Gandhi.

*Update: I realized that I posted this on my theatre blog, not my MRE blog. I can show you the theatre blog Ms. James.

Gandhi is quite an interesting man. I think he has done so much for India and South Africa and I respect him for doing so. I really enjoyed the movie though because it didn't necessarily put him on a pedestal; it offered sides of Gandhi that seemed selfish, arrogant. It really encompassed the idea that Gandhi was not perfect.

"I am a Muslim, and a Hindu, and a Christian and a Jew; and so are you."

This quote, I think, really captures the essence of Gandhi's philosophies and the flexibility of the Hindu religion. This promotes equality amongst diverse religions and individuals in society. It also dictates how Hindus are open to believe in numerous numbers of Gods as long as they live out their lives by the principles. Indeed, this quote does talk about religion, but I believe Gandhi had an underlying motive that stretched to all civilians perhaps of the same religion. It doesn't matter if you're an untouchable or a nobleman, we are all equal. This is captured by the scene where Gandhi and his wife argue about cleaning the latrines. He believes that he and his wife should take the responsibility of doing work that wouldn't adhere to their regular lifestyle and that everyone in his little community should share the workload equally. This quote is also captured by the scene where Gandhi fasts in order to inhibit the numerous riots between the Muslims and the Hindus. Despite his religious affiliation with Hinduism, he believed that equality and peace should prevail between these two groups of people. Gandhi also says in the movie how he was actually taught by his elders from the Qu'ran instead of the Hindu books, proving his leniency towards other religions.

“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”

This quote is prevalent throughout the entire movie. Gandhi strongly believes in non-violent non-compliance in the movie. This quote is like the biblical saying "if someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also," further proving the previous quote. From the inception of his campaign, we see how ardently he believes in how violence is not the path to victory. He fasts twice - almost to death - to stop the violence that his people took to revolt against the British and against each other. In all of his speeches, he does not slip a word about violence, but strongly goes against it.

An insight:

I've gained a lot from this movie. I've first of all learned that great men are still imperfect despite the air they carry themselves in. This really takes around 5 pounds off my back because in this SFS society where so much emphasis is put on grades and colleges, we should be able to take a break. I've also learned that tolerance of religions really should be promoted in our society. We see so many religious wars in the past and in the present, and though our principles and philosophies may contradict each other, we should learn to respect someone else's religion. I want to extrapolate tolerance not only to religion, but to life as well. We have a lot of conflicting ideals with different people in our lives. We may think they're mean and weird, but it should not be within our place - unless they are doing something incredibly cruel - to judge or demean them.