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                       GANDHI Movie Review
          by Albert James Dager -- MEDIA SPOTLIGHT 1983

     Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) has come to be revered by the
world as the personification of peace and love. His life story is
portrayed in epic proportion in Sir Richard Attenborough's GANDHI, a
Columbia Pictures release.
     Gandhi traces the Indian fakir's life from his activist days in
South Africa during which he led a pacifistic rebellion against
British authority, to his assassination in 1948. The brutality of
British rule is graphically illustrated and, of course, considered to
be "Christian" in its origins. As is usual with mass media
productions, the delineation between this brutality and true
Christianity is not forthcoming.
     GANDHI, in fact, is a film that champions Hinduism. And the lie
of Satan is evidenced in a remark by Gandhi (portrayed by Ben
Kingsley) that, "We are children of God like everyone else." During a
perilous moment a Hindu peasant exhorts a "Christian" missionary - a
follower of Gandhi - "Pray to God, Sahib; now is when it is best to be
Hindu."
     God's Word tells us that no man can come to the Father except
through the Son (John 5:19-23; 14:6,7); and no one is a child of God
without adoption by God through faith in Jesus (John 12:35, 36; Gal.
4:4-7; Eph. 1:3-5). Yet the world wants to believe otherwise and
Gandhi, as sincere a man as I'm certain he was, was in darkness to
God's truth in these matters.
     While GANDHI is a remarkable achievement in its condensation of
so significant a life into three and a half hours, Attenborough's
effort is somewhat simplistic in its account of how Gandhi rose to the
position of India's greatest "holy" man / politician - the single
greatest force in India's bid for independence.
     There have been through the ages many men of remarkable courage
and conviction. Certainly Gandhi was one of these. Yet what is it
exactly that marks the difference between one such as he and the
uncounted others who, in spite of their best efforts, are relegated to
obscurity, managing little more than the assimilation of a small band
of followers? How could one person move an entire nation the size of
India to rebel against a foreign master? Certainly Britain had the
military, commercial, and monetary advantage. And in spite of
occasional atrocities committed on the part of individuals, her rule
was, for the most part, benevolent and civil; India, on the other
hand, was and still is a backward nation with class distinctions and
religious factions that would have prevented any real progress toward
unity.
     The only way nations are moved is through money and the
cooperation of the mass media. The only money alluded to in this film
is that offered to Gandhi by the rag-tag Indian National Congress. And
the mass media coverage portrayed is that of a few starry-eyed British
reporters who follow him around like puppies and wait upon his every
word.
     No, nations are moved by far more than these pittances of
filmdom's imagination. The fact is that only cooperation from the
highest authorities in the mass media (who sent the reporters in the
first place) as well as huge sums of money could accomplish the
overthrow of British rule. All these were in British hands. Is there
more to Gandhi's story than we've been told?
     The money powers that move governments and control their
populations through the mass media were the real powers behind Gandhi.
And, while we can certainly sympathize with the plight of his people,
and properly abhor tyranny from any government, we shouldn't allow
naivete to cloud our understanding of the real forces that work in the
world to maintain spiritual darkness.
     For centuries international banking powers, who worship Mammon,
have worked to manipulate every government currency to their own
advantage with the end in sight of instituting a one-world government.
In order to accomplish this it has been necessary to undermine the
power of all monarchies and dictatorships through "people's movements"
spawned in treachery.
     This results in the movement of the world's masses from under
several tyrannies to under a single tyranny which will be headed by
the anti-Christ.
     Paul said in Ephesians 6:12: "For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the
rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in
high places."
     We might sympathize with the political causes of men like Gandhi;
but, in the long run, they are all part of this world system and are
used to effectively shut out the Gospel - mankind's only real hope for
freedom.

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