Learning at stations- In search of Gandhi July 1, 2008

Why would Gandhi grab a gun today?

The film “In search of Gandhi” shows India nowadays. The reporter and his crew travel through the route gandhi went with his followings to the sea, named “salt march”. They wanted to show the independence from the British economy and the protest against the British supression. Now the reporter wants to find out if the people still believe in Gandhi and his ideas.

On his way he gets to know that the ideas of Gandhi do not work anymore. The people remember gandhi but they do not follow his  principles because the world they live in have chaged a lot.

The reporter thinks that Gandhi would also grab a gun if he was living in 2008 while his ideas are contradictory to our globalised world.

Nowadays the community does not signify as much as in the past because the individuum works for himself. The people are more egoistic because everyone wants to earn respect in the society and therefore needs to be succesful (money) and a looking forward attitude to keep up with the times.

Gandhi wanted independence for everyone but the independence did never obtain all Indians, for instance the poor and the untouchables because they still do no have the right to live, eat or celebrate in the same places as the high casts or even the vote.

Gandhi also wanted peace between the Muslims and the Hindus because he thinks that they all belong to India and that every human, does not matter which complexion or religion he has, is equal and therefore they do not have to fight against each other. But today the Muslims and the Hindus hate each other. They fight and even kill the the people from the obverse religion because they have so much jaundices and, based on their fights, animus for the different religions that they do not think about the people they kill but only the common mass of the members of this hated religion.

Because of this circumstances the reporter guesses that even a man like Gandhi who was really steadfast in his principles and who was not afraid of any violence of the British against him would get so desperate and agrily that he will grab a gun and shot down his opponents.

I think the opinion of the reporter is legitimite because the situation in India, mainly the violence between Muslims and Hindus, is not under control and even the politics use the religion for their politic goals. But I do not think that Gabdhi would have used any violence because you do not see ANY VIOLENCE in his WHOLE life, even if the British hits him, hits his followers, shot the Indians down or anything like that. He had his own methods because he knew that the British must give up their condition if the public see pictures of their cruelty. And he knew that the people trust him and therefore for instance stop the riots to keep him alive (fasting). But he never would have used any violence because he had so much composure that he knwe if he would once use violence he could never stop the violence used by the people and therefore loose his influence.

Learning at stations- Gandhi 2 July 1, 2008

What is parodied here?

1. His non-violence is parodied because in “Gandhi 2″ he uses violence, e.g. a gun to protect the people

2. his ascetic attitude is parodied because the film portray him as a womanizer

3.his vegetarian lifestyle is parodied as he orders a steak in a restaurant. This is also displeasing because in India the cow is a holy animal.

4. the film presents him as materialistic for instance with a a car while in fact he always walks and does not emphasize anything but his self-made clothes. 

Gandhi – the Movie June 24, 2008

5. What book does Gandhi quote? Do you think that this is unusual for a Hindu?

Gandhi quotes the bibel, the New Testament because he does not take the borders between the religions seriuosly and thinkt that ereryone is a children of god. I think a “normal” Hindu would not do that because they onlu want to have one religion in their country, as you can see in the terror against the Muslims. Jesus was also non-violent and maybe the Hindus even accept the christendom but i do not think that they would quote him because theu do not believe in him (or maybe even does not know something about the christendom)

10. After the sermon of the English clergyman, Gandhi is set free out of prison. While he does not want any cherry from the British, he asks for money for a taxi but the officer could not give him some and therefoer asks the guard to give Gandhi some money -> gandhi does nit want any British goods because that would support the British economy but he asks for money…

15. When Gandhi arrives the workers are all looking forward to see him but the British do not want him there becauese they are scared of his influence. This fear is well founded because the conditions of the workers are really bad. The Indians are working with their hands without any machines like in a labour camp. They make the Indians work for them because they do not have any other possibilities if they want to earn some money, but they do not allow them any freedom or progress. Maybe the British are scared that the Indians could use this to start a rebellion against them and therefore supress and traet them like animals.

20. After the massacre gandhi says “We must have the courage to take their anger” (the anger of the British). He does not want any violence but people respond on the British violence with counter-violence. As Gandhi want to stop the violence, he fasts until every person is untroubled.

Fasting shows, that you can abstain from sth. Spirituality in the Hindu religion means to seperate you from everything and think about nothing. If you fasts you show that you can seperate yourself from the world and it’s processes to concentrate only on your spirituality.

Part two

5. Jinnah wants to seperate India in two states, one for Hindus named India and one for Muslims named Pakistan. The seperation would depend on the majorities of Hindus or Muslims in the different parts of the country.

Gandhi does not want this seperation because he thinks everyone is equal. “I am a Muslim, a Hindu, a Jew, a Christian and all sorts you want…this is not India as I want it!”, “We are brother of the same mother India.”. As you can see Gandhi does not differ between Hindus and Muslims because he think that they all belong to one India and that the violence between the two religions could be conquer. 

 

Gandhi (the film)- key scenes June 19, 2008

1. the assasination scene

It is shown twice, at the beginning and at the end of the film. At first I was shocked and did not realize that the person was Gandhi. But after this introduction I wanted to get tp know more about his life and the reason for his dath even if knew some details about him.

2. the scene in the train (in South Africa)

The scene shows that Gandhi did not make any experiences with the British. Further you get to know the traetment of non-whites who are discriminated (in this case he is not allowed to sit in the first class)

3. his first public performance

gandhi tries to influence the people but he is not a great spaeker yet. Despite his young age he follows his goals even ig the British interrupt him (knock him down).

4. Gandhi is visted by a poor farmer

After this visit Gandhi travels through India and regognize that he has to learn a lot more about his country. The trip shows a lot of cruelty and exploitation the British implant against the Indians and that they use the Indians to work for them. Moreover while the British call him at this time only “he” and not with his real name they show their fear of his influence on the Indians.

5. the massacre

a crowd of people, demnstrating without any violence for the Indian independence are shot down by the British. After that scene the film includes some minutes that shows the cruelty of this massacre and the dolour about the mass of victims because of the the British helplessness in an unjust fight.  

6.fasting scene

The film includes two fasting scenes. Both time Gandhi fasts to stop the violence of the people and it works after a few days. It shows the huge influence of gandhi on his devotees and that they know that he really wants to improve their situation.

7. salt march

Gandhi and some of his devotees walk to the sea to make their own salt because they want to show the injustice of the British exploitation. Therefore they only raise some salt as a symbol of their boycott.

8. assasination scene

 

comment on the Nawab’s attitude to Olivia’s baby (p.148+149) June 5, 2008

“Wait until my son is born, then they’ll laugh from the other side of their mouths.”

“When this baby is born, Douglas and all were going to have a shock of their lives.”

Asd you can see the Nawab is sure that Olivia gets the baby and that it will be a boy. He does not think about Olivia’s feelings, what she thinks about her situation because it is very complicated. He thinks that Olivia really wants to leave Douglas and get the baby from and for him but he does not think about another possibility.

He also thinks that it will be a boy because he could give his qualities to him and could show off with him. He thinks that it would represent his power, that it will show that he is not as stupid as they think and therefore that the British could not abort him.

He is very egoistic because he only wants to use the baby for his purposes to advance his prestige. As I said before he does not think about Olivia’s feelings towards her pregnancy and he even would not accept a girl because that would not represent his power but rather would be ridicolous for him.                                          It also shows that he only pretends to love Olivia and only play to have real feelings.

I think if Olivia would understand that it would be very invidious for her, because Douglas really loved her and would have done everything for her but as it was too boring for her she tricked him for the Nawab. And the Nawab prey this simplicity.

attitude towards abortion in India (p.129) June 4, 2008

The attitude across abortion in India could be seen on page 129 when Maji and the narrator talks about the narrator’s baby. Maji tells the narrator that she could help her to arrange an abortion because she practised it professionally in her past and maybe even advices her to do so.

As Maji says, an abortion is the the only way to safe people from dishonour and suffering therefore it is a necessary part of an Indian midwife to have this qualification so as to help other women.

In conclusion you can see that making an abortion is a very common thing to the Indians because they often do not have enough money to bring up a child and therefore perform an abortion to get rid of the child. As you can also see in the novel, many Indians are so poor that they could not even buy enough food for themselves and therefore could not pay for a child. 

The novel shows that the Indians are still very traditional and therefore probably would not accept an illegitimate child. But for me it shows that they are not as spiritual as they seem because they kill a baby. Maybe they even do it for their spirituality and their prestige as they  they do not want to have a baby without being married because. However I think it is crminal to abort a baby for these reasons and I also think that this attitude does not fit to their lifestyle.

comment on Mrs. saunder’s view on Indians (p.112) May 25, 2008

“It’s not good to let them see you in bed…the servants.”

As you can see on page 112 Mrs. Saunders does not trust the Indian servants. Even if she does not feel she gets up because she is scared about her servants. she expects that they will steal something or destroy things in her house if she does not attend to them. she also thinks that they have weird thoughts in their heads (“you don’t know what goes on in their heads”, p.112) maybe the servants even think about killing her. I think that shows that she herself is a little  bit weird becauseshe thinks that everyone who is not British will do something to her therefore she could not even trust her servants with whom she lives together for a long time. I think the British does not want to get to know the Indians because they are a little bit scared of their different culture since do not know it or maybe do not understand their view.

Further she tells about the “stories” you hear about the people. She tells Olivia that Indian men are very excitable because of their constitution. She guess that it has to do with the spicy food ( therefoere I think she would not eat some or allow it to her husband). however she is sure that they want to get off with white women.

In this part you can see how naiv Mrs. Saunders is. I think some British told her about the Indian men and she does not think about them on her own but believe in everything she is told. Due to the stories of other people about Indians she could not trust them because she thinks that every indian would be like that.

All in all you can see how narrow-minded most of the British are because they does not want to adapt to India or get to know more about it since the Indians are not equal. 

How would you interpret olivia’s breakdown? May 25, 2008

While their visiting round they always do on sunday, Olivia gets a breakdown while they talk about the Nawab and his relationship to the dacoits.

First of all Olivia and Douglas talk about having a baby and Olivia is sad because she does not get pregnant but ih do not think that this is the reason for her breakdown. I think the is the way Douglas talks about the Nawab. When Olivia asks Douglas about the dacoits he says that the nawab is in cahoots with this gang because he gets protection and money from them.  Olivia does not want to belive that because she thinks that the nawab would not need the money and would not even think about working with criminals.

But Douglas lough at her because of her simplicity. For this reason she is irritated of him and does not want to talk to him anymore. On one hand she thinks Douglas is wrong with his thoughts about the Nawab and she does not want to believe him but on the other hand he is her husband and would not lie to her thus she is very confused and does not know what she should believe. She is torned between the two men: she likes the Nawab and does not think that he is criminal but, on the other hand, she wants to believe Douglas because he is her husband. For that reason she desires a baby due to the fact that a baby would dispose the decision for a man.

Therefore Olivia gets a breakdown, not because of the heat, but because she is confused about her feelings and the situation they place her in.

 

the role of beggars and cripples in Indian life May 25, 2008

As the narrator says, India is used to accepting and merging all sorts of different elements, thus also the cripples and beggars. Theu are not treated like something special or even like outsiders because you see them all day long walking around the streets. Sometimes they build crowds when they observe something interesting but as you can see them everuwhere nobody cares about it.

A lot of them have diseases, the narrator sees them as “living examples of all the terrible things that can happen to a man” (p.77) but even with these afflictions the Indians do not pay much attention to them.  Sometimes, if they have a contagious disease some people have check with them that they are allowed to come into the town and beg if they keep a proper distance.

Another reason why nobody cares about their diseases is, that some other people, even some shopkeepers or other workpeople, have afflictions which are as worse as the afflictions of the poor and the beggars 9like the shopkeeper who has elephantis, p.77)

All in all the beggars and the cripples do not play a special role in the towns in India because their are used to their circumstances and the people are used to them because of their daily presence.

Relationship between inder Lal and the narrator April 19, 2008

While the narrator’s stay in India, she and Inder Lal forge close links with each other.

On the one hand Inder Lal is a little bit ashamed to be seen with the narrator because they make a strange couple as the narratot is taller and walks faster than he does. On the other hand Inder Lal is proud to be seen with his English friend-maybe he will show that he is open-minded, not only for other cultures but also for people from other cultures whom he likes to show his culture (which he is without much doubt proud of).

Furthermore they both enjoy their conversations. The narrator because Inder Lal shows that he truts her moreover she gets to know more about the culture and the behaviour of the Indians.         Inder Lal enjoys their conversations because he can tell her everything, also things he would not even tell his mum. For instance he has many problems with his wife Ritu, it seems that he does not really love her but he could not talk with her about his problems that is why she is not very intelligent and also does not love him, she prefers to be at home but she has to stay at her husband’s house. Therefore he trusts the narrator, probably it is the first time since he married Ritu that he can talk to someone about his feelings thus he is very frankly.

Besides the narrator does not only wants to learn about the Indians while their conversations, however she wants to analyse his situation (p.52) and find out about his past to helßp him and make him happier.

In conclusion the two guys fits together very well because they complement each other. I think they will become really good friends.