The Gandhi Directed by Richard Attenborough - Movie Review Example

Gandhi’s methods never promoted violence and danger; instead, he was a strong believer in passive resistance. The Indians then carried out a series of non-violent protest campaigns against the British rule, there were however, several instances where the Indians were violently hurt by law-keeping agencies that condemned the protests, in some cases there were killings too; An example of this could be the mass slaughter at Jalianwala Baagh (also known as Amritsar Massacre) where the Indian protesters were ordered to be shot by Brigadier Reginald Harry Dyer.

Gradually, these protests and riots created many problems for the British who were put under a lot of pressure and could not cope with all of it considering World War 2 had taken its toll on their economy and their hold on the Indian Sub-Continent could not be financed further. The Indians gained their independence and their rights. “Human rights, it is said, are the rights to which everyone is entitled simply to being human…” (Claude, Richard P, and Burns H. Weston, p52). But there were many issues and problems within the region and social structure of the region itself that had to be dealt with before peace could be properly restored.

There was religious and social intolerance between the Muslims and Hindus of India, and the movie depicts this intolerance in the form of riots and violence. In light of these activities, Gandhi declared a hunger strike until the fighting stopped. Eventually, it is decided that in order to end the killings and violence and the constant threat to both Hindu and Muslim lives, the Indian Sub-Continent will have to be divided between the two majorities. This partition led to the creation of Pakistan in 1947.

The movie shows the resentment of the Hindus on the idea of partitioning their ‘Mother India’ in the form of train massacres and capture of migrants migrating to their respective homelands. The Muslims retaliated in much the same way. Gandhi tried to restore peace between the two newborn countries and as a result, received resentment for his actions from small segments of both countries, one of them eventually reaching close enough to assassinate him. Gandhi is shown as a non-violent, disciplined man with values of leadership that allowed him to be seen as a hero and a peaceful revolutionary who believed in fighting with words rather than guns and ammunition.

He is joined by Mohammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan and it’s the first president, who is also shown as a man of revolutionary instincts. Both these main characters are faced with social and military obstacles that they have to destroy in order to get what they both wanted, independence.