Gandhi Movie Reflection

In 1930, after being released from prison, Gandhi started a new civil disobedience campaign against colonial government’s tax on salt. He led a march in 1930 where thousands of Indians followed him from Ahmadabad to the Arabian sea. 60,000 people were arrested including Gandhi. Once again Gandhi called off his resistance movement. He also agreed to represent the Congress party at the round table conference in London. Gandhi retired from politics in the year of 1934. He also resigned from the Congress party so that he would be able to concentrate his efforts on working within rural communities.

Topics of Inquiry: The Chicago bombing during the Haymarket Riot caused uproar throughout the crowd. It was supposed to be a peaceful protest, but turned out to be an unplanned event. Many argue that the bombing itself did not help the cause, but I will be arguing that the bombing helped the eight hour movement.

Gandhi is a biopic produced by Richard Attenborough whose lifelong dream was to make the story of the national independence leader’s life into a movie. The movie starts with Mohandas K. Gandhi, played by actor Ben Kingsley, rejecting all material possessions in pursuit of India’s independence. The storyline plays out to highlight important aspect of Gandhi’s life and ends with his assassination, where he utters the famous lines “Oh god.” Critics claim the movie is over exaggerated, however Attenborough does a fine job of bringing a visual of Gandhi’s life into Western eyes. In addition, what could be a bad thing ends up being a good thing for the layman who watches this movie. Attenborough oversimplifies Gandhi’s perspectives and ideas on social justice and religion, which leads to a very simple explanation of Gandhi’s philosophy.

In order to counter-act the pervasive actions the British were enacting onto the Indians, Gandhi began one of history’s most influential movements. Termed the "Salt Satyagraha", this prodigious struggle for independence had fundamentally changed the England's influence over India forever; a march which, although having minuscule beginnings, swelled to over 100, 000 humans whom all desired one thing- freedom from British oppression (MapsofIndia, 2015) Culturally, this campaign was of utmost importance as it was within the realm

Gandhi was most opposed to the salt tax, so he started the Salt March. Before the march, Gandhi sent a letter to a British governor named Lord Irwin, informing him that he was about to break the law. However, he did not want to break the law, as he said in his letter. " Before embarking on Civil Disobedience and taking a risk I have dreaded to take all the years, I would approach you... and find a way out." He wanted to find some peace; his nonviolence acts spread across the world (Document A).

Mahatma Gandhi was the leader of the Indian independence movement against British rule. He proposed a speech to all of his followers explaining what his resolution was to gain independence, without using violence. Mahatma Gandhi adopts a subtle and affirmative tone while revealing that non violence and the spreading of love is the way to approach this movement for independence. He also portrays his outline for the movement by appealing to the audience's emotions.

He outed the moral and political philosophy of satyagraha, or nonviolent resistance, which he had developed while in South Africa. His message to Indians was simple: develop your own resources and control the instincts and activities that encourage membership in colonial economy and government, and you shall achieve swaraj or self-rule. Faced with Indian self-reliance and self-control pursued nonviolently, Gandhi claimed, the British eventually would have to leave. When the Depression struck India in 1930, Gandhi asked for his people not to use salt showing his new way of civil disobedience. Salt symbolized tasked the Indians' defeat to an alien government. To break the colonial government's control, Gandhi began a 240-mile march from western India to the coast to gather sea salt for free. With him were seventy-one followers representing different regions of India. Thousands of people met around and encouraging them to hold independence from British rule. (Pollard, Rosenberg, Tignor 2015 Pages

In the Salt March, Gandhi and his people protested Britain’s Salt Tax Law and repeatedly chanted protests until they were beaten down by the British. For example, the text in Source 3 written by an eyewitness says, “As the throng drew near the salt pans they commence chanting the revolutionary slogan, Inquilab zindabad (long live revolution), intoning the two words over and over.” It also said, “The survivors without breaking ranks silently and doggedly marched on until stuck down.” This quote proves that they thoroughly protested without applying any violence to the disagreement. There is also one other massive component to this

The salt march which is nonviolent was most successful in helping India gain independence. First, before the protest against Britain’s Salt Tax law, Gandhi wrote a letter to Lord Irwin. For example, in the letter it said that salt are one of the most important thing for the poor people. Also, not be able to buy salt because of the high tax are burdensome on the poor people. “... when it is remembered that salt is one thing he must eat more than the rich man” (source #2).

One of the most widely known event would be when Mahatma Gandhi employed nonviolent strategies such as hunger strikes and protest marches in order to fight oppression. In 1930, Gandhi started the “Salt March” which was aimed at the British “salt tax”- Taxing on Indian salt so the people would have to import salt from Britain. Indians were unable to both collect and sell salt because of the British salt monopoly in India. The march and hunger strikes eventually led India to independence from the Brits. Gandhi’s success in guiding his country to freedom by conducting nonviolent means has proven civil disobedience and direct action to be

Indian leader, Mohandas Gandhi died at the age of 78 on January 30, 1948 at 5:12 p.m. Mohandas Gandhi was known throughout the world for his nonviolent protests against both British rule and interreligious fighting.

Gandhi opposed the country's controversial motion to fingerprint and document all Indians, leading to his many achievements in the field of civil disobedience. Gandhi became the face of a movement of noncompliance. Thousands of Indians rejected the new law, resulting in their eventual arrests (along with Gandhi). Although they were arrested, it was the statement made that counted. Gandhi and his followers were able to lead a movement against the current, fully demonstrating their power with the organization of the month long Salt March in response to the egregious salt tax that weighed heavily on impoverished Indians. Gandhi led thousands to the coast of the Arabian Sea in seek of Salt. Due to his rebellion to the law, Ghandi and some 60,000 more were arrested, and others were violently beaten by British police. However, the March continued on. Eventually, Gandhi made a deal that resulted in the end of the March, and in return, an amending of the tax. This is a prime exhibit of the wonder of civil

Aroused by the massacre of Amritsar in 1919, Gandhi devoted his life to gaining India’s independence from Great Britain. As the dominant figure used his persuasive philosophy of non-violent confrontation, he inspired political activists with many persuasions throughout the world (Andrews 23). Not only was Mahatma Gandhi a great peacemaker, but also his work to achieve freedom and equality for all people was greatly acknowledged. Gandhi’s unconventional style of leadership gained him the love of a country and eventually enabled him to lead the independence movement in India.

Gandhi’s first large scale demonstration took place in South Africa, where he was working at the time. He led a march from Natal into the Transvaal to protest a number of racially discriminative laws including the Black Act, which degraded Indians by forcing them to “submit to physical examinations, provide fingerprints, and carry a registration certificate at all times,” [11] and a £3 annual tax on people of Indian descent [3]. Many marchers were “injured or killed in clashes with the security forces”, sentenced to hard labor, or imprisoned. In fact, Gandhi himself was imprisoned three times within the first four days of the march [11]. News of Gandhi’s arrest and police brutality towards the protesters spread like wildfire and caused a worldwide

Gandhi premiere on November 30, 1982 in New Delhi, India. The 190 minute film was wonderfully directed by Richard Attenborough and well written by John Briley. I found this film difficult to “briefly” summarize, however I would like to share a short timeline of events through the film’s eyes.