Gandhi

GANDHI: "Take a sixth step, that we may follow our vows in life."

BA: "I will follow you in all our vows and duties."

GANDHI: "Take a fifth step, that we may serve the people."

BA: "I will follow close behind you and help to serve the people."

BA: God gave you ten thumbs.

GANDHI: Eleven.

BA: Please! You're being foolish!

GANDHI: There's no room! And the air is lovely.

BA: Sora was sent to tell me I -- I must rake and cover the latrine.

GANDHI: Everyone takes his turn.

BA: It is the work of untouchables.

GANDHI: In this place there are no untouchables -- and no work is beneath any of us!

BA: I am your wife.

GANDHI: All the more reason.

GANDHI: Oww!

BA: Mr. Khan said they called you brave.

GANDHI: Here, you see? Even the South African papers apologize -- "a monstrous attack."

BA: Are you sure?

GANDHI: Yes -- I can't talk like this.

GANDHI: Just like proper English gentlemen. I'm proud of them.

BA: They are boys. -- And they're Indian.

GANDHI: "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.

BA: As I told you about English policemen.

BOURKE-WHITE: Just an admirer...

GANDHI: Nothing's more dangerous, especially for an old man.

GANDHI: Enough.

BOURKE-WHITE: One more.

BOURKE-WHITE: You really are going to Pakistan, then? You are a stubborn man.

GANDHI: 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.

BOURKE-WHITE: Is my finger supposed to be wrapped around that?

GANDHI: No. That is what you get for distracting me.

BOURKE-WHITE: What do you expect when you talk like that?

GANDHI: I expect you to show as much patience as I am now.

BOURKE-WHITE: But do you really believe you could use non-violence against someone like Hitler?

GANDHI: 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.

BOURKE-WHITE: "...what shape it will take." Jinnah has -- what?

GANDHI: 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.

GANDHI: 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 --

BOURKE-WHITE: Stop!

CHARLIE: They're calling you "Bapu." I thought it meant father.

GANDHI: It does. We must be getting old, Charlie.

GANDHI: I'm sure your legs are quite as handsome as mine.

CHARLIE: Ah, but my puritanism runs the another way. I'm far too modest for such a display.

GANDHI: If I want to be one with them, I have to live like them.

CHARLIE: I think you do. But I thank God we all don't.

GANDHI: Not quite. They're only "holding me" until the Magistrate's hearing. Then it will be prison.

CHARLIE: Did they take your clothes?

GANDHI: What are you doing?

CHARLIE: Going nearer to God!

CHARLIE: No violence, please.

GANDHI: Let me hang on with two hands or I will fall.

CHARLIE: That's the sort of thing you'll be seeking on this "farm"...

GANDHI: Well, we shall try.

CHARLIE: That was lucky.

GANDHI: I thought you were a man of God.

CHARLIE: I am. But I'm not so egotistical as to think He plans His day around my dilemmas.

GANDHI: You're a clergyman.

CHARLIE: Yes. I've -- I've met some very remarkable people in India... and -- and when I read what you've been doing here, I -- I wanted to help. Does that surprise you?

GANDHI: 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 --

CHARLIE: You'd be Gandhi -- ...I thought you'd be bigger.

GANDHI: I'm sorry.

CHARLIE: I -- I mean it's all right. It doesn't matter. I'm -- my name is Andrews, Charlie Andrews. I've come from India -- I've read a great deal about you.

GANDHI: Some of it good, I hope.

COLLINS: What'd he say?

WALKER: He said he's in charge...

COLLINS: You mean Gandhi?

WALKER: Back in South Africa... long time ago.

COLLINS: What was he like?

WALKER: Lots of hair... and a little like a college freshman -- trying to figure everything out.

COLLINS: Well, he must've found some of the answers...

WALKER: ...and I knew something had to give. And I was determined to be here when it did.

COLLINS: How does a reporter in Central America learn that Gandhi was born in Porbandar anyway?

WALKER: Oh, I've been a Gandhi buff for a long time.

PORTER: I'll take your luggage back, baas.

GANDHI: No, no -- just a moment, please.

PORTER: Excuse me, baas, but how long have you been in South Africa?

GANDHI: A -- a week.

PORTER: Well, I don't know how you got a ticket for --

GANDHI: Tell me -- do you think about hell?

PORTER: "Hell!"

GANDHI: No -- neither do I. But... but this man is a Christian and he has written --

NEHRU: What do you want?

GANDHI: That the fighting will stop -- that you make me believe it will never start again.

GANDHI: 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.

NEHRU: I say when is now -- and we will determine how.

GANDHI: And Jinnah?

NEHRU: He's waiting. He's not prepared to accept it will mean as much as you think.

GANDHI: Wait and see... wait and see...

NEHRU: I don't believe it -- even the British can't be that stupid!

GANDHI: Panditji -- please, help me.

GANDHI: If we obtain our freedom by murder and bloodshed I want no part of it.

NEHRU: It was one incident.

GANDHI: Tell that to the families of the policemen who died.

NEHRU: What can we do?

GANDHI: We must end the campaign.

GANDHI: Maybe I'm wrong... maybe we're not ready yet. In South Africa the numbers were small...

NEHRU: The Government's afraid, and they don't know what to do. But they're more afraid of terrorists than of you. The Viceroy has agreed to your release if you will speak for non- violence.

GANDHI: I've never spoken for anything else.

GANDHI: Fortunately such news comes very slowly where I live.

NEHRU: I think if we all worked to publicize it... all of the Congress... every avenue we know.

GANDHI: 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.

NEHRU: I thought you were against fighting.

GANDHI: Are you going to walk all the way?

WALKER: My name is Walk-er. And I intend to report it the way it is.

WALKER: Is it over if they arrest you now?

GANDHI: Not if they arrest me -- or a thousand -- or ten thousand. It is not only generals who know how to plan campaigns.

GANDHI: You've done me a great service.

WALKER: It would have been uncivil of me to have let you make such a long trip for nothing.

GANDHI: Do you remember much of South Africa?

WALKER: A great deal.

GANDHI: 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.

GANDHI: And you've come all this way because you think something is going to happen?

WALKER: Hm. Is it?

GANDHI: Perhaps. I've come here to think about it.

WALKER: It's beautiful.

GANDHI: Even as a boy I thought so.

WALKER: You're an ambitious man.

GANDHI: I hope not.

WALKER: Well, it's quite a place, your "ashram" -- is that right?

GANDHI: That's right. The word only means "community." But it could stand for "village"... or the world.

GANDHI: Without a paper -- a journal of some kind -- you cannot unite a community. You belong to a very important profession.

WALKER: Hm. And what should an "important professional" write about your response to General Smuts's new legislation?

GANDHI: I don't know... I'm still searching for a "response."

WALKER: You will respect the law.

GANDHI: There are unjust laws -- as there are unjust men.

GANDHI: It is foolish if it is just to save the life of an old man.

MIRABEHN: No... no. In every temple and mosque they have pledged to die before they lift a hand against each other.

GANDHI: I'm sure I'm fit for at least five hundred miles.

MIRABEHN: You should ride the pony. It is not necessary to walk to prove the point.

GANDHI: Do you find me stubborn?

MIRABEHN: I don't know... I know you are right. I don't know that this is right.

MIRABEHN: It has. But you'd be surprised. They understand -- they really do. It's not the workers you have to worry about.

GANDHI: Good. Ba will have to teach you to spin too.

MIRABEHN: I would rather march.

GANDHI: First spin. Let the others march for a time.

JINNAH: I will not sit by to see the mastery of the British replaced by the mastery of the Hindus!

GANDHI: Muslim and Hindu are the right and left eye of India. No one will be slave, no one master.

JINNAH: After what they did at the massacre -- it's only an eye for an eye.

GANDHI: An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. We must stop.

JINNAH: You mean a general strike?

GANDHI: 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.

GANDHI: 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.

JINNAH: I'll send my gardener. I'm sure you'll have much to discuss.

JINNAH: We hope you intend to join us in the struggle for Home Rule, Mr. Gandhi.

GANDHI: I --

PATEL: We need your help!

GANDHI: There is nothing I can give.

GANDHI: They are preparing for war. I will not support it, but I do not intend to take advantage of their danger.

PATEL: That's when you take advantage.

PATEL: It must have been the only Non-violent campaign ever led by a man who wanted to kill everybody every day.

GANDHI: Not true! The secret is mastering the urge.

GANDHI: I am beginning to know Mr. Nehru.

PATEL: Well, I've called you here because I've had a chance to see the new legislation. It's exactly what was rumored. Arrest without warrant. Automatic imprisonment for possession of materials considered seditious...

PATEL: I must say when I first saw you as a bumbling lawyer here in Bombay I never thought I'd be greeting you as a national hero.

GANDHI: I'm hardly that, Mr. Patel.

PATEL: Oh, yes, you are. It's been two hundred years since an Indian has cocked a snoot at the British Empire and got away with it. And stop calling me Mr. Patel, you're not a junior clerk anymore.

GANDHI: No.

GANDHI: Who is that young man?

PATEL: That's young Nehru. He's got his father's intellect, his mother's looks and the devil's charm. If they don't ruin him at Cambridge -- Wave! Wave! -- he may amount to something.

GANDHI: If we hold firm, it won't be the last.

KHAN: Don't worry -- I've never seen men so determined. You've given them a way to fight... And I don't think --

KHAN: I don't know who they've left out there to do the work. There can't be one mine left open. Have they touched the women?

GANDHI: My wife publicly defied the law. They've arrested her and four others.

KHAN: The fools! Sorry...

GANDHI: It's split the Government.

KHAN: Well, that's one victory.

GANDHI: They're sparing no one, I see.

KHAN: No. You were the surprise. It's been all over the prison. We thought they'd be too afraid of the English press.

GANDHI: So did I.

GANDHI: Well, then, it must be fought. We are children of God like everyone else.

KHAN: Allah be praised. And what battalions will you call upon?

GANDHI: I -- I will write to the press -- here -- and in England. And I will use the courts.

GANDHI: You mean you employ Mr. Baker as your attorney, but you can't walk down the street with him?

KHAN: I can. But I risk being kicked into the gutter by someone less "holy" than Mr. Baker.

GANDHI: In England, I was a poor student but I --

KHAN: That was England.

SMUTS: Assuming we are in agreement?

GANDHI: Yes -- yes. It's just that... in these clothes I'd -- I'd prefer to go by taxi.

SMUTS: All right. Fine.

GANDHI: I'm -- I'm afraid I have no money.

SMUTS: Oh! Neither have I. I'm awfully sorry.

SMUTS: You're an extraordinary man.

GANDHI: I assure you I feel a very ordinary man at this moment.

SMUTS: Good. Good. I have thought of calling for a Royal Commission to "investigate" the new legislation. I think I could guarantee they would recommend the Act be repealed.

GANDHI: I congratulate them.

SMUTS: I'm glad to hear you say that... very glad. You see if we repeal the Act under pressure under this kind of pressure it will create a great deal of resentment. Can you understand that?

GANDHI: Very well.

SMUTS: Hm. Of course it is not quite that simple.

GANDHI: Somehow I expected not.

SMUTS: Mr. Gandhi, I've more or less decided to ask the House to repeal the Act that you have taken such "exception" to.

GANDHI: Well, if you ask, General Smuts, I'm sure it will be done.

SMUTS: Perhaps some tea?

GANDHI: I dined at the prison.

SMUTS: Ahh.

SMUTS: Will you have a glass of sherry?

GANDHI: Thank you. No.

IRWIN: He's addressed this letter directly to you, has he?

SENIOR POLICE OFFICER: Yes, sir, he has. The usual -- India's salt belongs to India -- but then he says flatly that he personally is going to lead a raid tomorrow on the Dharasana Salt Works.

IRWIN: Thank him for his letter, and put him in jail.

SENIOR POLICE OFFICER: ...There's been no time to keep figures, but there must be ninety -- a hundred thousand under arrest. And it still goes on.

IRWIN: Who's leading them?

SENIOR POLICE OFFICER: I don't know! Nehru, Patel, almost every Congress Official is in jail... and their wives and their children -- we've even arrested Nehru's mother.

IRWIN: And that's the basis of this "Declaration of Independence"?

SENIOR POLICE OFFICER: Yes, sir. The day he sets off everyone is supposed to raise the flag of "Free India." Then he walks some two hundred and forty miles to the sea and makes salt.

PATEL: Could we cut all news off? I know --

NEHRU: Bapu -- please. Where are you going.

NEHRU: In Calcutta it's like civil war. The Muslims rose and there was a bloodbath, and now the Hindus are taking revenge -- and if we can't stop it there'll be no hope for the Hindus left in Pakistan.

PATEL: ...an eye for an eye making the whole world blind.

NEHRU: He was right. It's insane -- anything would have been better.

PATEL: Have you found him?

NEHRU: Bapu, for me, and the rest, if that is what you want, we will accept it. But out there already there is rioting because Hindus fear you are going to give too much away.

PATEL: If you did this, no one could control it. No one.

NEHRU: Have you read his magazine?

PATEL: No -- but I think I'm going to.

PATEL: Ah -- we should invite Gandhi. What the devil has happened to him anyway?

NEHRU: He's "discovering" India.