The life of Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) is inseparable from the history of India's struggle for independence from the British empire. Director Richard Attenborough's biographical film attempts to explain how one man's personal beliefs could transform a nation's politics, even though Gandhi did not achieve his ultimate goals of national unity. Gandhi was highly acclaimed, winning eight Academy Awards including Best Picture, Actor (Ben Kinglsey, as Gandhi), Director, and Screenplay (John Briley).

The film opens on January 30, 1948, the last day of Gandhi's life. Eulogies at his vastly attended funeral describe him as "the little brown man in a loincloth who led his country to freedom." He is called "spokesman for the conscience of the world." A quotation by Albert Einstein establishes him as a near mythic figure.

The movie cuts to Gandhi's first campaign for social justice in South Africa in 1893. The young well-dressed, English educated barrister (lawyer) is riding in a first-class railroad car when a white man protests his violation of racial segregation. Gandhi is unceremoniously dumped at the station, but he vows to fight the injustice.

As he organizes South Africa's Indian population to reject second-class citizenship, Gandhi defies police orders, suffers cruel beatings, and incarceration. His dissent is marked by intense spirituality. He is clearly courageous, but he disavows fighting back. His religious outlook appears in his personal life, as Gandhi insists that he and his wife perform menial tasks, despite the privileges of their high caste status as Hindus.

When South Africa's General Jan Smuts authorizes a new law requiring fingerprinting all Indians, denying the validity of non-Christian marriages, and allowing police to enter Indian homes, Gandhi presides at a protest meeting. When militants propose violent opposition to the law, he proposes an alternative strategy of non-violent resistance.

Gandhi leads protest marches that endanger his life and those with him. Police arrest thousands of Indians, including their leader. But political embarrassment at the arbitrary policies in England forces Smuts to seek a peaceful compromise that repeals the law and sets Gandhi free.

The movie then jumps ahead to Bombay, India in 1915. Treated as a hero for defending the rights of Indian nationals, Gandhi discusses issues of Indian independence with other leaders, including Mohamed Ali Jinnah (played by Alyque Padamsee), head of the Muslim League. Gandhi is not willing to lead a political movement and instead travels through India to observe living conditions among the masses.

When the India National Congress calls for independence at the end of World War I, Gandhi warns that the movement is out of touch with ordinary Indian people. Living closer to the masses, he responds to tenant farmers who are gouged by British landlords. For his protest, the police arrest him, provoking even larger protests that alarm the authorities.

Released from jail, Gandhi continues to demand reforms of the land policies. After meeting again with the Muslim Jinnah, he proposes a day of fasting and prayer instead of a political general strike. Despite pleas for non-violence, the arrest of Gandhi prompts riots. In a counter demonstration of imperial force, General Dyer brutally massacres 1,516 peaceful Indians at Amritsar. Public outrage persuades the British to offer concessions. Gandhi insists on full independence, even though conflicts between Hindus and Muslims remain.

To increase pressure on Britain, Gandhi encourages a boycott of British manufactured cloth. Yet conflict among Indian religious groups leads Britain to impose martial law that, in turn, increases violence. Gandhi remarks, "An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind." He embarks on a fast, succeeding through this moral gesture in ending the violence. British authorities nonetheless arrest him for inciting sedition.

The movie then jumps ahead a few years to Gandhi's birthplace in Porbander. Responding to Britain's insistence that all salt manufacture must be licensed (and taxed), Gandhi embarks on a symbolic 240-mile march to the sea where, in defiance of the law, he makes salt. Soon people all over India are making illegal salt. The British crack down, arresting some 100,000 salt makers, including Gandhi. In further defiance, masses of Indian protesters implement Gandhi's principles of civil disobedience at a salt works as the British brutally beat row after row of demonstrators.

The horrible confrontation arouses sympathy in England, and Gandhi sails from Bombay to London to attend a conference about Indian independence. Although Gandhi remains optimistic, meetings with high British officials fail to reach agreements and the divisions between Hindus and Muslims are apparent. Back in India, Gandhi's pacifism during World War II leads to his arrest.

With the end of the war, Britain finally accepts Indian independence. But despite Gandhi's hope for national unity, religious splits prevent the creation of one country. The Muslims insist on forming the separate state of Pakistan. Gandhi fails to bridge this religious difference.

The declaration of India-Pakistan independence in 1947 prompts mass migrations of refugees along tense borders and spontaneous violence erupts. To end the fighting, Gandhi again stages a personal fast, stubbornly refusing food until the rioters desist. His efforts to ease ethnic conflict arouse hostility of conservative Hindus. Convinced that Gandhi is a dangerous heretic, a young Hindu approaches the Mahatma ("great soul") and kills him.

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