Gandhi Film Reflection Essay Sample

Gandhi ( 1982. 191 min. ) . directed by Richard Attenborough. depicts that intriguing life of the strong and celebrated individual known as Mahatma Gandhi. The movie begins as Gandhi. a immature attorney. naively enters South Africa. a state plagued by utmost racism. where he chooses to actively stand against the unfairnesss being committed against the Indians instead than passively accept the destiny merely as so many others had themselves done. It was through his experiences and triumphs in South Africa that he was prepared to manage the place of great regard and influence he walked into as he returned to India old ages subsequently. Gandhi’s personal faiths beliefs were profoundly rooted in his Hindu upbringing but were non determinate of his worldview as demonstrated through his continual attempts to accommodate the polarized spiritual groups contained within his darling state of India. In this paper I am traveling to discourse the penetrations I gained through watching this movie into Hindu spiritual beliefs and patterns in add-on to my personal response to the movie.

In the movie Gandhi references briefly his spiritual upbringing. which was characteristically Hindu. but the priests would frequently read through the Quran every bit good. He considered himself a Hindu. but held Islam. Christianity. and other faiths in high regard and found cogency in each and every one of them. At one point he is quoted as stating. “I am a Muslim and a Hindu and a Christian and a Jew and so are all of you. ” His faith was intensely founded in the apprehension that the existence was governed by a power characterized by love and grace. a power characterized by the desire to see worlds populating in peace and harmoniousness. This was epitomized in Gandhi’s continual hunt for those very features within his household. community. and state. The specific faith followed by an person was ne’er the attention of Gandhi. His closest friends included Hindus. Muslims. and Christians. To him the of import facet of an individual’s faith was based on where their bosom was and what good they were purpose on seeing achieved in the universe instead than what name they gave their God. To him a man’s faith was characterized by what he did with his life instead than what good thoughts he spoke about or theoretically supported.

One act which Gandhi was frequently shown using to ordain alteration was fasting and supplication. When the Indian people responded in force to the constabulary while they sought freedom from British regulation. he fasted until the rebellions wholly stopped. Subsequently when India and Pakistan were 2

made into their ain states and hostility between the Muslims and the Hindus was heightened to force. he fasted to the point of kidney failure and near decease praying and pleading for peace among his people. Besides in the initial battle to claim India as their ain state from under British regulation he called for a twenty-four hours of fasting and supplication of all the people in the state. Another cardinal place held by Gandhi was that force is non the reply in any scenario. This is non needfully a spiritual pattern per say. but his logical thinking for stanchly keeping to the pattern of non-violence resounded from the innate belief that all worlds are equal on a degree that supersedes the physical nature. It was this belief that drove him to support the Indian population in South Africa and compelled him to unify the people of India under their ain authorities. A celebrated expression of his: “an oculus for an oculus merely ends up doing the whole universe blind” describes his doctrine that force does non make anything more than make more jobs. The movie portrayed him as really inexorable that one is non to take a inactive attack. for that solves nil. but instead to forbear from force.

Pacifism was a topic really much at the head of the message of the movie and has ever been an challenging subject to me. peculiarly since I began go toing a Quaker university. The more I learn about what true pacificism entails. the more I believe that where pacificism is chiefly misunderstood is that it is believed to be a inactive attack to a scenario. But Gandhi’s life entirely is a premier illustration of a life purely held to the doctrine of pacificism that was far from missing in influence or the ability to ordain consequences. He showed courage and strength with which few can vie. Though there are facets of pacificism I still do non wholly understand or possibly agree with. this movie competently portrayed how one adult male. by strength of spirit and a bosom purpose on assisting those less fortunate was able to alter states without puting a finger on another human being.

Another thing I was chew overing over as I viewed the movie was merely how God tantrum into the whole image. There is perfectly no manner God was non utilizing that little Hindu adult male to alter Black Marias. to open eyes. to alter states. My upbringing would state that he did non purely claim Jesus as the Son of God. so even Gandhi was sent to hell. I’m non needfully abdicating that understanding. for many so much more erudite than I piously hold to the apprehension that that apprehension of God is what is required for redemption. but I ask how was Gandhi non populating for God? There was something so deep driving him to move as he did to transport out undertakings that united people no 1 idea could be united. that protected people no 1 idea could be protected. that gave acknowledgment to people no 1 else thought deserved acknowledgment. Gandhi understood something about life that so many who claim to cognize Christ the “right” manner do non even understand—he understood the value of single life and relationships. the value of a people united on evidences that surpassed skin colour or political propensity. No 1 was excessively small. or excessively untouchable to be helped by Gandhi. and that is one major feature of Jesus that so many people miss. frequently myself included.

Gandhi was a adult male who started life as a privileged Indian who was given entree to great schooling and chance. In those experiences he saw those less privileged and laden and instead than overlooking them he stopped and took up their instance and battles as his ain. It is this doctrine that began the simple jaunts in his life that turned into his greatest accomplishments. Gandhi’s life is non merely a absorbing 1. but one that will go on to be one to be emulated in any and every state and place.