Gandhi-ing?

[caesar novus]

I was just knocked out by the interweaving of Gandhi principles into a Bollywood romantic/comedy/musical/crime film, and wondered how much "Gandhi-ing" (their phrase) lives on in India or abroad, or was he just a passing eccentric put into prominence from the backdrop of events? We have probably all seen pious films about his stoic goodness, and maybe even some reality checks like hypocrisy in his family life. But this entertaining movie seemed a moving and inspiring presentation of certain Gandhi ideals, and introspection rather than usual demonizing of Britain:

 

Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006) reviewed at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0456144/

It's playing free at my nearby university; but can we assume the poor quality but free free version on video.google.com is pirated?

 

Favorite scenes: Speech at 40 minute mark declaring India is wasting it's independence and freedom by allowing corruption and inefficiency that Gandhi would abhor (although not sure he disliked bureaucracy and it's consequences). Around 1:53 in a great Gandhi inspired agony-aunt sequence some chronic vandalism by a neighbor is stopped by a kindness offensive.

 

The wonderful thing was seeing a (sometimes violent) gangster start to use Gandhi principles to clash with (sometimes violent) rivals and win. Not because he melted into sentimental mush, but because it could work. Inflict the rival with kindness, show you suffer their acts with stoicism, and they break down in shame. Note this works when the rival knows he is morally in the wrong, so I would deny that the recent "occupy" protests or older "globalization" protests use these principles since they confront false populist scapegoats.

 

Also I don't see kindness to victims (very Christian focus upon Gandhi) as a key principle - it's the difficult process of repeated kindness towards a brazen wrongdoer and restraint from violence against them. This is what characters of the film are pushed to attempt, and I would like to see a sequel working thru more of this applied-philosophy. Of course the goal is to get results from the offenders, so I personally see no need to forego a plan B as prison or execution! Actually this movie is a sequel and has another planned, but not Gandhi-related I believe.

[Ursus]

I think Ghandi's principles worked because his targets were themselves rather civilized as empires go. Try those same principles against The Waffen SS or Imperial Japanese, and he and his hordes most likely would have been machine gunned without compunction. I just don't see Ghandi as a moral authority. I think he was a nutcase that got lucky because his opponent, the ailing British Empire, was the least oppressive and most restrained compared to other powers at the time.

 

As far as Ghandi's plans for a post-Independence India, I saw an interview with him once when a reporter asked him that question. He basically stared at the ground and mumbled something about India being a confederation of peaceful villages. Most likely he would be aghast at a rising military power that shares stealth fighter technology with the Russians.

 

 

 

 

[caesar novus]

Well, on the individual level I think that movie at least shows how you might use Gandhi's bag of "shaming" tricks to your advantage in a Machiavellian way once in a while. Especially with a bad neighbor - you tend to shy away from direct confrontation anyway because it can turn into a poisonous feud, and now you are stuck in each others face all the time.

 

At the mass historical level, Gandhi is taken as the inspiration to Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, and various democracy protests like China 1989. I suspect that MLK did engender restraint and genuine shame to defuse a LOT of potential violence in bringing on US civil rights. Not sure about the South African/Zimbabwe changeover - there were some distasteful flavors of substituting one gang of overlords to another abusive one. China case didn't actually accomplish shame I think, but I heard the perception of shame from world spectators actually affected the rulers to do certain economic if not democratic reforms.

Edited March 11, 2012 by caesar novus