Lesson 11 - Gandhi

Mahatma ~ Great Soul

Bapu  ~ Father 

These two words I have learned from watching Gandhi (1982), a movie based on the life of Mahatma Gandhi, the great soul.

The movie was a biography of the story of Gandhi and how he championed rights for the Indians but in a non-violent manner. The movie was somewhat representative of the life of Gandhi. A few significant moments in the show were the times where Gandhi lead the people through a peace protest, how he refused to eat until the fighting stopped between Hindus and Muslims, how he strives to unite both religions and how he was finally assassinated, a scene that really came as a shock to me.

What I really admire about Mahatma Gandhi is his perseverance. In the midst of hostility and violence amongst the Hindus and Muslims, Gandhi does not react with violence and harsh words, rather, he proves a point. He chose to go on a hunger strike, saying he would not eat until the fighting stopped. I really cannot comprehend why he would "hurt" himself in hopes that others would stop fighting as this matter is far out of his locus of control. However, I suppose he had made enough of an impact already and there were enough people supporting him and thus the fighting was stopped, but after quite some time.

It was interesting to see how the different in-groups and out-groups were formed and how strongly they were united with each other. For example, all it took was one person to attack a person from another group, and immediately the groups started attacking one another, scattered as they were.

It never ceases to amaze me how Gandhi was able to exert such a strong influence to the people so much so they followed him, worshiped him and obeyed him just like that. It puzzles me though that Gandhi would go through extremes to prove how strong he was, (ie: sleep with naked girls just to show that he could control himself- well that was not in the show). I personally think that point did not need to be taken to such an extreme.

All in all, I thought the show was okay. I'm quite neutral on this movie =)
For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083987/
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha9MPLGo2YI