Imperialism In The Movie Gandhi

The movie Gandhi was an inspiring depiction of the life of Mohandas Gandhi and the impact that he made on India in gaining its independence from Britain through the act of non-violent protest that made it possible. The film reveals the period of Indian immigrants being suppressed by the British authorities in 1893 South Africa. It shows the slow transformation of changes that occurs within India with the arrival of the Indian lawyer Gandhi who came to South Africa to be a legal advisor to a firm, and had witnessed the tragic reality of the absence of basic rights that his fellow Indian people were being denied of. Moved by the suffering, Gandhi displayed his ability to see the injustice and felt obligated to fix it through the interconnectedness

This could be seen on how the British were exploiting the Indian’s resources and through cheap labor. The film reflects the labor of Indian immigrants in the scene where they were protesting by refusing to go back and work in the mines and were charged at by the British on horseback. This act of violent of the British in terms of unjust labor can also be identify in the French Africa “natives” who were legally obligated for statute labor, a practice that lasted though 1946. It involves the harsh condition of labor in the colonial life where British officials would make the native villagers work a lot and mistreated them in the process similar to how the Indians immigrants were being treated (Pg. 894). Along with this, we could see how Gandhi had dealt with the economic regulation by his protest of the British mercantile system. He believed that Indians poverty resulted from the English factories that make the cloth that the Indians are wearing. Gandhi protested against this by encouraging the Indians to spin their own cloth and only wear homespun fabric like himself. The film shows the Indian’s cooperation to this idea when they all burned the cloths into the huge fire. Another way the British were exploiting the Indian’s resources was by their control of salt. A royal monopoly on salt makes it illegal for anyone to make salt and could

Due to the race inequality along with the economic regulations among the Indian people, Gandhi’s ambition from the beginning of simply just wanting equality between the Indian and British transition to wanting India to become Independence. He wanted to give the Indian citizen a voice in the government and a chance to define their own nation. The Indian people lose their political power in terms of how the British authorities were exercising their power over them, implementing policies according to their own rules and administrating over the Indian’s resources. Gandhi throughout the film had the desire to help gain back India’s political power and it revolves around his method of passive resistance and self-sacrifice. He belief in “an eye for an eye only makes people blind” is what helped him achieve freedom for India without any violence involve. He still had respect for the authorities but at the same time felt the need to criticize their faults. And his fasting and dressing like the lower class is the self-sacrifice that he made, which contributed to the success of India becoming Independent.
After reflecting back on the film, we could confirm that it definitely shows an accurate vision of Imperialism by the evidence of race inequality, economic regulations, and loss of political power among the Indians - exhibiting Gandhi fighting against these British imperialistic rules.