Global Issues in the Movie “Gandhi”
The 1982 film about Mahatma Gandhi, simply titled “Gandhi,” became one of the few efforts that successfully explored significant worldwide issues. The movie provides the viewers with the principles, practices, and apparent harms of imperialism that happened to India under the British Empire. More than these contributions however, the movie “Gandhi” was best acclaimed not only for its visual or artistic effectiveness but also for its success in presenting another concept—that is, globalization as an alternate form of imperialism.
In the movie, the British Empire’s form of imperialism is the main cause of Gandhi’s peaceful but remarkable revolution.
It is precisely the opposition to the English domain, which is characterized by oppressive political influence and dominance, that serves to be the purpose and essence of the film. As illustrated in “Gandhi,” the peaceful attempt to independence results in the freedom of India from the clutches of the British Empire. This is because Gandhi himself believes that his country can exist without the British rule.
He exemplifies this principle in one scene where a British officer says, “With respect, Mr.
Gandhi, without British administration, this country would be reduced to chaos,” to which Gandhi replies, “Mr. Kinnoch, I beg you to accept that there is no people on Earth who would not prefer their own bad government to the good government of an alien power” (“Gandhi”). In light of today’s environment, the movie remains to be significant because of the argument against globalization. Globalization, which supposedly signifies the unification of the world by functioning as a single community, is now similarly opposed by modern world.
Like its previous resistance against imperialism, it is also likely for the movie to oppose globalization as the modern version of imperialism if shown today. As presented in the film, the role of the opposition is to challenge the then imperialism and today’s globalization because it is the local people who must be in control and not the foreign superpowers of the world. Such relation between imperialism and globalization speaks of the similarity between the British and American Empires.
This is because the Americans today are only continuing what the British have started. Just like the British-inspired imperialism, the use of globalization by the U. S. as a hegemonic power in the world does not really raise the interests of each nation; rather, it merely promotes the interests of those already in power. As Gandhi told his countrymen: there is a need for resistance because Indians, not foreign power, must be in control over their own interests. Work Cited Gandhi. Dir. Richard Attenborough. Perf. Ben Kingsley. Columbia Pictures Corporation,
