A2 - Sunday, March 6, 1983 - North Shore News

strictly personal

Oh, for

by Bob Hunter

I SAW THE MOVIE Gandhi. It was the best
movie I’ve seen since Caligula — and over-all,
probably the best movie [ve seen in my life.

The technical
achievement is one thing and
plenty has been written
about it. The camera and the
sound system take you there.

flies

important now than at any
time since his death by an
assassin’s bullet in 1948. In
an era. when we are so
grossly over-armed that we

thousands of times over, it

liberation of his country —
came at an enormous price,
namely the partition of the
subcontinent into Muslim
Pakistan and Hindu India.

In a vital sense, he failed.

Yet when he said “An eye
for an eye leaves everyone
blind,” he spoke directly to
the players in the nuclear
arms—race.—And—whern +
said, “Civil disobedience is

to the buzzing
~ ifritatingly off to the side.
Such scenes as the

massacre at Amritsar, in
1919, when British General
Reginald Dyer ordered his
troops to open fire on 1, 500
unarmed men, women and
children, are so realistic as
to leave your nervous system
shouting for it to end.

And the funeral scene,
with 300,000 people taking
part, was an historic event in
itself. At the very least, you
come away from Gandhi
with a vastly heightened
understanding of India.

The movie is more than
worth it on all these grounds,

but, finally, what
distinguishes it so
profoundly from other

movies is that it addresses
the very heart of the great
issue of our time: How, in a
nuclear age, to control our
primitive impulse to use
violence to solve problems.
Gandhi appears more

AN OPEN

Dear Trustees:

ARD.
WEST VANCOUVER SCHOOL BO

and aiternative proposals

peen previously
5e all tive schools m

becomes Clearer than évér
that an alternative to
violence must be found.

It is one thing to have read
Gandhi's writings on the
subject of ‘“satyagraha,”
meaning non-violence. It 1s
quite another to see the
discipline applied on a giant
screen, in Dolby sound.

As a result of the movie, I
think I have a much better
insight into both the im-
portance and the limitations
of non-violence.

As an activist, Gandhi
faced down the British in
both South Africa and India.

But how well would he
done against the
Russians in Afghanistan? Or
against the Argentine junta?
How can the success of the
Indian independence
movement be applied to the
threat of nuclear

an-
nihilation?

Gandhi's great political
achievement — _ the

gchool Trustees Voled 1

Vancouver
in West Vancouver
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USTEES OF THE

march 6, 1983

3
unt March 7, 1865

the inherent right of a
citizen, he dare not give it up
without ceasing to be a
man,” he spoke to the rest of
us.

He also said, ‘“Non-
violence is the greatest force
at the disposal of mankind.
It is gfeater than the
mightiest weapon of
destruction.” One cannot
help but pray that he was
right, because the weapons
we face now have no parallel
in history.

How to apply the
Mahatma’s teachings to our
current deadly impasse —
that is the question.

In the end, it was public
anything else that turned the
tide in favor of India’s
nationalist movement.

Gandhi's famous fasts
worked only becuase he had
already become the spiritual
leader of his country. He
exerted enormous influence

over his followers, which

But there is no world
figure of equal stature, and
certainly nobody who can
reach across all the borders
and ideological and religious
and racial barriers dividing
the human race.

One wishes, desperately,
for a modern Gandhi who
could move the world. It is
not necessarily impossible
for the world to be saved,
but history suggests the need
for a great leader to act asa
Catalyst.

In the end, I think, the
message of Gandhi (both
movie and man) is that faith

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is the real force that shapes
hamanity’s fate. Miracles are
made by people.

It’s inspiring. I hope it’s
also true.

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CORRECTION

In the advertisement, North
Shore News, March 2, the
OPENING SPECIAL
CUSTOM DRAPERY shouid
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