officers assembled at the site, and brutally clubbed many Indians.

Gandhi also practiced a sort of "self-sufficient" lifestyle. He encouraged his people to follow his example of spinning their own cloth, obtaining / making their owns goods, and boycotting British made products. This self-sufficiency goes hand in hand with his tactic of civil disobedience. This method turned successful, as many people followed his example. In the movie, the self-sufficiency of Gandhi is most clearly portrayed in the scene of the Salt March, where the Indians travel hundreds of miles to reach the ocean so that they could make their own salt instead of having to depend on the British for it.

I believe that the gaining of India's independence was not all Gandhi. It is true that he played an extremely influential role in it, but there was another invisible hand moving along with Gandhi: the loss of power in their colonies after the close of World War II. Europe, and the entire world for that matter, was devastated by the amass of losses, both in revenue, lives, and overall power. At that state, they weren't able to maintain all of their overseas colonies, as it would deplete their desperately needed resources. Gandhi happened to come in at the perfect time. He and his non-violence methods did not hurt the British physically, but indirectly through money. The crippled British became tripped deeper into weakness, and had to allow India their freedom. However, India's independence was inevitable, because the results of World War II had already weakened the British enough that it would not be in their best wishes to try to keep their colonies active.