"Gandhi" and Iraq

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses and analyzes the film, "Gandhi", directed by Richard Attenborough. Specifically, it compares and contrasts the British "imperial power" in India and the United States' preemptive war in Iraq, citing the motives behind each conflict. In addition, it includes the main political arguments for the British policies in India and the Bush administration's policies in Iraq. Nonviolent reform is the best course of action in the world, and war should never be an option for "solving" the world's problems.

From the Paper:

"Mahatma Gandhi is probably the world's best known advocate of peaceful protest. Gandhi's actions in India and throughout the world show that superior power can be worn down by non-violent means. Gandhi, born on October 2, 1869 in Porbandor, India, was educated as a lawyer in Great Britain, and knew little of India's problems before he returned to his homeland from South Africa in 1914. His parents were wealthy Hindus, and he gained much of his early feelings about life, peace, and the world from his mother, who strongly influenced him. It was from his first experiences in South Africa that his thoughts and ideals on passive resistance were born. Thrown off a train for being "colored" in a remote town on his way to Pretoria, his first instinct was to leave. A Gandhi biographer writes, "His sensitivity prevailed upon him, eventually, and as the dawn streaked the cold hills, Gandhi's mind had been made up: he headed toward Pretoria. As Louis Fischer pithily puts it, 'the germ of social protest was born'" (Puri 8). Thus, Gandhi quickly learned about prejudice and hatred in South Africa, and he created his lifelong philosophy of peaceful resistance to tyrants and bigots, too."

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• Analytical Essay # 142372 : "The United States and Iraq: The Consequences of Occupation"

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