A trial is held by the Hunter Commission, comprised of British and Indian officials.

Dyer himself
testifies and is at first quite proud and defiant, claiming he wished to "inflict a lesson that would be
felt through all of the India". When asked if he'd ordered his troops to fire at the thickest part of the
crowd, he says yes. He also states he would have used the machine gun on the tank that
accompanied his troops (it was unable to fit through the narrow passage to the garden). When an
Indian attorney asks Dyer if he attempted to help the wounded in any way, he becomes agitated and
says he would have. A British official asks him how a wounded child that had been shot would be
able to approach him for help. Dyer is silent.

Nevertheless, the incident generates great attention, and Britain faces intense public pressure.
Gandhi, Jawarlalhal Nehru and several other officials representative of the Indian state and it's
people, Hindu, Muslim and other cultures alike, meet with British nationals. Gandhi tells them that
they are "masters in someone else's home" and they should leave India forever. The Brits argue that
without their rule, India will likely tear itself apart. Gandhi retorts that there will be problems but
they will be India's problems, not the British.

Though Gandhi continues his wish for civil disobedience, riots continue to break out. Gandhi stages a
personal fast as a means of protest. Though his action is successful, violence continues. In 1931,
Gandhi stages his most famous protest: the Salt March. He marches 240 miles from his home to the
ocean to make salt in defiance of British regulations. The march is a great success and further
disrupts British rule. Gandhi continues his diplomacy with the other heads of the Indian state to
insure that when India gains it's sovereignty that all the faiths of the country, chiefly Hindu and
Muslim, will live together peacefully.

After World War II ends, Great Britain finally grants Indian independence in August 1947 with India
becoming a commonwealth. Indians celebrate this victory, but their troubles are far from over. The
country is subsequently divided by religion. It is decided that the northwest region and the eastern
part of India (current-day Bangladesh) around Calcutta, both places where Muslims are in the
majority, will become a new country called Pakistan. It is hoped that by encouraging the Muslims to
live in a separate country, violence will abate. Gandhi is opposed to the idea, and is even willing to
allow Muslim leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Alyque Padamsee) to become the first prime minister of
India, but the Partition of India is carried out nevertheless with Jinnah becoming the Governor-
General of the Commonwealth of Pakistan. Religious tensions between Hindus and Muslims erupt
into nationwide violence. Horrified, Gandhi declares another hunger strike in the city of Calcutta,
saying he will not eat until the fighting stops. The fighting does stop eventually. While weak and
barely able to speak, he is confronted by a Hindu man who confesses that while enraged over the
death of his young son at the hands of Muslims, he killed a young Muslim boy himself. Gandhi tells
the man how to achieve forgiveness: he must find a young boy whose own parents have been killed
and raise the boy as his own -- but the boy must be a Muslim and the man must raise him as one.

The aged and in ill-health 78-year-old Gandhi (aware that he might not live through the year) spends
his last days in January 1948 trying to bring about peace between both nations. He thereby angers
many protesters on both sides, one of whom (Godse) is involved in a conspiracy to assassinate him.
As Godse shoots Gandhi in a scene recalling the opening, the film cuts to black and Gandhi is heard
in a voiceover, saying "Oh, God!" The audience then sees Gandhi's cremation; the film ending with a
scene of Gandhi's ashes being scattered on the holy Ganga. As this happens, viewers hear Gandhi in
another voiceover from earlier in the film:

"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won.
There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but, in the end,
they always fall. Think of it. Always."