Mohandas K. Gandhi: One Man can Change the World Movie
Mohandas K. Gandhi: One Man can Change the World, is one of the most informative and influential movies of all time. The movie teaches and gives so much background about Gandhi and how he moved people with his words and actions. The movie illustrates how one man can could accomplish so much and shows how monumental Gandhi’s accomplishments were. The movie was focused on the adult life of Gandhi and did not include the childhood. Refreshing the audience minds with childhood events, traumas, friendships, as well as sibling and parent relationships. Adding a childhood scene could have also given the viewer an explanation for how someone became they why they were. Referencing the child’s idols and inspirations could have made a good and knowledgeable scene. Referencing only Gandhi’s adult years does not take anything away from the movie. The movie is still very informative. Even after Gandhi’s protest and years of getting people from India together; people were still not satisfied after gaining independence. A civil war breaks out, which causes Gandhi to fast until death. Gandhi brought everyone together again by sacrificing his own life. Only to be shot and killed out of madness. Ben Kingsley did a great job portraying Gandhi and what he stood for. The casting of this movie was great except for the wife of Gandhi. The wife was nice and is an important factor in Gandhi success, but could have been a better actor. “Back in 1939, John Gunther called Gandhi ‘an incredible combination of Jesus Christ, Tammany Hall and your father,’ and all three aspects are brought out by Ben Kingsley. This isn’t a pious portrait. There is much sly humour and human warmth in this man, and his relationships with his illiterate wife, Ba (Rohini Hattangadi), and his friend, the Anglican priest Charlie Andrews (Ian Charleson), glow.”(French, 1982)
Gandhi’s Attempts to Persuade People
Gandhi returned to India at the age of forty six. When Gandhi returned he was told to explore. Use up a year to travel throughout India. As Gandhi explored India, Gandhi became more and more successful in getting the people of India back on his side. The people of India started calling him “Mahatma,” which means “great soul.” Gandhi’s philosophy for the civil movement was to speak, protest, take violence but still do not follow their laws, but do so without harm to others from the british empire. Non- violent protest are the way to succeed as a movement. Over the years, Gandhi would be imprisoned and taken to jail. The British empire thought that this would spark violence from the Indian people, but this didn’t work. Gandhi’s vision was working, but the british empire did not give up. The empire tried again and the people did not disappoint Gandhi. Eventually the British empire gave in and the leader seemed to like Gandhi. “Leaders of the Civil Rights Movement chose the tactic of nonviolence as a tool to dismantle institutionalized racial segregation, discrimination, and inequality.”(Austin, p.6) Martin Luther King wanted to be peaceful and nonviolent. African American that understood this followed him and his ways. “Civil rights leaders had long understood that segregationists would go to any length to maintain their power and control over African Americans.” As people who fought for their peace and independence and believe that doing it nonviolently shows how great of a leader Gandhi and Martin Luther King and more are.
“Consequently, they believed some changes might be made if enough people outside the South witnessed the violence blacks had experienced for decades.”(Austin, p.7) There are many other protest where the people tried to gain independence and freedom through nonviolence. Some are the Montgomery Bus boycott. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a civil-rights protest during which African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating. “The Suffrage Parade.” The Suffrage Parade was a protest where thousands of women gathered in Washington, D.C. to call for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote. “While women had been fighting hard for suffrage for over 60 years, this marked the first major national event for the movement.”(Cohen, 2016, p.1)For too long, women were formally excluded from full participation in our society and our democracy. Because of the courage of so many bold women who dared to transcend preconceived expectations and prove they were capable of doing all that a man could do and more, advances were made, discoveries were revealed, barriers were broken, and progress triumphed.”(Obama, 2016) Women evolution started because of this event. Women didn’t want to accept just the role of housewife. Women wanted to be more involved in say for president, mayor and other government officials. “Gandhi’s Salt March.” Gandhi’s Salt March took place from March to April 1930 in India, was an act of civil disobedience led by Mohandas Gandhi to protest British rule in India. During the march, thousands of Indians followed Gandhi from his religious retreat near Ahmedabad to the Arabian Sea coast, a distance of some 240 miles. The march resulted in the arrest of nearly 60,000 people, including Gandhi. All these nonviolent protest led to some of the most monumental moments in history. Women’s voting rights, better laws in Alabama, and the independence of India.
Gandhi as a Leader
As the movie went on, Gandhi has evolved as a man and a leader of his people. “Gandhi is widely recognized as one of the twentieth century’s greatest political and spiritual leaders.” As the movie continued, Gandhi starts to be recognized as “Mahatma,” which means “great soul.” During the beginning, Gandhi and his wife got into an argument about the way they should handle the movement. Gandhi nearly kicks out his own wife. Gandhi then apologizes and for the rest of the film they were together. The couple even reenacted their wedding day. Gandhi and his wife was together and needed each other to succeed as leaders. Gandhi would have been successful, but his wife was the one for support.
As a leader, Gandhi became one with the people. Gandhi, after being sent to prison only wore the clothing that Indians wore in prison. Early in the movie, Gandhi wore suits and church shoes, but after being in prison with his people, Gandhi embraced his culture. Gandhi also started fasting. Gandhi amazed his followers but never acted like he was better than them. World civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr and Nelson Mandela both have credited Gandhi as a source of inspiration in their struggles to achieve equal rights for their people.
India Seeking Independence
India wants independence and wants it without harm or violence. Sometime it was hard for Indian not to harm especially in the beginning of the movie. One man stated that “ if a soldier come into his house and touch his wife, he would bring harm to that soldier.” People around Gandhi chants and agrees until Gandhi told them “ Indian will not follow their laws but we will do so peacefully and will not harm anyone.” India shows a different way of getting independence. Some other countries, such as America took different routes. India and America were both part of the British Empire at one time, and both wanted freedom. Indians chose a peaceful way of gaining Independence, while Americans chose a violent way. Different time periods and different culture brought about the different strategies for both their freedom. During the American revolution, Britain was the most powerful country and had plenty of resources, money, and a very strong military. America was brought up with in the British colonies and only knew the British background of fighting for things wanted. America and Indian leader during their times were much different also. Gandhi taught peace and nonviolence. George Washington was a strategist and wealthy, therefore the colonies made him general. George Washington and Gandhi both were leaders, but different for how they became leaders. America and India took different path, but both were successful in gaining their freedom from the British empire. Egypt is another country that gained independence from the British empire. Egypt and India took very similar route. Egyptian ls were not happy with the way Britain was using their soldiers. 1.5 million soldiers were forced to fight during world war one. On March 15, 1919, more than 10,000 egyptians marched to Cairo’s Abdin Palace to confront the british empire. The British empire could not get control over the egyptians, therefore the British granted the egyptian their independence. During this civil disobedience, the british empire was trade value was limiting between the two regions. Leader of this rebellion was Saad Zaghlul and Wafd party. These leaded urged their people to sign power of attorney forms to allow to act in the country’s best interest. As history shows our greatest leaders and people that are admired most are those who led with a mindset of nonviolence. Gandhi, the egyption leaders, Dr. King, and Dalai Lama. These are leaders that took a nonviolent approach to becoming free and having independence. Nonviolence have its effects. As seen in the movie, hundreds of Indians suffered injuries and lots of them were killed due to the british empire, but these people made the sacrificing that led to Indian independence.
Learning from Gandhi
Throughout the history of the world, there have been many countries or places separated by barriers or walls. The most famous one is the Great Wall of China. This wall was built by thousands of men and plenty have died. These walls are used and built for the protection of people or to keep people from leaving the country. The wall of Berlin is one example of a wall that was built to keep people from leaving the country. The Soviet Union forced East German government to build a series of concrete partitions separating East and West Berlin. While Communist leaders claimed the barriers were designed to keep out fascists and other enemies of the state, their real function was to prevent East Germans from defecting to the West. “More than 100 people were eventually killed while trying to escape through the maze of 12-foot walls, guard towers and electrified fences. Thousands more succeeded by scaling the wall, tunneling underneath it and even flying over it in ultra-light aircraft and homemade hot air balloons. The wall was called the “wall of shame,” and also the wall stood for more than 28 years before East German authorities finally opened it on November 9, 1989. The announcement sparked a wave of celebrations, and elated Berliners soon went to work demolishing the wall with jackhammers and chisels. East and West Germany were officially reunified less than a year later in October 1990.” (Andrews, 2016, p.1) The Walls of Constantinople. “The Byzantine metropolis of Constantinople (modern day Istanbul) flourished for over a millennium thanks in part to the strength of its defensive walls.” (Andrews, 2016 , p.1) The wall was built to included a moat, a 27-foot outer wall and a massive inner wall that was 40 feet tall and 15 feet thick. “The walls succeeded in turning back a host of would-be conquerors from the Arabs to Attila the Hun, but they finally met their match in 1453, when the Ottoman Empire besieged the city with a frightening new weapon—the cannon.”(Andrews, 2016, p.1) “The Sumerians’ Amorite Wall.” The world’s earliest known civilization was also one of the first to build a defensive wall.This “Amorite Wall” is believed to have stretched for over a hundred miles between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. “The wall only succeeded in fending off the Sumerians’ enemies for a few years. Hostile invaders either penetrated the wall or simply walked around it.”(Andrews, 2016, p.1)
All these wall worked for a period of time, but all failed to last. Eventually people found ways over, under or in some cases through these walls. The United States current president Donald Trump is trying to build a wall currently. Immigration and the wall have been a talking point since Trump camp started. Immigration is something that Trump wants to fix and the wall is suppose to be a fix for this “problem.” The wall being built along the southern border and is being built to keep immigrants from coming to America. Instead of worrying about immigrants that come here and work for low wages, we need to worry and pay more attention to America itself.“This problem is of our own making. For decades, the U.S. government has been inconsistent, disingenuous and insincere in enforcing its immigration laws — threatening deportation one minute, offering free health care and education the next.” ( Plaats, 2018, p.1) Solutions for this illegal immigration problem is to let American decide who gets to stay and leave. “Under a sponsorship plan, current law-abiding U.S. citizens would agree to sponsor undocumented individuals currently living in the U.S. through a formal process.” ( Plaats, 2018, p.1) “Sponsorship could be an effective solution because it is a local, community-building approach to integrating immigrants into society. It treats undocumented immigrants with dignity, involves U.S. citizens in becoming part of the solution, and helps build bridges within the communities where immigrants already live, work, shop and send their children to school.”(Plaats, 2019, p.1) Other solutions that may help with undocumented immigrants are a background check. The government should check the history of these immigrants that are already here. The president wants all immigrants to be back deported. This is most likely not going to happen, therefore background checking the ones that are already here would help. “The people who are already here should have the opportunity to achieve residency and citizenship. It would be a good idea to do background checks on undocumented immigrants as part of the process. Those who have criminal records in their native countries or here wouldn’t be eligible and eventually would be deported.” (Boughton, 2005) Focusing on those who have a felony or criminal activity is better than punishing all immigrants. Donald Trump could stop worrying about the immigrants and worry about our own country and people. Donald trump says “immigrants are killing Americans more and more every year,” but this is not true.“Year after year, countless Americans are murdered by criminal illegal aliens.’ During the State of the Union, Donald Trump said this statement. This statement is not supported by data. There are no databases that support this statement. “What available studies do show is that overall, crime rates are lower among immigrant groups than they are among native-born Americans.”(Washington, 2019) This data tells us that Americans ourselves are doing more of the damage than immigrants are.
Donald Trump wants to “make America great again,” then Trump need to focus more on activities and problems in America and with Americans. America greatest years or most liked years was the 50’s. Economically the 50’s was a golden era. The war had stabilized America. The war helped change America from a depression to an economic boom. This era has it flaws, just as all era. Racism was big during this time. African American were the minorities and was being treated unfairly and discriminated against. African Americans in the forties played a big role in the war that helped this boom that eventually led into the fifties. African American as minorities had accomplished so much during the fifties. Chuck Cooper, Nathaniel Clifton, and Earl Lloyd become the first African-Americans to play for the National Basketball Association. Racial segregation in Washington D.C. restaurants is declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.The U.S. Supreme Court declares segregation in public schools unconstitutional in the Brown v. Board of Education case. These were some of the accomplish that started the push for African american equality. Rosa Parks is arrested after refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery Bus to a white patron. During the fifties, we get some of our best leaders really make a name for themselves. Minorities have alway been a part of great eras in America. African American making a stand led to something greater the line.
Conclusion
Gandhi: One man can Change the world, is a great movie and the movie shows how nice and inspiring Gandhi was to all people including the British empire leaders. Gandhi was man who believes in nonviolence and equality for all people and he stood by his beliefs. Gandhi was willing to fast to death after given his independence because of the civil war that was breaking out. Some of our greatest leaders learn and have admired Gandhi.In 2009, when Barack Obama was visiting Wakefield High School in the US, a ninth grader asked the would-be President: “If you could have dinner with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be?” Obama chuckled and answered: “Well, dead or alive, that’s a pretty big list. You know, I think that it might be Gandhi, who is a real hero of mine.” (Obama, 2016, p.1) There is so to learn from Gandhi and the way he went about bringing peace and freedom to India and its people.
