Token white characters to appeal to American audiences

I've never seen such a clumsy attempt at token casting a day in my life. What on earth did Margaret Bourke-White (played by Candice Bergen), that priest, Mirahben and the reporter (played by Martin Sheen) have a thing to do with Gandhi or India's struggle for independence? Nothing. Their inclusion was so embarrassingly inept and obvious that it actually takes away from the film; it sends the condescending message that Americans were too narcissistic and unworldly to appreciate a movie in which they weren't playing a major role.