Film Lesson: "Ghandi"

Gandhi was a major political and spiritual leader of the Indian Independence movement. He was also known as Mahatma or "Great Souled", and was born in Porbandar in India on October 2, 1869. In 1893, he went to South Africa, there he became a successful lawyer and worked really hard to improve living conditions for the Indian minority.

As a leader of the Indian community he involved himself in the fight to end discrimination against the country's Indian minority. He was urged to take up the fight for India's independence from Great Britain, because India had been controlled by the British for about 200 years. Ghandi became the leader of the non-violent resistance movement in India during the first half two centuries. He never encouraged his people to fight back. He taught them that violence was not the answer to solving their problems. But as WW II approached Indians began to really fight for their independence. They were led in this fight by Mahatma Ghandi. After numerous arrests and the unwanted attention of the world, the government finally relented by recognizing the rights for Indians, though not for the native blacks of South Africa. Gandhi was invited back to India, where he was considered something of a national hero.

I think that the Indian independence wasn't all about Ghandi, that it would have happened anyway, but it would have taken them longer to gain their independence. The Indian people wanted to solve their problems by fighting back, but Ghandi thought them that fighting was not the way to solve their problems, instead they had to learn to be patient.