Our history is no more than a serious
of incredible events.
Every one of us can influence it's course.
The most infinitely small of our decisions
can influence the future of humanity.
To know the past, is to foresee the future.
1968, New Delhi.
While the British army besieges the city,
various rebel factions wage a fight to the death
for control of the neighborhoods.
India, the last Jewel of the British Empire
is bathed in fire and blood.
In the previous century, Gandhi, a young lawyer
fighting for civil rights was assassinated,
lynched by an angry mob.
Without him, India never gained it's independence.
The religious communities became more isolated than ever.
Today the situation is out of control.
Hindus and Muslims are engaged in a ruthless fight
while the impotent British army watches.
But none of this ever happened.
In 1896, a small grain of sand saved Gandhi
and allowed him to share his message of non violence.
May 26th 1893, Gandhi, a young lawyer
registered with the London Barr Association
is brutally kicked off a South African Train.
January 13th 1897.
A group of angry protestors attacked Gandhi and his family
and threatened to hang him from a tree.
March 1930.
Gandhi begins a march across India.
He is followed by ten's of thousands of Indians.
These three inextricably linked events are key
moments in the life of Gandhi, and the emancipation
of the former British colony, India.
(crying)
India, 1858.
Just one year ago,
Indian soldiers from the
British East India Company mutinied.
The bloody rebellion spread quickly.
The english response was ruthless.
The last islands of resistance are now falling.
To serve as an example the leaders are executed by
being shot out of a cannon.
India is one of the oldest settlements in the world.
From the west the passage through the mountains
has allowed many invaders to penetrate the Valley of Indus.
The river that India is named after.
The history of the region, includes a succession of empires,
like Ashoka's as vast as the Roman Empire at it's peak,
or Guptas, the true golden age of India.
Still up until the 17th century none of these Empires
seemed able to completely control this immense and
highly complex land.
From the north to the south there is not just one
but multiple Indias.
It has an infinite variety of believes
and religious practices, simultaneously
Indian society has developed an unbalanced social system
of the centuries that is based on Castes.
A strict separation of individuals into distinct groups
that are ranked in hierarchal order.
At the bottom of the social pyramid in the lowest
category for humans are the untouchables
who are shunned by the rest of society.
In the 16th century when the Portuguese are already
actively trading with the Indian sub continent
the region is being run by the Mughal Empire.
At the beginning of the following century,
the British are competing with the Portuguese.
December 31st, 1600 in the city of London
entrepreneurs create the British East India Company.
Not long afterwards the Mugahls weakened by war
collapsed and allow the companies influence to spread.
In exchange for British protection several Indian
princes grant vast privileges.
Trading intensifies, a steady stream of wealth
flows between England and it's Indian markets.
Huge plantations produces large quantities of cotton
all of which is shipped to England by boat
and then woven in vast factories.
Soon Indian's can only find English clothing
in their markets.
Gradually all trace of the
traditional Indian economy disappears.
Two centuries later the trading company is fully established
imposing heavy taxes and equipped with it's own army.
The company reigns over an immense merchant empire.
But, after the 1858 revolt, it is dissolved
and India passes under the rule of the Crown.
Victoria, Queen of England, becomes Empress of India.
This is the birth of the British Raj.
Welcome to the memory of humanity.
Every historical event regardless of how small
is recorded and connected
you only need to change one to upset all the others.
Here we are able to control time
analyze and compare billions of events
in order to rewrite history in infinite ways.
For example, let's go back to the middle of the 19th Century
to the heart of the Victorian era.
At the height of it's empire, the United Kingdom
is the worlds leading power, the Union Jack
waves it colors on every continent.
However, not all the inhabitants of the empire
are citizens or share equal status.
The English are convinced that their society
is superior to others.
In India they are perfectly comfortable with the caste
system, the English simply place themselves above
the others.
In other colonies like in South Africa,
the condition black people is particularly humiliating
and degrading and Asian people are practically slaves.
The empire is based on extreme inequalities.
May 26th 1893, South Africa.
This man, how was thrown from a train like a piece
of filth for daring to sit in a first class compartment
is deeply humiliated.
What could he have possibly done wrong?
This man is a gentlemen attorney registered at the Barr
in London.
Here, neither his diplomas nor his English education
can balance the scales.
In the eyes of the white colonialists he is a Cooley,
a duragatory term denoting one of the too many
asian laborers.
His name is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
And this misadventure will change him forever.
He will no longer tolerate this type of injustice.
Arriving in South Africa for work,
he will soon be confronted by the reality.
His compatriots have been reduced to the condition
of slaves, thousands of them are working on huge plantations
in this English colony thousands of white
Europeans ruthlessly exploit the tens of thousands of
Indians and millions of Africans without reservation.
This brutal reality pushes the young lawyer
off the side lines.
In 1893 he begins defending Indian workers
who have been mistreated by their white employers.
On march 22nd he discovers that a bill
designed to suppress Indian voter rights
is being prepared.
He immediately launches a huge campaign to protest this.
For the British, the name Gandhi is becoming synonymous
with agitator.
December 19th 1896.
After a short stay in India,
Gandhi returns to South Africa with his family
but when he arrives at the Port of Durban,
the authorities place the ship in quarantine
for sanitary reasons.
Curiously the white Europeans are allowed to disembark.
Certain rumors in town, go so far as to say
that Gandhi has deliberately brought a plague
to South Africa.
At the dock, a crowd of protestors scream insults
and death threats at the Indian passengers.
Gandhi understands that he, not the ship
is being quarantined.
He finally obtains authorization to go a shore
with his family but only at night and with a police escort.
Once he reaches the dock, the protestors
come out of hiding and rush toward the little group.
The situation quickly gets out of control,
then the police chiefs wife, passing by in a carriage
on the way back from a dinner in town
rushes towards the scene and brandishes her umbrella
using it and her status to protect the poor Indian family.
Escorted by the lady to screams from the angry crowd
demanding he be hanged, Gandhi and his family
flee the scene.
We have arrived at a point of divergence.
A point of divergence is a key moment,
a cross roads in our history where our world can swing
from on side to the other.
Gandhi has just miraculously escaped a mob
that was ready to lynch him.
If the English lady had not intervened
the lawyer would have surely ended up
at the end of a rope.
At this time his name and his actions
were already well known in South Africa and in India.
His violent death would have served as a warning
to anyone contemplating taking up the torch of protest.
In India, without Gandhi and his peaceful influence
it is probable that the tensions between Indians
and British colonialists would have escalated
into a spiral of violence.
During the night, August 5th 1904,
Gandhi cannot sleep.
He cannot stop thinking about something that he read
earlier that day.
A brilliant book by John Ruskin.
The British writer explains that the production
of good and wealth involves human beings,
and that not everything should be sacrificed
for financial interests.
Those ideas are similar to Ahimsa,
a religious Hindu concept where by life,
present in all things should be respected.
Intense reflection, pushes Gandhi to adopt new ideas,
and to put them into daily practice.
His life style is profoundly modified.
Thinking that people often eat too much
while others do not have enough to eat
he decides to set an example and begins fasting regularly.
He cut's his own hair, and cleans his own toilet.
For him, these are no longer menial tasks
and every human should take care of their own needs.
Too often the witness of violence against women
he associates sexuality with violence
and takes a vow of chastity.
Impressed by the British women's fight to obtain
voting rights, he sets a new doctrine into motion
based on civil disobedience and non violence.
Satyagraha.
Say no to injustice firmly.
Publicly and often illegally, but never violently.
And accept the consequences of your actions.
July 31st 1907.
When the government decrees that all Indians
must be registered with the authorities
and present proof of their identity at all times
Gandhi has a chance to test his method.
Having become an influential leader,
he suggests that the Indians in South Africa
refuse to cooperate.
This is followed by thousands of Indians being imprisoned
including Gandhi himself.
August 16th 1908.
In a public place and under the watchful eyes of the
police he goes even further and convinces thousands
to burn their registration papers.
Severely beaten, he ends up once again behind bars.
The brutal British response causes Gandhi to write
that he has discovered the source of evil.
Western civilization and modernity.
In 1913 he has part of the law revoked and
decides to return to India the following year.
Force or violence?
Gandhi endures beatings and humiliation without reacting.
From his point of view this is a show of self control
and therefor a moral strength.
When Gandhi goes on a hunger strike,
Indians see it as proof of his determination.
From the viewpoint of the English it is a sign
of weakness and cowardice the British
after two centuries of occupying Indian soil
still don't understand how Indian society functions.
They respond to the protest with demonstrations of strength
Winston Churchill goes so far as to label Gandhi
as seditious and unclean Fakir.
70 years later in 1981 the British will handle
hunger strikes in the same way.
During the protests lead by Irish republicans.
After 66 days without food,
the activist Bobby Sands will die
without succeeding in influencing the English government,
will Gandhi's non violent actions be more successful?
January 9th 1915.
Gandhi arrives in Bombay.
He is welcomed triumphantly by his compatriots.
They are waiting for him to ascend to the head
of the Indian congress, the political party
working towards independence.
However he has just returned from a 21 year stay in Africa.
He doesn't really know his native country anymore.
So he set's out to travel across India and listen
to it's people.
He learns that the situation is even worse than he thought.
Misery is everywhere.
The British have overtaken off the countries resources,
famines are frequent and the population
is crowded in swamps.
India, miserable, has lost it's dignity.
Gandhi decides to take action.
He establishes and Ashram, a sort of monastery
where he trains his disciples in non violence.
Followers call him Baku, the father.
Then Mahatma, or great soul.
In the beginning he doesn't know exactly how to proceed.
March 30th 1919, he obtains the first results
by organizing a national strike.
All of India responds to his call for a general strike.
The country is completely paralyzed.
This demonstration of strength lands him
once again in prison.
Protests in support of him begin soon after.
April 13th 1919.
British general Dyer, decides to teach the Indians
in his own words, "a proper lesson."
He orders his men to shoot straight into a peaceful
and unarmed crowd, without warning.
Modern rapid fire rifles, against innocent men
women and children.
The carnage is horrifying.
Gandhi,
astounded, loses his last illusions about the
legitimacy of the British government.
His goal, which until that moment,
was to gain additional rights for Indians
becomes total independence.
He rises to the head of congress and quickly presents
his program.
Boycott British schools, courts and English products.
Then stop paying taxes and desert all police
and army posts.
Gandhi can count on over 300 million Indians.
The British are less than 100,000.
The only answer they are able to give is violence.
The systematic repression, is brutal.
March 1930.
The British authorities, learned that Gandhi
has launched a 250 mile march across the country.
His objective is to circumvent the law
requiring Indians to buy British salt
by going to the beach and collecting it himself.
It wouldn't have been so notable
if he had been all alone.
But Gandhi is accompanied by tens of thousands of Indians.
A human wave submerges the British prohibitions.
More than 60,000 people are arrested and thrown
in over crowded prisons.
But that changes nothing.
For Gandhi this is only the beginning of a long
period of resistance that will see him cross
from one side of the country to the other
all ways peacefully, yet tirelessly rallying people
to his cause.
In 1942, in the middle of World War II,
Gandhi reads his Quit India Declaration.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill
miraculously crushes what he perceives as a sedition.
And as all the members of congress arrested.
More than 1000 protestors are slaughtered.
But in the aftermath of the war,
Churchill's defeat in the election,
allows the working part, long since supporters
of India's independence to take power.
It seems that the time has come.
Living together.
India is on the verge of obtaining it's independence.
But this emancipation comes with new challenges.
Indian society is extremely complex.
For example, the inequality of the caste system
goes hand and hand with multiple religions.
Especially Hindu and Islam.
But at that time,
the two faiths are considered incompatible.
Muslims, present mostly in the north
or unevenly spread out across the land.
And represent around 16% of the population.
Which is the largest minority in India.
Tensions between the two communities are very strong.
Gandhi makes great efforts to end the conflicts
and keep his country united.
British powers aware of this script within Indian society
use it as leverage in the negotiations.
If India gains it independence.
It would divide the country.
Divide,
and rule.
With Churchill on the sidelines,
independence is within reach.
But the fight is far from being over.
One of the leaders of the Independence Movement
the Muslim Muhammad Ali Jinnah, defends the idea
of separating India into two countries.
Pakistan for Muslims, the rest for Hindus.
For Gandhi, this separation would be catastrophic
and a terrible failure.
Across the country, more and more riots break out.
Hindus massacre Muslims.
Muslims kill off Hindus.
On each side, people are becoming more erratic.
Gandhi is increasingly isolated.
Nehru, his political ally does everything he can
to preserve a unified India in spite of the
two faced Gena, who while officially condemning
the anti Hindu protests,
secretly encourages their outbreaks.
The separation of India seems inevitable.
August 15th 1947.
After months of negotiations, independence is proclaimed
to the cries, "victory to Mahatma Gandhi."
But the old man is not present.
Disgusted he could not share this jubilation.
The day before, he saw his country ripped itself in two.
India on one side, and Pakistan on the other.
This results in huge population displacement.
Leaving their homes, millions of Muslims
make their way to the distant and all new Pakistan.
And cross paths with Indian refugees
heading in the opposite direction.
Inevitably clashes occur and escalate into massacres.
Gandhi tirelessly crosses the country side
desperately promoting non violence.
He achieves miracles.
During his trip, the troubles cease,
but often start back up after he leaves.
One year later, while on his way to morning prayers
Gandhi is shot three times by a young nationalist
who believes the Mahatma is a traitor.
Hindus and Muslims, after centuries of living together,
are drawn into a spiral of conflicts and will become
irreconcilable enemies.
But that, is another story.
Who truly was Gandhi?
The Son, he was the liberator of India.
A hero in the fight against the imperialists.
For others, he was a spiritual guide, sometimes compared
to Jesus Christ.
His fight for women and the untouchables made him
a humanist.
It is certain that radical Indian nationalists
considered him a traitor.
His indifference for the plight of the black
South African population has lead some
to call him a racist.
But one thing is certain, he is one of the people
who's left a considerable mark on the 20th century.
Martin Luther King Jr. acknowledged being influenced
by Gandhi's ideas.
He too was cut down by extremists bullets.
Just like many other agents of change.
In the darkest hours of the fight for Indias
independence when the country was on the brink of Civil War
this man dressed in simple cloth,
and standing all alone,
was stronger than an army.
(epic music)