Gandhi   Also Format:    Gandhi

In his epic masterpiece Gandhi, director Richard Attenborough explores the inspiring, complicated life of Mohandas K. Gandhi, the Indian lawyer who through ideological conviction and an impassioned sense of political justice went on to become the spiritual leader of a nation and the symbol of its hard-won independence. Ben Kingsley won an Oscar in the title role, and he is supported by an all-star cast that includes Candice Bergen as photographer Margaret Bourke-White and John Gielgud as Lord Irwin. This is a big story to tell, and Attenborough tackles his subject head on, zeroing in on those critical events in Gandhi's life that propelled him along his historic journey: his awakening to the injustice of Britain's resistance to Indian independence; his renunciation of his personal effects; his development of a "passive resistance" strategy in retaliation against the British army (which later inspired Dr. Martin Luther King); and, most memorably, his dramatic fasting in the name of his cause. As Gandhi, Kingsley, turns in an unforgettable performance, cloaking himself in the indomitable spirit of the soft-spoken yet determined pacifist, as he seamlessly evolves from citizen to statesman to modern-day messiah. Bruce Kluger

1982 Academy Award:

Best Picture

Best Actor - Ben Kingsley

Best Director - Richard Attenborough

Best Art Direction-Set Decoration - Stuart Craig, Bob Laing, Michael Seirton

Best Cinematography - Billy Williams, Ronnie Taylor

Best Costume Design - John Mollo, Bhanu Athaiya

Best Film Editing - John Bloom

Best Original Screenplay - John Briley

Gandhi: An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth
Mahatma Gandi  Gandhi  Mahadev Desai (Translator)  Foreword by Sissela Bok

Gandhi: An Autobiography; The Story of My Experiments with Truth

Mohandas K. Gandhi is One of the most inspiring figures of our time. In his classic autobiography he recounts the story of his life and how he developed his concept of satyagraha, or active nonviolent resistance, which propelled the Indian struggle for independence and countless other nonviolent struggles of the twentieth century.

In a new foreword, peace expert and teacher Sissela Bok urges us to adopt Gandhi's "attitude of experimenting. Of testing what will and will not bear close scrutiny, what can and cannot be adapted to new circumstances," in order to bring about change in our own lives and communities.

• Gandhi was assassinated in 1948 by a conspiracy of fundamentalist Hindus who were disturbed by his efforts to reform Indian society and to promote Hindu-Moslem brotherhood.
  
  
• India and South Africa were British colonies. In the early 20th century the British Empire stretched across the globe. Until recently South Africa was one of the most segregated societies in the world. Indians had been brought to South Africa by the British as laborers and merchants. They were set apart as "coloreds" and given more privileges than blacks but fewer privileges than whites. For example, they could not ride in first class compartments in trains and could not walk on certain sidewalks. Gandhi was educated in London and became a lawyer there. When he went to South Africa and saw how his people were oppressed, he helped to organize a number of successful protests. It was in South Africa that he first developed the tactics of nonviolent civil disobedience. Later he returned to India and lead a revolution against British colonial rule. India finally achieved independence from Britain in 1947.
  
  
• Indian society was strictly segregated into castes for hundreds of years. The lowest caste, the untouchables, were relegated to menial jobs such as cleaning latrines and tanning hides. Upon coming into contact with an untouchable, higher caste Indians would wash and perform religious rights to cleanse themselves. If untouchables tried to improve themselves they were subject to brutal repression. Gandhi tried to convince Indians to abandon their discrimination against the untouchables. Although his family was from a higher caste, he personally associated with untouchables and made it a point to perform tasks, such as cleaning chamber pots, that had been previously performed only by untouchables. While it is not dealt with extensively in the movie, Gandhi also sought to lift many of the traditional restrictions on women, although he maintained rigid control over his own wife.
  
  
• For centuries, spinning cloth had been a cottage industry in India. Families spun cloth for their own garments at home and some made money selling their surplus. This ended with the invention of the power loom and with British Rule. The machine manufacture of cloth was concentrated in Great Britain and was a mechanism by which Britain drained wealth from India. Gandhi sought, unsuccessfully, to reinstate spinning as an economic activity in order to help purge India of British influence and control.
  
  
• India has many religious groups. The largest are the Hindus and the Muslims. While there were tensions and some hostility between religious groups before colonial rule, the British fanned the flames of religious intolerance and hatred to keep the Indians from uniting against them. The policy was called "Divide and Rule." Gandhi campaigned for religious tolerance. On several occasions he fasted almost to death, to stop sectarian rioting.
  
  
• The basic historical events in this movie are accurately reported. However, it has been criticized as a "work of worship" for reducing everything to black and white, for belittling other important leaders in India's independence movement, and for portraying "virtually all the Britains" Gandhi encountered as "buffoons or bigots." See: Past Imperfect, Carnes, ed. pp 254 et seq. Some perspective on Gandhi is added by this passage from Past Imperfect:
  
  

  Indian audiences loved "Gandhi," and little wonder, since in it all of India's faults are blamed on her British rulers. Hostility between Hindus and Muslims for example - which still accounts for the loss of hundreds of lives a year nearly half a century after the British withdrawal - is blamed exclusively on the colonial policy of Divide and Rule. The genuine fears of the Muslim minority are never presented, and the brilliant lawyer who became the leader of the Muslim League, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, is portrayed as nothing more than a languid and malevolent fop - which makes the subsequent success of his campaign for Pakistan inexplicable. Nor is there any mention of the Congress Party's colossal wartime blunders - its precipitous withdrawal from the interim provincial governments that might have led to independence for a united India, and its demand that Britain "Quit India" just as the Japanese were closing in on her eastern frontier - both of which Gandhi enthusiastically supported, and which put him and all the other important Congress leaders in prison for the duration, leaving the field wide open for Jinnah and his followers to whip up Muslim support for carving up the country....
  
  Gandhi fought two lifelong struggles: one for freedom from the British and the other, more intense, for his own liberation from worldly desires. The second, private struggle - the one that occupied most of Gandhi's time, meant most to him, and profoundly affected his politics - is simply left out of the film. So are other hard facts about him: He was difficult and demanding, a tyrannical and emotionally abusive father, obsessed with the working of his own and other peoples bowels, subject to long bouts of depression during which he refused to speak to even his closest associates, who were themselves notoriously quarrelsome and mutually envious.
  
  Gandhi did aspire to be a saint, but no one knew better than he how short of that goal he fell. As the film memorably reminds us, when his dream of a nonviolent and united India began to die, he faced down bloody-minded mobs with astonishing courage, purchasing the lives of thousands of innocent Muslims and Hindus by risking his own, over and over again. Yet there is no hint of the real cause of the special anguish he felt. With the sort of self-referential thinking that denotes either sainthood or egomania, Gandhi had convinced himself that he was personally to blame for the chaos that accompanied independence, not because he had made political blunders but because he had failed somehow to be fully faithful to his vows of renunciation. And so, to demonstrate to God (and to himself) that at nearly eighty he had finally, irrevocably risen above the realm of the flesh, he took to sleeping naked alongside the young female disciples who were his constant companions.
  
  Nehru was right: Gandhi was too much of a great man to be deified.

  Despite these imperfections, "Gandhi" is a powerful tool for educating children about one of the most remarkable men of the 20th century; a man whose strategy of forcing social and political change through nonviolent civil disobedience saved India, the United States, and several other nations from unimaginable hardship; a man whose teachings continue to affect the lives of hundreds of millions for the better.
  
  
• The term "Mahatma" means a man whose essence of being is great. Gandhi's effort and his proposal for a solution to the predicament of modern man was simply to "turn the spotlight inward." One can hardly imagine a man more fit for such a title.

1. [Standard Questions Suitable for Any Film].
2. What benefits have the people of the United States derived from the influence of Mahatma Gandhi?
3. Explain the mechanism by which nonviolent civil disobedience works to force a government to do what the protesters want.
4. Would nonviolent civil disobedience have worked against Hitler, Stalin or Pol Pot? [In comparison, analyze how Gandhi's campaign of civil disobedience was able to gain independence for India. It mobilized public opinion throughout the world and in Britain itself to force the rulers of that country to reevaluate their actions and abandon Britain's evil policies with respect to India. Would this have worked with Stalin, Hitler or Pol Pot?]
5. Explain the mechanism of nonviolent civil disobedience. Include in your answer responses to the following questions: How does civil disobedience work on the mind of the oppressor? In which political structures is civil disobedience most likely to work? In which political structures is civil disobedience least likely to work?
6. Was Gandhi correct when he said at the start of the march to the sea that the British were not in control, but the protestors were? Explain your answer?
7. Compare and contrast Dr. Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi describing the situations they faced, their response to those situations, how their response to the situations changed over time, and the political/religious theory they applied.
8. Compare and contrast Kundun and Mahatma Gandhi describing the situations they faced, their response to those situation, how their response to the situations changed over time, and the political/religious theory they applied. See Learning Guide to Kundun.
9. Compare the teachings of Gandhi with those of Jesus.
10. What portions of Gandhi's character would you like others to emulate and what, if any, do you find fault with?
11. Would you consider Gandhi a role model?
12. Would you consider him a saint? [Alternate question: Is there any other person you know of who lived in the 20th century who was more saintly than Gandhi?]
13. Who were the untouchables? What did Gandhi want to do for them?
    
    
    Character Development
    Peacemakers/Rebellion
    
    See questions 2 - 7 above and 16 below.
    
    
    Ethical Emphasis
    Teachwithmovies.org is associated with Character Counts and uses The Six Pillars of Character to organize ethical principals.
    
    Mahatma Gandhi was the most important moral leader of the 20th century. His method for challenging unjust laws and conducting a revolution, nonviolent civil disobedience, is ethically pure and effective. It complies with each of the The Six Pillars of Character. Gandhi, in his public life tried to exemplify each of the Six Pillars of Character. Most of the time he succeeded.
    
    
14. Describe how Gandhi, in his public life, exemplified each of the The Six Pillars of Character.
15. Describe how nonviolent civil disobedience exemplifies each of the The Six Pillars of Character.
16. Compare and contrast Michael Collins and Mahatma Gandhi describing the situations they faced, their response to the situations, how their response to the situations changed over time, and the political/religious theory they applied. See Learning Guide to Michael Collins.