Goofs

During close ups of front rank of kneeling soldiers at the Jallianwala Bagh massacre there is a large number of spent cartridges on the ground, but in the last wide shot there are none.

When Gandhi tells the man how to escape from hell, the man prostrates himself at Gandhi's feet. Before, the man had tossed a piece of food on Gandhi's stomach. After falling at Gandhi's feet, the piece of food is gone.

The round wire rim glasses that Ben Kingsley wears alternate from single lenses to bi-focal lenses many times.

When Gandhi is escorted into the office of the top prison official, the pendulum on the grandfather clock in the background jumps between shots.

The standing lamp on the right of the screen next to Judge Broomfield moves to the right when the Judge says "nevertheless, it is my duty...".

In the opening scene in South Africa, Gandhi is riding first class on a steam locomotive. The first class car is shown as the forward car, closest to the engine. In passenger steam engines, first class would be the rearmost car, farthest away from the engine's heat and exhaust. Second or third class would be nearest the engine.

The hoisting of the Indian flag on independence is shown to happen in broad daylight when in reality, it took place at midnight.

In the movie, The South African police were shown both arresting and beating Gandhi for burning passes during his protest of the Pass Law. Although Mohandas K. Gandhi and his fellow protesters were arrested for burning the passes, in reality neither Gandhi or any of the protesters were ever beaten by the police during the protest.

Lord Irwin was born with a withered left arm with no hand. However, he is shown several times in the film with both a left and right hand.

Margaret Bourke-White was not present at Birla House for Gandhi's assassination, though she had interviewed and photographed him a few hours earlier.

Whilst it is true that electricity was unavailable to most Indian villages during Mohandas K. Gandhi's lifetime, it can be expected that poles supporting, what seem to be power lines along the railroad right-of-way during Gandhi's tour of India, are instead supporting telegraph lines, some of which were in place as early as the 1850s.

During the Amritsar massacre, crimped blank cartridges can be seen feeding into the soldiers' rifles.

When the Pakistani flag is being raised for the first time, the anthem that is playing is the modern national anthem of Pakistan ("Qaumi Tarana"). The original national anthem of Pakistan was a different song (written by a Hindu), which was written days prior to the ceremony and only lasted 18 months as Pakistan's anthem.

Hermann Kallenbach is shown alive in India at or near independence in 1947, but he died in 1945.

The Calcutta killings are shown as having happened after Indian independence in August 1947, whereas they actually took place a year earlier in August 1946.

(at around 2h 20 mins) Footage of a speeding steam train is shown during Gandhi's visit to Britain in 1931. There were then only four railway companies in the UK, LMS, LNER, SR and GWR, all of whom proudly displayed their initials on their engine tenders. In the footage, however, there is only the smudge like the logo of British Rail, not formed until 1948.

The car burned in the Calcutta riot scenes (some time between 1946 and 1948) is an Ambassador, an Indian-made copy of a 1954 Morris Oxford.

When Louis Mountbatten arrives as the final Viceroy, as the National Anthem starts he salutes "Army" style, i.e., "up the long way". He was a Navy officer, and wearing the uniform of the Royal Navy, so his hand would have travelled "the short way".

In Gandhi (1982), Muhammad Ali Jinnah is seen smoking a cigarette. In reality, Muhammad Ali Jinnah always preferred and smoked cigars.

When Field Marshal Jan Christiaan Smuts signs in new legislation burdened by pressure due to protests resulting in the lawless burning of passes (i.e., registration certificates), the name under his signature reads "JAN CHRISTIAN SMUTS". The proper Afrkaans spelling would be "JAN CHRISTIAAN SMUTS" especially on official government documents.

An extra is seen wearing sneakers.