Students Again

The movie I have chosen to write about for this project covering Indian art was Gandhi. How did this movie help me to understand the art of the Indian culture better and what was my emotional reaction to the movie? I will attempt to answer these questions, in the following paragraphs, by citing particular excerpts of the movie and explaining why I think that excerpt is important to the movie, how it helped me understand the art of the Indian culture, and what my emotional reaction was in relation to that excerpt.

The first excerpt from this movie I would like to discuss is the first demonstration Gandhi held to burn the passes which identify Indians. This particular excerpt took place in South Africa. I think this excerpt is important to the film because it marks the point where Gandhi crosses over from being just an attorney to an activist supporting equal rights which will carry over to his own country. This showed how passionate he was in standing up for what he believes was right, not just for himself but for all fellow Indians, to the point of being severely beaten.  This helped me understand the art of the Indian culture by showing the strong will of the Indian people during times of invasion (in this case the British). Although I have not studied Indian art from this particular time period, I would have to believe that there would be influences directly from the British invasion. I derive this believe from the way Indian art was  influenced during the period of the Aryan invasion. I understand how, during the time of invasion, the art might depict aspects that were not previously depicted in the same way, such as more art focusing on military aspects, figures representing the invading nations, influences inspired from the invaders, and artistic techniques that had been learned from these other nations. Another major influence in Indian art might be that there was a significant population in South Africa. So, not only might aspects of the occupation influence Indian Art, but the art of South Africa will also provide inspiration and both of these aspects could become an integral part of Indian art during this time period. I would also imagine the strong will of the Indian people would shine through in their artistic approach. My emotional reaction to this excerpt was outrage. I could not believe how another human being could treat a fellow human being like nothing. It was atrocious to me that the British were beating Gandhi just because he wanted to be treated equal rather than being tagged like a dog by having to carry a pass that “defines” him everywhere he goes.

I believe the second important part of the movie is when Gandhi had some affluent Indian visitors at his village. At this point in the film Gandhi was back in India and it has been made clear of the British occupation of his homeland. I thought this was important because he was explaining how the British control the Indian way of life and he is fighting that in a simple way by just living as an “Indian.” This part of the movie helped me to understand the art of the culture because the scenes before, during, and after this scene showed the land and how the people lived in India. They showed vast lands, water, bulls, goats, mountains, and the general simple but hard way of poverty stricken life. I would imagine the art of this culture showed  the importance of animals in their everyday life, their beautiful vast lands interlaced with bodies of water, hilly/mountainous terrain with trees and dried out vegetation, and the art itself  would be more of a “folk” style from this period. Art depicting simple people with meager surroundings just living as Indians the best that they can. My emotional reaction to this portion of the movie was how beautiful India seemed to be. The land was magnificent. During these scenes I could not help but to look beyond the actors and focus on the surrounding areas. I  thought to myself that I would like to visit India at some point during my lifetime.

The final excerpt I would like to talk about is the part, near the end of the film, just before Gandhi was shot. During this scene Gandhi was on his way to pray and all along his path were supporters motioning toward Gandhi in a praying hand gesture. Even the last words from Gandhi’s lips as he lied there dying from a gunshot wound were “Oh, God!” This helped me to understand the art of the culture because it shows the Indian people as religious people. I would imagine the art to depict or symbolize important religious figures, religious places, and  the religion that was in practice. My emotional reaction to this excerpt was the feeling that Indian people were very spiritual and, giving the surroundings of the scene, I thought it was  sharp contrasts to see someone get shot.

In conclusion, I originally went into viewing this movie not sure how to correlate Indian art with a movie about an activist (who is even viewed as a political leader). As I watched the movie I realized the correlation with art had nothing to do with Gandhi (although I suppose it could, given the fact that he was an important Indian figure), but had to do with all the little details of the movie surrounding Gandhi. As in the history of India, this movie showed how the occupation of a foreign nation in your home land, the land of your country itself, and the religious beliefs within your nation can be great influence to the art that is produced.