I didn’t learn about Mahatma Gandhi until one day I saw my mother watching a movie in our living room. I watched curiously a scene where British soldiers fired shots from their rifles at Indian civilians.
The scene caught my attention immediately because the civilians were wearing the same clothes as my aunts, uncles and grandmother wore. Seeing people shot to death in broad daylight, even if it’s in a movie, can leave a lasting impression on a child.
The movie mother was watching was called Gandhi. It was a 1982 movie directed by Richard Attenborough and based on the life of India’s great political leader and his nonviolent struggle against British Colonial Rule in India during the first half of the 20th century.
My mother explained to me that despite what I saw in the bloody scene, that I should not develop any animosity towards British people because that was not what Gandhi would have wanted.
When I finally learned about Gandhi in school, I was learning less about him than I already knew. My textbook just told the basic fact and never really went into much detail of Gandhi’s life and struggles.
One of the basic principles that I learned reading about Gandhi was tolerance between people of different creeds. This was one of the most important lessons I ever learned in my entire life, because it is principle that defines America.
The type of tolerance Gandhi preached featured the importance of truth and freedom of one’s conscience.
Gandhi was assassinated in the middle of the separation of India and Pakistan, which is a shame because his message is a direct solution to a problem that has plagued the Indian subcontinent and its descendents for generations.
Religious intolerance among Hindus and Muslims led to unspeakable violence that took lives and created a bitter division between the two groups.
Gandhi also wanted to eliminate the caste system which is a system that separates people into groups based on their economic status. What rights people have in India depends upon what caste they belong to. The higher the caste a person is in, the more rights that person will receive.
Despite the caste system becoming weaker now than it was during Ghandi’s time, it still plays a role in the economic status of Indian citizens. India has the highest population of people living in poverty and the caste system has only added to the obstacles these people must overcome to get an education and find jobs.
Gandhi’s message is as important now than it has ever been with political climate our world is in. The war on terror has allowed the media to portray Muslims in a negative light. Innocent citizens have become the victims of hate crimes, especially after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade center and Pentagon.
If we hope to build a better future, we must take Ghandi’s message of tolerance to heart. Our world population is growing and becoming more diverse. There is more interaction between people of different races than ever before. Our world, especially America, has come a long way in providing equal opportunities for people, most recently gays. There is still a strong level of intolerance that must be sought out and neutralized.
April 26, 2010 at 4:23 pm |
Keep going. It think you might have watched the dramatization of Gahdhii, with Ben Kingsley, not a documentary. Ghandi has also won his share of criticism. To make this kind of piece work, you’ve got to dig up something about Gandhi that we might not be familiar with. i’m not sure he could be a role model for many of us, since he was so extreme in many ways. An extraordinary man, no doubt, but should we all emulate him? Don’t take the easy way. Few of us can do what Gandhi did.