oh, god.  oh, god.
tell me -- do you think about hell?
no -- neither do i. but.  but this man is a christian and he has written --
a -- a week.
why -- i -- i have a ticket. a first class ticket.
i sent for it in the post. i'm an attorney, and i didn't have time to --
no, no -- just a moment, please.
you see, mohandas k. gandhi, attorney at law. i am going to pretoria to conduct a case for an indian trading firm.
sir, i was called to the bar in london and enrolled in the high court of chancery -- i am therefore an attorney, and since i am -- in your eyes -- colored -- i think we can deduce that there is at least one colored attorney in south africa.
i always go first class! i have traveled all over england and i've never.
but you're a rich man -- why do you put up with it?
in england, i was a poor student but
this part of "england's" empire!
but that is very un-christian.
you mean you employ mr. baker as your attorney, but you can't walk down the street with him?
well, then, it must be fought. we are children of god like everyone else.
i -- i will write to the press -- here -- and in england. and i will use the courts.
we are members of the empire. and we come from an ancient civilization. why should we not walk on the pavements like other men?
there's the english reporter. i told you he'd come.
no. i asked my wife to organize that.
ladies and gentlemen, we have asked you to gather here to help us proclaim our right to be treated as equal citizens of the empire.
we do not seek conflict. we know the strength of the forces arrayed against us, know that because of them we can only use peaceful means -- but we are determined that justice will be done!
the symbol of our status is embodied in this pass -- which we must carry at all times, but no european even has to have.
and the first step to changing our status is to eliminate this difference between us.
you saved the papers.
i hated that -- all the pettiness, the little corruptions. and i was more laughing stock than lawyer.
but they needed me here. if i'd never been thrown off that train, perhaps no one would ever have needed me.
"a high court judge has confirmed that mr. gandhi would have been within his rights to prosecute for assault since neither he nor mr. khan resisted arrest." -- i told you about english law.
yes?
and i am glad to be back. come.
tomorrow i will tell you what it feels like to be a jailbird.
just like proper english gentlemen. i'm proud of them.
hm. will you take this off? it pinches every time i speak.
here, you see? even the south african papers apologize -- "a monstrous attack."
yes -- i can't talk like this.
pull!
oww!
if you would let me teach you to read, you could see for yourself.
it proves what i told you. if i had prosecuted him as everyone advised -- even you -- they would have hated me -- by showing forgiveness i -- ouch!
you see there is such a thing as moral force -- and it can be harnessed.
i am. i am convinced the holy men are right. when you give up, you gain. the simpler your life the better.
i will fast tomorrow -- as a penance.
i'm sorry.
some of it good, i hope.
would you care to walk?
you're a clergyman.
not anymore. at first i was amazed.  but when you are fighting in a just cause, people seem to pop up -- like you -- right out of the pavement. even when it is dangerous or --
doesn't the new testament say, "if your enemy strikes you on the right cheek, offer him the left"?
i'm not so certain. i have thought about it a great deal. i suspect he meant you must show courage -- be willing to take a blow -- several blows -- to show you will not strike back -- nor will you be turned aside.  and when --
and when you do that it calls upon something in human nature -- something that makes his hate for you diminish and his respect increase. i think christ grasped that and i -- i have seen it work.
good morning.
you'll find there's room for us both.
i thought you were a man of god.
you could call it a "communal farm," i suppose. but we've all come to the same conclusion -- our gita, the muslim's koran or your bible -- it's always the simple things that catch your breath -- "love thy neighbor as thyself" -- not always practiced -- but it's something we hindus could learn a lot from.
well, we shall try.
so it's not "spiritualism" or "nationalism" -- we're not against anything but the idea that people can't live together.
you see -- hindus, muslims, sikhs, jews -- even christians.
mr. walker! of the new york times!
without a paper -- a journal of some kind -- you cannot unite a community. you belong to a very important profession.
i don't know.  i'm still searching for a "response."
there are unjust laws -- as there are unjust men.
if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.
this is mr. kallenbach. he is our chief carpenter -- and also our chief benefactor. he has made this experiment possible.
that's right. the word only means "community." but it could stand for "village".  or the world.
i hope not.
ba -- we will need another place set for mr. walker's driver.
it's one way to learn that each man's labor is as important as another's. in fact when you're doing it, "cleaning the outhouse" seems far more important than the law.
please come and join us -- you'll need something before your journey back. excuse me a moment.
what is it?
everyone takes his turn.
in this place there are no untouchables -- and no work is beneath any of us!
all the more reason.
it's not me. it's the principle. and you will do it with joy or not do it at all!
all right, go! you don't belong here! go! leave the ashram! get out altogether! we don't want you!
what is the matter with me?
i apologize.
i must go back to that reporter.
i want to welcome you all!
every one of you. we -- have -- no -- secrets.
let us begin by being clear about general smuts's new law. all indians must now be fingerprinted -- like criminals. men and women. no marriage other than a christian marriage is considered valid. under this act our wives and mothers are whores.  and every man here a bastard.
and a policeman passing an indian dwelling -- i will not call them homes -- may enter and demand the card or any indian woman whose dwelling it is.
understand! he does not have to stand at the door -- he may enter.
i praise such courage. i need such courage -- because in this cause, i too am prepared to die.  but, my friend, there is no cause for which i am prepared to kill.
i have asked you here tonight because despite all their troops and police, i think there is a way to defeat this law. whatever they do to us we will attack no one, kill no one.  but we will not give our fingerprints -- not one of us.
they will imprison us, they will fine us. they will seize our possessions. but they cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them.
i am asking you to fight -- ! to fight against their anger -- not to provoke it!
we will not strike a blow -- but we will receive them. and through our pain we will make them see their injustice and it will hurt, as all fighting hurts! . but we cannot lose. we cannot. because they may torture my body, may break my bones, even kill me.  they will then have my dead body -- not my obedience.
we are hindu and muslim -- children of god, each of us. let us take a solemn oath in his name that -- come what may -- we will not submit to this law.
god save our gracious king.  long live our . noble king. god save the king!!
you have put their comrades in jail. when you free them they will go back to work.
we have warned each other.
lie down! lie down!
lie down! lie down!
they're sparing no one, i see.
so did i.
my wife publicly defied the law. they've arrested her and four others.
it's split the government.
if we hold firm, it won't be the last.
thank you. no.
i dined at the prison.
well, if you ask, general smuts, i'm sure it will be done.
somehow i expected not.
very well.
i congratulate them.
immigration was not an issue on which we fought. it would be wrong of us to make it one now that we -- we are in a position of advantage.
i assure you i feel a very ordinary man at this moment.
yes -- yes. it's just that.  in these clothes i'd -- i'd prefer to go by taxi.
i'm -- i'm afraid i have no money.
well -- now that this is settled -- i had thought seriously of going back to india but a shilling will do splendidly for the moment.
thank you. thank you both for a very enlightening experience.
i'm obliged, mr. daniels, but i will find my own way out.
no, no, i haven't "refused".  i -- i simply wanted to dress the way my comrades in prison dressed.
i -- i have demanded rights as a british citizen, it is therefore my duty to help in the defense of the british empire.
i don't know.  i don't know.
i -- i am glad to be home. i -- i thank you for your greeting.
who is that young man?
i'm hardly that, mr. patel.
no.
yes.  i'm sure.
it is a clever argument; i am not sure it will produce the end you desire.
i have much to learn about india. and i have to begin my practice again -- one needs money to run a journal.
i have little to say. india is an "alien" country to me.
i ask you to pray for those who died. for the english soldiers.  who were doing what they thought was right. and for the brave terrorists whose patriotism led them to do what was wrong.
it is not my law, it is the law of creation. we reap what we sow. out there in the fields -- and in our hearts. violence sows hatred, and the will to revenge. in them. and in us.
there's no room! and the air is lovely.
let me hang on with two hands or i will fall.
what are you doing?
let go! you'll kill him!
let go! let go!
i am flattered by mr. patel i would be even more flattered if what he said were true.
since i returned from south africa, i have traveled over much of india. and i know i could travel many more years and still only see a small part of it.
and yet already i know what we say here means nothing to the masses of our country.
here we make speeches for each other -- and those english liberal magazines that may grant us a few lines.
but the people of india are untouched. their politics are confined to bread and salt.
illiterate they may be, but they are not blind. they see no reason to give their loyalty to rich and powerful men who simply want to take over the role of the british in the name of freedom.
this congress tells the world it represents india. my brothers, india is seven hundred thousand "villages" not a few hundred lawyers in delhi and bombay. until we stand in the fields with the millions who toil each day under the hot sun, we will not represent india -- nor will we ever be able to challenge the british as one nation.
i try to live like an indian, as you see.  it is stupid of course, because in our country it is the british who decide how an indian lives -- what he may buy, what he may sell. and from their luxury in the midst of our terrible poverty they instruct us on what is justice and what is sedition. so it is only natural that our best young minds assume an air of eastern dignity, while greedily assimilating every western weakness as quickly as they can acquire it.
would you, please?
and why should the english grant us home rule? here, we must take the peelings to the goats.
we only make wild speeches, or perform even wilder acts of terrorism. we've bred an army of anarchists but not one single group that can really fight the british anywhere.
just spread it around -- they like the new peelings mixed with the rotting ones.
where there is injustice, i've always believed in fighting. the question is do you fight to change things, or do you fight to punish. for myself, i have found that we are all such sinners we should leave punishment to god. and if we really want to change things there are better ways of doing it than by derailing trains or slashing someone with a sword.
you see, even here we live under tyranny.
my name is gandhi. mohandas k. gandhi.
they seem to want me.
on what charge?
i am an indian traveling in my own country. i see no reason for trouble.
i understand. the landlords are british?
what we can do.  we will try to do.
is all champaran like this, shukla?
yes.
i am not sorry at all.
charlie--
not quite. they're only "holding me" until the magistrate's hearing. then it will be prison.
these are my clothes now.
if i want to be one with them, i have to live like them.
i'm sure your legs are quite as handsome as mine.
it does. we must be getting old, charlie.
i think, charlie, that you can help us most by taking that assignment you've been offered in fiji.
i have to be sure -- they have to be sure -- that what we do can be done by indians.  alone.
but you know the strategy. the world is full of people who will despise what's happening here. it is their strength we need. before you go, you could start us in the right direction.
when i get the chance.
there are no goodbyes for us, charlie. wherever you are, you will always be in my heart.
with respect, i refuse to go.
as you wish.
i refuse to pay one hundred rupees.
indeed.
i want to document, coldly, rationally, what is being done here. it may take months -- many, many months.
you will have to live with the peasants. i have nothing to pay you. hmm.
the honor is ours. may i introduce mr. kallenbach. he's an old friend and his interest is in flowers. i presumed to tell him he could wander your gardens while we talked.
only the stubborn man of champaran.
i am beginning to know mr. nehru.
if i may -- i, for one, have never advocated passive anything.
i am with mr. jinnah. we must never submit to such laws -- ever. and i think our resistance must be active and provocative.
i want to embarrass all those who wish to treat us as slaves. all of them.
forgive my stupid illustration. but i want to change their minds -- not kill them for weaknesses we all possess.
the law is due to take effect from april sixth. i want to call on the nation to make that a day of prayer and fasting.
i mean a day of prayer and fasting. but of course no work could be done -- no buses, no trains, no factories, no administration. the country would stop.
fortunately such news comes very slowly where i live.
you too.
maybe i'm wrong.  maybe we're not ready yet. in south africa the numbers were small.
i've never spoken for anything else.
if you will excuse me, your excellency, it is our view that matters have gone beyond "legislation."
we think it is time you recognized that you are masters in someone else's home. despite the best intentions of the best of you, you must, in the nature of things, humiliate us to control us. general dyer is but an extreme example of the principle. it is time you left.
mr. kinnoch, i beg you to accept that there is no people on earth who would not prefer their own bad government to the "good" government of an alien power.
all nations contain religious minorities. like other countries, ours will have its problems. but they will be ours -- not yours.
yes.  in the end you will walk out. because one hundred thousand englishmen simply cannot control three hundred fifty million indians if the indians refuse to co-operate. and that is what we intend to achieve -- peaceful, non-violent, non-co- operation.
until you yourself see the wisdom of leaving.  your excellency.
my message tonight is the message i have given to your brothers everywhere. to gain independence we must prove worthy of it.
there must be hindu-muslim unity -- always. secondly, no indian must be treated as the english treat us so we must remove untouchability from our lives, and from our hearts.
third -- we must defy the british.
not with violence that will inflame their will, but with firmness that will open their eyes.
english factories make the cloth -- that makes our poverty. all those who wish to make the english see, bring me the cloth from manchester and leeds that you wear tonight, and we will light a fire that will be seen in delhi -- and london!
and if, like me, you are left with only one piece of homespun -- wear it with dignity!
eleven.
sardar.
what you've done is a miracle. you have made all india proud.
not true! the secret is mastering the urge.
well, we can't expect miracles all the time. your news i understand is not so good.
come, come -- you will be my daughter.
is the campaign weakening?
they are not alone. and martial law only shows how desperate the british are.
is that homespun? or cotton from leeds?
what do the workers in england make of what we're doing? it must have produced hardship.
good. ba will have to teach you to spin too.
first spin. let the others march for a time.
we must end the campaign.
an eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. we must stop.
if we obtain our freedom by murder and bloodshed i want no part of it.
tell that to the families of the policemen who died.
i will ask. and i will fast as penance for my part in arousing such emotions -- and i will not stop until they stop.
if i die, perhaps they will.
when it is everywhere, then my prayers will be answered.
do you find me stubborn?
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.  when you are in doubt that that is god's way, the way the world is meant to be.  think of that.
and then -- try to do it his way. and now -- could i have another feast of lemon juice?
perhaps -- perhaps i have overdone it.
good morning. don't let her go. if she bumps me i am done for.
panditji -- please, help me.
you must help herman -- and ba. i have been on many trips -- it is just another trip.
i am at your command.
if there is one protest -- one riot -- a disgrace of any kind, i will fast again.
i know india is not ready for my kind of independence. if i am sent to jail, perhaps that is the best protest our country can make at this time. and if it helps india, i have never refused to take his majesty's hospitality.
not at all. and i will save the court's time, m'lord, by stating under oath that to this day i believe non-co-operation with evil is a duty. and that british rule of india is evil.
i have no defense, my lord. i am guilty as charged. and if you truly believe in the system of law you administer in my country, you must inflict on me the severest penalty possible.
"take a fourth step, that we may be ever full of joy."
"take a fifth step, that we may serve the people."
"take a sixth step, that we may follow our vows in life."
"take the seventh step, that we may ever live as friends."
then i put a sweetened wheat cake in her mouth.
and with that we were pronounced man and wife. we were both thirteen.
even as a boy i thought so.
and you've come all this way because you think something is going to happen?
perhaps. i've come here to think about it.
do you remember much of south africa?
i've traveled so far -- and thought so much. as you can see, my city was a sea city -- always filled with hindus and muslims and sikhs and jews and persians. the temple where you were yesterday is of my family's sect, the pranami. it was hindu of course but the priests used to read from the muslim koran and the hindu gita, moving from one to the other as though it mattered not at all which book was read as long as god was worshipped.
when i was a boy i used to sing a song in that temple: "a true disciple knows another's woes as his own. he bows to all and despises none.  earthly possessions hold him not." like all boys i said the words, not thinking of what they meant or how they might be influencing me. i've traveled so far.  and all i've done is come back home.
it would have been very uncivil of me to let you make such a long trip for nothing.
i'm going back to the ashram and then i'm going to prove to the new viceroy that the king's writ no longer runs in india!
the real test will come if i am arrested. if there is violence we lose all our moral advantage. this time it mustn't happen.
if i'm taken, maulana is to lead the march. if he is arrested, patel, then kripalani, then yourself.
i'm sure i'm fit for at least five hundred miles.
i have two of them bossing me now.
and jinnah?
wait and see.  wait and see.
you've done me a great service.
not if they arrest me -- or a thousand -- or ten thousand. it is not only generals who know how to plan campaigns.
do you still have your notebook? the function of a civil resister is to provoke response. and we will continue to provoke until they respond, or they change the law. they are not in control -- we are. that is the strength of civil resistance.
are you going to walk all the way?
"my name is walk-er".
i am aware that i must have given you much cause for irritation, your excellency. i hope it will not stand between us as men.
do i speak into that?
are they ready? do i start?
i am glad to speak to america where so many friends exist that i know only in my heart.
it is only a sprain. take her to the river, and we'll make a mud-pack for her. go -- i won't be long.
they are only clinging to old dreams and trying to split us in the old way. but the will has gone -- independence will drop like a ripe apple. the only question is when and how.
they are preparing for war. i will not support it, but i do not intend to take advantage of their danger.
no. that is just another way of striking back. we have come a long way together with the british. when they leave we want to see them off as friends. and now, if you'll excuse me, there is something i must attend to.
the value of goat's milk in daily diet. but you can be sure i will also speak against war.
yes, i have heard of life magazine. i have even heard of margaret bourke- white. but i don't know why either should be interested in an old man sitting in prison when the world is blowing itself to pieces.
ah, but for me that's not much of an accomplishment.
no -- prison is rather agreeable to me, and there is no doubt that after the war, independence will come. my only worry is what shape it will take. jinnah has --
jinnah has -- has cooperated with the british. it has given him power and the freedom to speak, and he has filled the muslims with fears of what will happen to them in a country that is predominantly hindu. that i find hard to bear -- even in prison.
i have a friend who keeps telling me how much it costs him to keep me in poverty.
but i know happiness does not come with things -- even twentieth century things. it can come from work, and pride in what you do. it will not necessarily be "progress" for india if she simply imports the unhappiness of the west.
not without defeats -- and great pain. but are there no defeats in this war -- no pain? what you cannot do is accept injustice. from hitler -- or anyone. you must make the injustice visible -- be prepared to die like a soldier to do so.
no. that is what you get for distracting me.
i expect you to show as much patience as i am now.
every enemy is a human being -- even the worst of them. and he believes he is right and you are a beast. and if you beat him over the head you will only convince him. but you suffer, to show him that he is wrong, your sacrifice creates an atmosphere of understanding -- if not with him, then in the hearts of the rest of the community on whom he depends.
if you are right, you will win -- after much pain. if you are wrong, well, then, only you will suffer the blows.
it is time for my walk -- i won't be long.
muslim and hindu are the right and left eye of india. no one will be slave, no one master.
thank god, they've stopped.
i'm your grand uncle but i can still walk either of you into the ground and i don't need to be pampered this way!
finish your quota of spinning.
what do you want me not to do? not to meet with mr. jinnah? i am a muslim! and a hindu, and a christian and a jew -- and so are all of you. when you wave those flags and shout you send fear into the hearts of your brothers.
this is not the india i want. stop it. for god's sake, stop it.
my dear jinnah, you and i are brothers born of the same mother india. if you have fears, i want to put them to rest. i am asking panditji to stand down. i want you to be the first prime minister of india -- to name your entire cabinet, to make the head of every government department a muslim.
i don't want to hear more.
there is nothing i can give.
calcutta.
i am staying with the friend of a friend.
because forgiveness is the gift of the brave.
go -- do as your mother and father would wish you to do.
i have lived a lifetime. if i had shunned death -- or feared it -- i would not be here. nor would you be concerned for me. leave me -- and take your men. you have more important things to worry about.
and with you. pray.  i cannot help you -- pray.  pray.
sardar.  you have gained weight. you must join me in the fast.
all that has happened is that i've grown a little thinner.
i'm glad -- but it will not be enough.
don't worry for me -- death will be a deliverance. i cannot watch the destruction of all i have lived for.
each night before i sleep, i read a few words from the gita and the koran, and the bible.  tonight i ask you to share these thoughts of god with me.
i will begin with the bible where the words of the lord are, "love thy neighbor as thyself".  and then our beloved gita which says, "the world is a garment worn by god, thy neighbor is in truth thyself".  and finally the holy koran, "we shall remove all hatred from our hearts and recline on couches face to face, a band of brothers."
that the fighting will stop -- that you make me believe it will never start again.
go -- try -- god by with you.
only god decides who goes to hell.
why? why?
i know a way out of hell.
find a child -- a child whose mother and father have been killed. a little boy -- about this high.
and raise him -- as your own.
only be sure.  that he is a muslim. and that you raise him as one.
go -- go. god bless you.
it is foolish if it is just to save the life of an old man.
maulana, my friend, could i have some orange juice.  then you and i will take a piece of bread together.
that is how you eat muli.
i'm not sure i want to be remembered that way.
i'm simply going to prove to muslims there, and hindus here, that the only devils in the world are those running around in our own hearts -- and that's where all our battles ought to be fought.
not a very good one. that's why i have so much tolerance for the other scoundrels of the world.
ask panditji to -- to consider what we've discussed.
enough.
you're a temptress.
nothing's more dangerous, especially for an old man.
allah be with you.
oh, god.  oh, god.