Ghandi and Hinduism

Rating: 10/10 (22 April 2014)

Plot Summary
Gandhi is a 1982 film that relates the biography of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who is one of India's most profound non-violent, peaceful non-cooperating civil rights leaders. He was the leader behind the independence movement against the rule of India by the United Kingdom during the twentieth century. The film portrays the life of Mahatma Gandhi from when he was thrown off of a South African train for being in the whites' only seating area and closes up with his assassination and widely spread radio casted funeral. Within the film, Mahatma Gandhi is depicted as an individual who practiced Hinduism and who also accepted specific principles of Christianity and Islam.
World Religion
The film relates to World Religion, specifically Hinduism, mainly because of the fact that Mahatma Gandhi used methods of getting a message across through the use of Hindu principles. For example; he believed in peace and equality between all people which is rooted from a Hindu principle of tolerance. Since Hinduism is considered by Gandhi to be a faith that is all inclusive and stands for tolerance, he used this principle and made it his driving force for gaining the rights that were rightly deserved by his people. It is also known in Hinduism that mercy and graciousness is something that should never be abandoned. When Gandhi saw his people being oppressed by the British Empire by not being able to vote, being killed senselessly by the British generals and rations being placed upon them he realized that this was a violation of a Hindu principle of Mercy. These common issues occurring within India and the major oppression of his people made him fight passively for mercy to be restored for his people. Gandhi also stated in one of his autobiographies that the common factor of all religions is non-violence. We can see that he upheld to such a belief because he is widely renowned to be an individual who used passive methods to resolve any issues. Overall, we can see the connection between Gandhi's practices of passiveness and its relation to Hinduism. All of these examples show us how the film relates to World Religions.