Peter N. Herndon
Gandhi’s successes in South Africa had not been unnoticed in his native India. He landed in Bombay in January 1915 at the age of forty-five to a hero’s welcome. Shortly afterwards he met with a number of influential Indian political figures, among them Sardar Patel, Annie Besant and Mohamed Ali Jinnah. What course of action should Gandhi take? Gandhi was persuaded by his very old friend and mentor, Professor Gokhale, to tour India for a year before giving any public speeches or making any commitments. For twelve months Gandhi traveled the land by train and by foot. The film viewer observes the beautiful Indian countryside, with its people, most of whom live at a subsistence level. We also see results of several violent acts by insurgent Indian nationalists to call attention to despotic British rule.
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The first major campaign Gandhi became involved with was the result of an elderly starving peasant’s plea for his help in alleviating the suffering inflicted on tenant farmers by British landlords in his native province of Champaran. The British jailed Gandhi in an attempt to stop the people’s protests. When this action proved counterproductive, a frustrated British magistrate, under pressure from dangerous mobs and his own government, released Gandhi after he refused to post bail. After several years of courtroom drama and presentation of a voluminous amount of legal evidence collected by Gandhi and his young associates, he won a sizable victory against the British landlords. They were required to pay rent rebates to the peasants who were then allowed to grow crops of their own choice. Gandhi emerged as a nationally prominent figure. In a moving scene in the cells below the Motihar courthouse where he awaited trial, Gandhi told his Episcopal friend Charlie that their partnership must end. He explained to the priest that he had to be sure and the people had to be sure that the movement’s accomplishments could be made by Indians alone. Sadly, he and Charlie, his loyal friend of nearly twenty years, parted company.
In a speech at the first National Congress Conference in 1917, Gandhi stunned his audience when he boldly declared that the politicians had better get in touch with the “true India,” the peasants, if they were to have any hope of leading India to independence. He said later that the people’s victory against the British was a mathematical certainty. “100,000 English cannot control 35 million Indians who choose to disobey.” Two years later, in April 1919, after the British proposed new laws which would deny Indians basic civil liberties, Gandhi demonstrated this power of disobedience by calling for a “national day of prayer and fasting” which had the effect of a national strike. He understood the power of right and the power of non-cooperation, and used them successfully for the first time. The British responded by jailing Gandhi, a technique that they would employ over and over with little effect, other than to increase Gandhi’s popularity and influence.
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The eventual demise of British rule in India was played out in the brutal massacre at Amritsar in northwest India, just a few days after the successful national strike virtually shut India down. A crowd of 15,000 had gathered for a public meeting to listen to speakers talk about nonviolent non-cooperation. General Dyer commanded his mostly Indian regulars to fire on the helpless citizens, which resulted in 379 killed and 1,137 injuredmen, women and children. This is a very dramatic moment in the film. Under investigation for the incident, we see the General unmoved and bewildered by all the attention. After all, wasn’t he attempting to enforce his order banning public meetings? Remarkably, although Dyer’s actions were officially condemned, he was not dismissed from the army but merely relieved of his command. Upon his return to England, the House of Lords “passed a vote of thanks, acknowledging his ‘patriotism’ and a national newspaper was responsible for raising some 20,000 pounds which was handed over to him together with a silver sword with a laudatory inscription.” (Attenborough, page 94). Gandhi and the Indian Congress were defiantly outraged. Britain must leave! As of September, 1920, Congress took up Gandhi’s policy of “peaceful, nonviolent non-cooperation.” This would continue on and off for twenty-seven more years, until India’s independence was finally granted.
Other notable incidents from the film include the following:
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The Tragedy of Chauri Chaura. A peaceful protest in support of Gandhi’s Home Rule campaign turned into an attack on a local police station. Twenty-two local policeman were hacked to death by a mob who set the police station on fire and then murdered them as they emerged. Gandhi, in order to enforce the end of non-cooperation with the British, told the people he would go on a fast unto death if necessary; he would fast until the people stopped protesting. He achieved his goal but almost died in the process.
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The Great Trial. Following Gandhi’s fast, the British brought charges of sedition against him. Judge Broomfield, who presided over the trial, was very respectful of Gandhi, and, contrary to all legal precedent, the judge rose as the prisoner, Gandhi, was led in to testify. He was sentenced to a term of six years. At the close of the trial Gandhi quipped to the judge (and this is quoted in the film): “If at some later date His Majesty’s Government should see fit to reduce the term, no one would be better pleased than I.”
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The Salt March. In April of 1930 Gandhi, along with eighty or so of his ashramites, marched 240 miles to the Indian Ocean at Dandi beach where he was met by thousands of supporters. In defiance of the British law forbidding Indians to manufacture or sell salt, Gandhi, now called Mahatma (“Great Soul”), urged the people to ignore the law and make their own salt from crystallized sea water. The idea caught on to the extent that the British were totally ineffective to stop the illegal activity. The jails were filled, but the people continued to make and sell salt.
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The Conference on Indian Independence. As an admission of England’s helplessness to oppose Gandhi’s popularity, they invited Gandhi to England to participate in the 1931 Conference on India as the Indian Congress representative. Gandhi was welcomed in England as a celebrity, but he returned home frustrated, having made virtually no progress toward his ultimate goal of freedom from Great Britain.
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The ‘Quit India’ Movement. Gandhi and his wife Kasturba were arrested in 1942, following the issuing of the resolution for England to leave India signed by all the Congress leaders. Kasturba died two years later while still incarcerated in the Aga Khan palace at Pune.
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The end of World War II and the Partition of India. In 1945, Congress leaders were released from jail and negotiations began for India to be carved up into a Hindu-controlled India and a Muslim-dominated Pakistan. This was deeply hurtful to Gandhi, who had long campaigned for Hindu-Muslim unity within India.
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India’s Independence. August, 1947. Gandhi underwent two more fasts which helped to quell the inter-religious cycle of vengeance and bloodletting between Hindus and Muslims precipitated by the partition of India and Pakistan. Gandhi persuaded the Indian government to grant financial help to Indian Muslims who fled to the new state of Pakistan, a policy which proved very unpopular with Hindu extremists.
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Gandhi’s Assassination. January 30, 1948. The assassin was a Hindu fanatic named Godse who believed that the Mahatma was a betrayer of Hindu principles. Gandhi’s body was cremated and his ashes scattered on the waters on the Ganges River where it meets the Jumna River. Albert Einstein said of Gandhi at the time of his death, “It may be in years to come men will scarce believe that one such as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.”