Ghandi (1982) - Mahatma

Ghandi (1982), is a true story about one man who grew the courage to defy the British Empire in order to attain the freedom of equality.

        At beginning of the movie, stereotype and discrimination is shown towards colored people (the indians in Africa). Stereotype is a fixed image or rather perception of a person or a group of people where as discrimination is where a person or a group of people are treated unjustly based on false assumption about them (Stereotype). Gandhi, though he was from a upper class in the caste system in his country (India), he was treated as of low status in Africa. Even when paid for first class, he was not allowed to sit in the first class coach and was forced to join the lower class or be thrown out. This was one of those sparks where Gandhi started to rebel.

Although he was an activist, he never promoted violence, in fact he was totally against it. He had a different approach towards independence and the fight for their rights. He played with the emotion guilt, and the morality and principle the British stood for. This can be seen in several aspects of the movie, such as when the people was encouraged to rebel by refusing the British but not retaliate with any form of violence. The British at first however did enforce their position with violence but when the same action was not reciprocated, British people from England was not happy with the way the Birtish in India reacted. They in turn in a long term, started to feel guilty and question their position and principle towards the people in India.

    
        Now how did Gandhi managed to persuade the people in India or even Africa for instance to retaliate? Gandhi basically immerse himself in their culture and tradition. He dressed like them, worked like them and even lived like them. He represented the people thus the people felt closer and connected to him. He was apart of the in group, and once he showed his courage and determination, the people followed. This is through social learning, this theory states that and act or behavior can be learned purely through observation or direct instruction, this is more infectious if the leader is respected and is looked at as a role model and that was exactly what Gandhi was to the people. He learned from them, to become more like them in terms of the way of living and they learned from him, to resist without violent, to unite as one and to take back their country.


 You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.- Gandhi.


Towards the end though, when Independence was almost in their hands, the muslims and hindus fought against each other. Both religion felt threaten by each other as well they wanted to claim their territory (Pakistan was formed because of this). The situation got out of hand and again stereotype and discrimination was formed but this time to its extreme, hundreds and thousands of life was lost in the massacre. Gandhi had little or no power to stop this, the only thing he could do was to fast and slowly the people stopped the fight as they did not want Gandhi to die, his teaching and guidance was still important to them and he left an impact on most of their hearts. He stayed at a muslim's house to show that there were no enemies but the Hindu's was angry at this. Some followed his way and stopped the discrimination others felt threaten by this. In the end, Gandhi was assassinated for trying to unite both Muslims and Hindus by requesting for equal rights. 

- The whole world mourned for the death of Gandhi, all he ever wanted was peace, freedom and equality for all.-

         The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.- Gandhi
 

Imagine one man who woke the whole of India compromising of millions of people. He must be something.