A Force More Powerful 01, India

This is the first of a 6-part series about the implementation of non-violent struglle against oppression in various countries throughout the world. The first episode concerns the modern father of non-violence, Mahatma Gandhi, and the way he led the Satyagraha (Holding to Truth) movement in India in the 1930s, which set India on the path to independence.

The episode mainly focuses on Gandhi’s organisation of the March against the salt laws and their aftermath with his eventually imprisonment, along with thousands of others, and the brutal repsonse from the British regime, which effectively undermined their own position, while trying to uphold it.

Although interesting in itself it offers no other perspective on the Indian struggle for independence, nor Gandhi’s inability, or unwillingness, to fully oppose the caste system. The film also ends rather abruptly, just recounting that 16 years later India gained independence and Gandhi was assassinated.