All language subtitles for BBC.Great.Indian.Railway.Journeys.Series.1.3of4.Mysuru.to.Chennai.720p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org.eng

I'm in India,

with a 1913 Bradshaw's Handbook To
Indian, Colonial And Foreign Travel.

Published at the height of
the British Raj,

my 100-year-old guidebook
will lead me on

a spectacular railway adventure

through a land of majestic mountains
and holy rivers,

where magnificent beasts roam

and epic stories are told.

I'll encounter maharajahs,
explore ornate palaces,

witness the technology of
modern India

and ride some of the most
exhilarating trains in the world.

I'll discover how imperial railways
and the English language

inadvertently spread ideas of
independence

among hundreds of millions
of Indians,

who today live in the largest
democracy in the world.

My Bradshaw's has lured me to
what it calls

"the region of India
that lies to the south

"of the Indo-Gangetic Plain,

"and includes the great
triangular peninsula

"that projects into
the Indian Ocean."

It was here that the British
involvement with India began,

based on trade and greed,

here that maharajahs, left in power
by the British,

governed most successfully,

and here that science and industry
that flourished 100 years ago

bred the information technology
revolution of modern India.

HORN HONKS

My journey takes me through the
states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu,

beginning in the palatial city of
Mysuru,

formerly known as Mysore.

I then travel to the hi-tech state
capital of Bengaluru,

previously Bangalore,

before journeying further east to
the mining region around Bangarapet.

My route will end where the story
began for the British in India -

then Madras, today Chennai.

On my travels, I try to keep up with
south India's tech revolution...

Your food is ready.

Please turn off your burner.

Thank you very much. I will.

Your food is ready... OK, OK!

..discover the lengths that
the workers go to

in India's silk industry...

How long may the yarn be, then,
from a single silkworm?

Each silkworm produces about
1,000 metres of silk.

1,000 metres?
1,000 metres of silk, yes.

That's absolutely extraordinary.

..and learn how the British managed
to colonise this nation

where other foreigners failed.

I think they schemed a lot better
than anyone else.

They understood the Indian psyche
exceedingly well,

and so they managed to get their
hands on what they wanted.

Bradshaw's comments that,
"Every native state acknowledges

"the supremacy of the
British government.

"Some are defined by treaty.

"The majority are bound to follow
British advice and to govern their

"subjects with justice."

At my first stop, Mysore,

I want to investigate the maharajahs
who handled the British

with canny diplomacy,

won the love of their subjects
by respecting their traditions

and culture, yet recognised
that western technology

could bring prosperity
to both monarch and people.

Mysuru was the regal capital of
the ancient kingdom of Mysore,

which, since 1973, has been known as
the state of Karnataka.

The anglicised names have changed,

but, strolling through the city
on a Sunday morning,

I encounter other British legacies.

Cricket is India's
most popular sport,

played in every park and open space
across the nation.

You play. I can play?

Yeah. Thank you very much.

You're welcome.
Don't bowl as fast as that, though.

Oh, thank you. Thank you very much.

THEY CHEER

It's been a long while
since I played

but, thanks to some
generous bowling,

I don't think I'm doing too badly.

THEY CHEER

Take it in!

Thank you very much, indeed!
You're welcome.

Thank you. Well played!

In this enchanting city of
spectacular monuments

and tranquil green spaces,
my Bradshaw's leads me to the best,

beginning with a very special visit.

The magnificent Mysore Palace.

Bradshaw's says, "The native state
of Mysore is one of

"the best governed
in the Indian Empire,

"being now in a highly
prosperous condition."

That would be a reference to
Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV.

Who better to tell me about him than
the present maharajah?

Which explains why, in the sultry
heat of this pre-monsoon period,

I've put on a jacket and tie to
enter the palace.

This Indo-Saracenic masterpiece
was built by British architect

Henry Irwin for the Wadiyar
family dynasty

who'd ruled Mysore for centuries.

At the time of my guide, the ruling
monarch was Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV,

revered by many for sowing the seeds
of prosperity in this region.

I'm meeting Yaduveer Wadiyar,
who became maharajah in 2015.

Your Highness. Pleasure to meet you.

Thank you so much for inviting me to
the palace.

It is our pleasure to have you here.

This is a stunning room
full of artefacts.

What do you call this room?
Well, it's called the Green Room,

basically because it was
my grandfather's study,

and he had the green desk,

and all of the furniture upholstery
as well coordinated with it,

and it was all green
so it's, sort of, a name that stuck.

And it's the monarch
Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV that

I particularly wanted to
talk to you about -

a most exceptional monarch.

He truly was.

He in many ways symbolised
the ideal ruler of the time.

He balanced the modernity of the
British, which they brought along,

as well as our ancient culture
and tradition.

Born in 1884, Krishna Raja Wadiyar
IV was taught by Indian and British

tutors, who educated him in both
Indian and western studies.

With British permission, he ruled
the princely state of Mysore

as an independent entity
from 1902 to 1940,

and is celebrated for his
progressive policies.

Give me an example of
his modernisation.

I think the best example of his
modernisation was in the fact that

he realised that electricity
and power generation

would be the unit which would power
his economy, and so he actively

looked to hydroelectric power plants
across Karnataka,

the first one being at
Shivanasamudra,

which powered the...gave electricity
to the gold mines in Kolar,

as well as to the streets of
Bangalore and to the palace here,

and eventually the whole state.

What were his notable
social policies?

The most notable to me is definitely
when he included women

into education
and made it compulsory.

It was brought about, I think,
by seeing his very strong mother,

who reigned as regent
when his father

passed away at a very young age.

Truly, in Mysore, that equality
was a sort of policy move,

social policy move from day one.

The women of Mysore State were
the first in India to be

allowed to vote in 1923.

Wadiyar IV established schools,
universities and hospitals,

and developed manufactories
of silk and soap

that continue to this day.

I believe that Mahatma Gandhi
referred to his reign

as some kind of ideal monarchy,
didn't he?

True. He called it the Rama Rajya,
which is, I suppose,

our utopia for the ideal kingdom.

He did come down to Mysore,

and he found it to be
extremely well-organised,

extremely well-run.

The melding of the tradition
and culture with the modernity was

so well done that he truly called it
what was the ideal for India.

This was a golden age for Mysore,

since Wadiyar IV was
an accomplished musician,

and a great patron of the arts.

I'm visiting the
Lalitha Mahal Palace.

With its dome inspired by
St Paul's Cathedral in London,

it was built by Wadiyar IV for
the visiting British Viceroy.

Here I'm being treated to
a performance of Carnatic music,

the distinctive classical genre of
the region.

MAN SINGS IN OWN LANGUAGE

Thank you so much.

HORNS HONK

The legacy of Krishna Wadiyar IV
is widespread,

and I've been told his
favourite treat was Mysore pak,

which I find in the city's
sweet shops.

Is that Mysore pak over there?
Yeah, sure.

And what's that made of, sir?

Yeah, it's made out of
gram flour and sugar with ghee.

Ghee? Ghee.
That's like clarified butter, yes?

Yeah, butter.
So, sugar and butter, basically.

Yeah, butter. Very slimming?

Erm... Maybe.

I think not! Now, look, I just want
a little piece to try. Yeah, yeah.

Is that all right? Is that OK?
Yeah, sure, sure.

OK, let me try this fantastic thing.
Sure.

In Britain we have a thing
called fudge,

which may be a bit like this.

Yes.

Mmm.

It is a bit like fudge, but it's
warm and it's very, very soft. Yeah.

It's really, really good.
Thank you so much.

Nice to meet you, sir.
I'm a bit sticky, I'm afraid.

Yeah, sir. Nice to meet you, sir.
Nice to meet you. Thank you.

HORN HONKS

These solid iron posts
are to prevent cows

from entering the market.

Devaraja Market is open from sunrise
till well beyond sunset

and sells fruits, flowers, food,

and some of the most colourful
powders that I've ever seen.

Beautiful.

Amazing colours.
Absolutely beautiful.

You mark your head with those.

Shall I put it on my head? Yes.

Fine, fine.

Is that... Is that right?
Is that right?

Thank you very much indeed.
Thank you.

Hello. Excuse me, sir.

This is a watermelon essential oil,
seed oil.

It's a very nice fragrance.

It's a wonderful fragrance.

Made from watermelon?

Yes, watermelon. Men or women?

For both.

Absolutely beautiful.
Thank you so much. Yes, sir.

Sir, I thought it was soap.

I thought it was soap.
No soap. This is sugar cane jaggery.

Sugar cane? Very sweet.

Mmm. It's incredibly sweet. Yeah.

Amazing. I was going to take it in
the bath with me.

No, no, no! Not a good idea!

Yes.

MAN SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

I've picked up sweet-smelling things
and an adornment for my hat.

My Bradshaw's refers to Mysore
as a great silk-producing province,

and today that remains
a thriving industry.

I'm visiting
the Chamundi Silk Factory,

located in an industrial area to
the north-west of the city.

They've been making this most
luxurious of fabrics here

for 70 years.

Mr Muthiah is the son of
the company's founder.

Good morning. Very good to see you.

Very nice meeting you. When does
silk production begin in India?

Erm...

The production started
in India because Tipu Sultan

was the leader of Mysore State.

He became interested because one of
the Chinese ambassadors brought him

a silk shawl as a gift,
and that created passion in him

that he should produce silk
here in his kingdom.

Tipu Sultan ruled from 1782
to 1799, after his father

had overthrown the Wadiyar king
in a coup.

Famed for his bravery
and brutality while fighting

the East India Company,
Tipu Sultan is also credited with

starting the silk industry
in Mysore.

Today, it produces around 10,000
tonnes of silk, making it one of the

largest producers in India.

How do we get silk from a silkworm?

Well, see, the silkworm produces the
silk from the saliva of the worm.

See, it twists round the cocoon,

and the saliva has got
the fibre inside,

and over that we have
a protein called gum,

so that gives the strength
for the yarn,

but we have to remove this to get
the lustre inside for the silk.

Well, someone has taken the cocoons
of the silkworms... Yes.

..and undone them to
make this thread.

That's right. You see, the cocoons
are put into hot water,

and the silk becomes soft,

and then they start reeling
the silk,

and that's how the silk yarn
is produced.

And how long may the yarn be, then,
from a single silkworm?

Silkworm... Each silkworm produces
about 1,000m of silk.

1,000m? 1,000m of silk, yes.

That's absolutely extraordinary.
Yes, and...

It's a very clever little creature,
isn't it, the silkworm?

Yeah, it's very good.
Very interesting.

The factory turns this silk
into a number of products.

Saris are hand-dyed using
an age-old technique.

It's fashionable to have two or
three blocks of colour

in the same piece of fabric.

Preventing the dyes from
bleeding into each other

requires a precise skill.

He's now going to clamp it,

so that the colour doesn't
penetrate the body.

That's what he does,
so it's very difficult.

So he's got to go and press it
and clamp it.

And the force of the clamp...
Yes, the force of the clamp...

..can stop the dye passing.

Yeah, it can stop the dye passing,
going up. Wow. It must.

The silk is soaked in the dye
for around 20 minutes,

and carefully tended to ensure
an even colour.

The dye is sealed with an acid wash,
and finally rinsed clean.

Well, with that deep, deep red
and that vivid yellow, that's going

to make a beautiful garment. That's
a beautiful garment, isn't it?

These saris are valued pieces
and sell for up to 30,000 rupees -

around £400.

Of course, not everything
is done by hand,

and one of the reasons that south
India has prospered so much was the

early adoption of machinery.

These looms are used to weave silk
fabrics for clothing

and furnishings.

Well, these are glorious colours.

How long have you been
in the silk business?

Well, I have been in the silk
business for the last 60 years now.

Where do you think the Indian silk
industry will be in 60 years' time?

The sari business is
slowly going down

because people are now changing to
western dress.

India is the biggest market,
but then, apart from it,

we are now shifting towards
furnishing fabrics

and then we are exporting it.

Most of it is exported.

And even silk fabrics, also,
are being exported to Italy.

So, saris are going down
and sofas are coming up?

Yeah, that's right. Yes, correct.

It's near the end of the day
and, before I retire for the night,

I'm retracing my steps
back to Mysore Palace.

Wadiyar IV electrified
Mysore Palace,

and now the illumination of
the exterior of the building on

Sunday evenings is one of the great
tourist events in southern India.

The palace was one of the first
buildings in the state

to have electricity, and since 1909
it's been illuminated at night

by around 100,000 light bulbs.

Very nice, very nice, very nice...

Paneer!

Cheese!

Cheese!

Cheese!

Nice!

Beautiful colours. You're all in
such beautiful colours. Excuse me.

Yes? Would you like to have
one photo, please? Yes.

CAMERAS CLICK

That's nice. Thank you very much.

Very nice. Thank you. Thank you.

India must be the selfie capital of
the world.

Really, everyone is just killing
time before the big moment.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Oh!

Oh, that was so exciting
and so spectacular.

Every detail of the palace lit up.

The wealth of the maharajahs
and the memory of Wadiyar IV,

commemorated in lights.

PEOPLE CHANTING

I've risen early to take part,
against my better judgment,

in an ancient practice whose origins
are here in India.

Inhale, upward dog.

Exhale, downward dog.

Mysuru has a reputation as one of
the best places in India for yoga.

Inhale, look front.

Jump forward.

The practice dates back 5,000 years
in India,

and began to spread to the west at
around the time of my guidebook.

And exhale, downward dog.

Inhale, upward dog.

And as you exhale, downward dog.

The introduction of yoga to the west
is often credited to a social

and religious reformer named
Swami Vivekananda,

who in 1893 travelled to
the World Fair in Chicago

and began the global spread of
Indian spiritual traditions.

Push your hips back.

That's you. Good.

Open your shoulders.

Three, look at your nail.

Good. Very good.

Great.
MICHAEL EXHALES

I'm leaving Mysuru to take a
three-hour train ride north-east

to the state capital of Karnataka,
Bengaluru,

a modern international phenomenon.

My next stop will be the city known
in Bradshaw's time as Bangalore.

"District headquarters,
British territory in Mysore.

"Highest summer temperature
89 degrees.

"Good English society and shops.
Race meeting in July.

"Fine botanical and zoological
gardens with floral hall."

The British who were posted here,

relieved to be in
moderate temperatures,

brought with them the indispensable
institutions of the Raj,

and built for themselves in India
a home from home,

except with many more servants.

Hello. Hi.

I see you have a T-shirt
that says Bangalore. Yeah.

But the modern name of the city is
Bengaluru. Bengaluru, yeah. Yeah.

Does it matter to you what
the name of the city is?

It kind of does because Bengaluru
is more traditional,

so I prefer that,

and I couldn't get Bengaluru
written on this, unfortunately.

Describe the city to me today.
What is it like?

Today, the city is known as
the Silicon Valley of India,

and the rise in start-ups have
just increased, like, exponentially

over the past ten years.

Even people like me are
getting into start-ups.

I feel like I'm in LA
or San Francisco.

HORN HONKS

Even from the first moment that you
arrive at the railway station,

Bengaluru is overwhelming.

It is big and it is busy

and, despite what Bradshaw's says,
it's hot!

Home to 12 million people,

Bengaluru is one of the
fastest-growing cities in the world.

Whilst the skyline is ever-changing,

some peaceful green spaces and
colonial-era buildings remain.

I'm on the hunt for some
much-needed refreshment.

Hello, guys.
Are the mangoes good here?

Yeah. Lovely. Lovely mangoes?

Just one mango, please. One, yeah.

Lovely. Thank you very much indeed.

These mangoes are incredibly juicy.

Really, you should, kind of,
eat them in the bath,

otherwise you'll get
covered in juice.

Mmm! That's lovely.

And they're very difficult to peel.

He had to cut either side of
the long, thin stone

but it's really worth it.

Fine?
They're really nice. Thank you.

Making my way around this city,

I'm struck by the contrast
between old and new.

This is the bold architecture of
India's new technology revolution.

In the new areas of Bengaluru,
in technology parts like this,

each morning, thousands of young
minds who make it happen

pour in on motorbikes and in buses.

This is the new India that would
have been inconceivable to the

most imaginative of
Bradshaw travellers.

Bengaluru is now a world leader in
IT, with many of the world's biggest

businesses based in the city's
numerous tech parks.

To find out about the origins of
this phenomenon,

I'm meeting Kiran Jonnalagadda,

who has been part of the Bengaluru
IT boom since the 1990s.

Kiran, why do you think, of all
places, Bengaluru becomes the place

where the technological revolution
in India happens?

I think it's a story that goes back
at least 100 years.

A lot of times people will tell you
the technology revolution started in

the '80s or the '90s.

I think it really goes back
much longer.

Bengaluru's current
technology economy

has been built on the foundation of
a previous industrial economy

that the Mysore kingdom, being
independent of the British Empire,

was able to establish industries,

create a base of people who were
reasonably better educated

than the rest of the country,
more secure in their lives,

had stable employment, had property,

lived in this neighbourhood,
and their children could in turn

go on and do something slightly
more risky.

The Indian government, I'm afraid,
is famously bureaucratic.

Yes. How is it the software
industry manages to

escape the clutches
of the bureaucracy?

I suspect, one, by being
a long distance from Delhi,

and, second, by operating
in an industry

that the bureaucrats
don't understand.

I mean, people sitting in
front of computers,

nobody knows what the
heck they are up to,

but they seem to be making money,
so let them do it.

And that's really how it built.

This educated middle-class workforce
has encouraged 40% of India's

IT industry to locate in Bengaluru,

and along with the
international IT giants

are countless local entrepreneurs
hot-desking in work spaces

across the city.

So, this here is
the start-up warehouse,

and this is the Innovation Lab.

It's a bunch of fairly early-stage
start-ups, literally one per table.

So, what's cooking today?
What's this invention about?

We are a connected cooking platform
company.

We can actually monitor what's
happening in cooking

and help the cook to cook better.

OK, now, I'm not much of a cook,

so can I try something simple to
begin with?

Yeah. Hi, there.

What are you cooking?

Boiled eggs.

Do you want it to be soft-boiled
or hard-boiled?

Soft-boiled.

Based on your input, it will take
approximately three minutes to

cook soft-boiled eggs.

I will remind you after
three minutes of cooking.

And for, say, a complicated recipe,
can it guide me through that?

Say, for example, you want to
cook some chicken dish,

you can ask, "How do I cook that?"

And then it'll start telling you
step-by-step.

So, it's a bit like driving a car -

instead of telling me to
turn left or turn right,

it tells me to add salt
or add sugar,

or turn it down or turn it up.

You've got it. Very good.

PHONE CHIMES

Your food is ready.
Please turn off your burner.

Thank you very much. I will.

Your food is ready.
Please turn off your burner. OK, OK.

I will, I will! Your food is ready.

OK, OK! Please turn off your burner.

I turned it the wrong way.

You can't eliminate human error.

In this one building alone,
there are over 100 start-ups.

Among them is a med-tech company,
which is developing a DIY heart scan

for patients who live
in remote villages

that will connect them directly
with a cardiologist.

At this moment, the device is
capturing the data,

displaying it, analysing it,

and also pushing it over the cloud
using the data network,

so any doctor in the city can
see the data, real-time.

Your heart rate has stabilised
to 70, right now.

71, 72 is a normal heart rate.

One successful app-based taxi
and delivery company

has even achieved unicorn status,

the term for a start-up which is
valued at over 1 billion.

When was the company founded?

Go-Jek was founded in 2011.

And how fast have you grown
since then?

So, January 2015 to August 2016
saw us growing by 900-fold.

900-fold?

900 fold.

That is extraordinary.
Is that some kind of record?

It does definitely put us
among the fastest-growing

companies in history.

I suppose these people could be
employed now anywhere on the globe -

that must impact on their salaries.

Yes, absolutely it does,

and from 2015 to 2016,
it went up 80% in one year.

So, what's the impact of all
this income being

poured out into Bengaluru?

So, we're seeing an explosion of
what used to be a very sleepy

retirement town into something
that's slowly growing into a true

metropolis, which would have been
unimaginable without

this kind of money
coming into the ecosystem.

And I plan to explore the impact of
that expanding metropolis tomorrow.

BIRDSONG

This morning,
I'm staying in Bengaluru,

but I'm travelling to the suburbs

on one of the city's
commuter trains.

HORN HONKS

Urban sprawl has engulfed
the surrounding

countryside and villages.

I'm on my way to what was
once a remote rural community,

16km from the city centre.

My next stop will be Whitefield,
which Bradshaw's tells me

is the station for
the Anglo-Indian colony.

At a time when society was generally
socially segregated

between the races, there were
nonetheless some people

with one Indian
and one British parent.

They were too dusky to be acceptable
in the British community,

and, being very likely Christian
and with an English accent,

they were equally rejected
in indigenous circles.

The discrimination was enough
to drive them into

their own Anglo-Indian colony.

The Whitefield colony was set up
in 1882 by David Starkenburgh White,

an Anglo-Indian who envisaged
a self-sustaining

agricultural community.

A development of English-style
houses was built around

a central green, designed to evoke
a typical English village.

GOAT BLEATS

But as modern-day developers
move in,

only one habitable bungalow from
Bradshaw's time remains.

It's been home for the last
30 years to Merlyn D'Souza,

who I'm meeting with her son, Paul.

Nice to meet you.
How very good to see you.

And, erm, well, thank you
for your hospitality. Yes.

Tell me about the house.

Well, we always longed for an old
house, but I told my husband,

when we settle down,
after he retires from the Army,

I said, "I'd like a nice old place."

What was Whitefield like
when you first came to it?

Very nice. Very peaceful.

Everyone knew everyone.

The architecture was this old,
traditional British architecture.

Most of the buildings had this...
A very...

A sort of sameness about them,
in a sense.

They all had high roofs.

They all had Burma teak,
which was used for the rafters,

tiled roofs...

Every house had its own garden,

its fruit trees and its little
vegetable garden at the back.

Then we had vendors who used to come
to the door.

We had a butcher, who'd come with
choice cuts of beef.

And the vegetables would
also come to the door.

Vegetables would come to the door.

There was a flower man who used to
come and sell flowers.

Were there are lots of older houses
still left when you got here?

All, all. There was not a...

Mike, there was not
a single apartment.

I have nothing good to say
about apartment blocks.

Many people have offered us
because they just view this land now

in so many square feet
is worth so much.

So, they say, "Name your price.
You know, you will be a rich lady."

I say,
"Thank you. I am rich already.

"If I give this up,
I'll have nothing.

"I'll be like everyone else."

That's why I feel that
we should make it available

for anyone who wants to look around,

because they'll never see
anything like this,

and very soon this also
will be gone.

The 19th-century bungalows of
Whitefield have all but vanished,

but Anglo-Indian culture
has left an enduring legacy.

I'm going to the Taj Hotel,

built in 1887
and mentioned in my Bradshaw's,

to meet chef Sandip Narang to
investigate the culinary heritage

of the Anglo-Indians.

Chef, good evening.
Hi. Good evening.

I'm Michael. Hello, Michael.
What an honour to meet you.

Thank you. What an extraordinary
display of food.

This is all Anglo-Indian, is it?

That's correct. These are the
signature Anglo-Indian dishes

from the kitchens of this hotel.

I bet I recognise this one,
because it's the most famous

Anglo-Indian dish, mulligatawny.
Mulligatawny. That's correct.

And mulligatawny is made of what?

It's basically lentils and apples
and coconut cream.

One of the spices is the
curry powder... Yes.

..which is a mixture of
coriander, cumin, etc.

That is delicious.
Now, these look like croquettes.

Is that right? That's correct.

Also known as beef chops.

Now, beef in a Hindu country...

It's not cow - it's buffalo.

This is called the devil's sauce,
which was... Devil?

So, the croquette was the Anglo bit

and the devil's sauce
was the Indian bit

because Indians found it tough to
eat it just like that

without the spicy sauce.

Mmm!

You devil,
that is a lovely spicy sauce.

Do you think most of these dishes
were invented by people who had

an Indian and a British parent,

or by British people who lived here
for a long time, or what?

They were mainly done by
Indian cooks who learned how to make

British recipes, and then, since
they couldn't eat the British food

because of its blandness,
they have spiked it up a little bit.

The Brits also started appreciating
that food,

so, strictly speaking, it is one
step lower in spice levels

compared to the regular Indian food

and slightly spicier
than British food.

This is a very famous curry known as
the Railway Mutton Curry.

So, rail travel at the turn of
the 19th century was a luxury,

so this was made by the Indian cooks
for their British masters

at the time.

And is it really mutton these days
or is it still lamb?

It's in fact goat.

It's in fact goat!

MICHAEL CHUCKLES

Choo-choo! That's very good.

After all that,
I think it's time for pudding.

The bread-and-butter pudding
spiked up a little bit.

Mmm! That is brilliant.

That is the definition of
Anglo-Indian, isn't it?

Because it is a completely
recognisable British pudding

and suddenly it has that
spicy edge to it.

Yes, sir. Thank you, Chef.

Today, I'm moving on from Bengaluru
and making my way back to the rails.

My travels here in the southern
state of Karnataka

continue due east to the
city of Bangarapet,

where riches were once in abundance.

From there, I'll make my final
journey into state of Tamil Nadu

to the port city of Chennai.

I will finish where
British India began.

HORN HONKS

Morning. Good morning.

My Bradshaw's tells me that the
first important station

on this branch is Bowringpet,
now known as Bangarapet,

the junction for the lucrative
gold mines.

They produced in their time
about 950 tonnes of gold,

which doesn't sound an awful lot,

but, actually, I calculate
it would be worth today

about 60 billion US dollars.

Bye. Bye. Thank you.

Gold is important to Indians,

and they are amongst
its biggest buyers,

but, today, the country
produces very little

and relies instead on importing
800 tonnes per year.

At the time of my guidebook,
however, India had important mines

here at the Kolar Gold Fields,
known as KGF.

I'm meeting historian
Gayatri Chandrashekar,

whose husband worked at the mines,
which closed in 2001.

Gayatri, an impressive piece of
heritage here,

this massive winding gear.

When did mining start here?

Modern mining actually
started in 1880.

That was when this company called
John Taylor and Sons established the

first mine at the Mysore mines.

From a single mine,
it became a multi-mine, multilevel,

big industrial operation.

Now, who was the client for this
gold? Where was it being sent to?

They sent it to England,

and they were getting
the gold standard price -

that is something like
3 pounds and 17 shillings per ounce.

Was the production
very significant here?

What was significant in KGF was
they were technological leaders.

From 1911 to 1956,

they were the deepest mines
in the world.

How deep did they go?

First it was something like
3,000-odd feet.

Then, by the 1950s, they had gone
as deep as 8,000 feet.

Extraordinary. We're talking about
a mile and a half.

Yes, actually 3.2km down.

Bringing the ore up from such depths
was a Herculean task,

especially as it needs to be mined
in vast quantities.

Extracting just 10g of gold
from one tonne of material was

considered a very good yield.

What an enormous room.

Isn't it?

This is a brilliant shaft,

and this at one point of time
was the deepest shaft in the world.

That was in 1954.

And here is the winder on which
beautifully well-oiled wire ropes,

miles and miles of them, were bound,
and these wire ropes used to go up

through a system of pulleys

and take the people and material
in a huge cage

which can carry 15 men.

How was this place powered?

Electric power came
as early as 1902.

KGF was the first industrial
undertaking in the whole of Asia,

not just India,
to get electric power,

even before it came to big cities
like Delhi, Bombay,

Calcutta or Chennai
or even Bangalore.

The early adoption of electricity
was possible thanks to Mysore's

forward-thinking ruler, Wadiyar IV,

who commissioned one of Asia's first
hydroelectric dams

at Shivanasamudra Falls in 1889.

Located over 140km
from the gold mine,

the challenge of generating and
transporting the electricity

was given to General Electric
of America,

who imported machinery from
the United States and Britain.

They brought all this machinery,
landed them in Goa,

and then brought them by
600 elephants to Shivanasamudra,

where the electric power station
was built,

and from Shivanasamudra,
they brought the transmission lines

all the way to KGF,

and GE said, "We have never
drawn this length of power line

"anywhere in the world,
and therefore it is at your risk

"you are building this.

"We give no guarantee that power
would actually flow."

Sensationally, power did flow
along the 140km of cables.

The electrified mines were
modern and efficient,

and put India on the map
as a leading producer of gold.

The company built houses, hospitals,
churches and shops for its workers.

The miners were mostly Tamils from
the surrounding area,

middle managers were
generally Anglo-Indians

and the bosses were Europeans.

This clubhouse was built for the
two upper echelons to relax

and to socialise.

What is the attitude of
Indian people to gold today?

Oh, they just love it.

No matter what religion
they belong to,

they trust in gold as
a store of value.

They trust in its appreciation,

that gold can never
go down in value,

and gold can easily be converted
into hard cash,

and gold has a certain
spiritual aura in India.

They almost worship
the gold they have.

It's a very, very auspicious thing.

The next five-hour leg of
my journey will be in

an air-conditioned, superfast,
double-decker express.

This modern service was
inaugurated in 2013,

and links the cities of
Bengaluru and Chennai,

but the line on which the trains run
was built in 1864,

and unusually it connected
a princely state, Mysore,

with a British presidency, Madras.

This railway was a sign of
their special relationship,

and provided transport links
for all that gold.

As evening falls, my train
approaches Chennai,

which used to be known as Madras.

Bradshaw's tells me, "It's the
oldest British possession in India,

"and so has set the pace in
education and public works.

"The province is one of
the best administered in India.

"It has the largest proportion
of English-speaking

"and university-educated
inhabitants."

In 1639, Madras became
the first Indian property

of the London-based
East India company,

a bunch of adventurers who sailed
here under the flag of trade,

hoping to export into British hands
some of the vast wealth

of the subcontinent.

It's been a long journey,

so I'll be exploring this most
historic city in the morning.

On my final day, I awake in Chennai.

It's the commercial and cultural
capital of south India

and home to over 10 million people.

HORN HONKS

"Madras," says my Bradshaw's,

"was formerly known as
Fort St George

"and formed the nucleus of
British India.

"The Black Town, renamed George Town
in commemoration of the visit of

"the Prince and Princess of Wales in
1906, is the chief business quarter.

"A drive through will well repay."

The great epic history of
the British Raj,

with all its ups and downs, and all
its pros and cons, began here.

The strip of land purchased
by the British in 1639

amounted to just a few square miles.

Today, Chennai spreads massively
along the coast.

Because of its important
automobile industry,

it was dubbed the Detroit of Asia.

ENGINES RUMBLE

MICHAEL LAUGHS

I'm keen to find out about
India's most famous motorbike.

Hi, I'm Michael. Hi, Walter.

Walter, good to see you, sir.
What wonderful, wonderful bikes.

So, these are Royal Enfields.
Royal Enfields.

And why is this such a special bike
in India?

Ah, it's more of it
because of its history,

and more of it to do with the Indian
army used to ride it,

and then it was with the police
also all over India,

and that's when the whole legendary
thing started off,

back from the '50s,

and then it carried on
over the years.

And it has, doesn't it,
a particular noise to it?

Yes. Oh, yeah. It's compared to
the heartbeat, is what people say.

It's like our hearts and our bikes'
engines synchronise as one.

The Bullet is the iconic model.

Yes, the iconic model.

It started way back in the '50s,
and ran the production line

all the way to right now.

Established in the 1890s,

Royal Enfield is one of the oldest
motorcycle companies in existence.

British operations ceased in 1978,
but the Indian subsidiary in Chennai

is going strong and still
manufactures the iconic Bullet.

So, every engine has this thing that
you've got to decomp it first.

Yeah. So that's your decomper.

You kick it in slowly,
and soothe it in,

and then after you have a thump...

ENGINE RUMBLES
..and this is how you start
the motorcycle.

I can't hear it.
ENGINE RUMBLES LOUDER

I can't hear it!

ENGINE ROARS

Still can't hear it?!

That's good.

Any chance of a ride?
Oh, yeah, sure.

Wahey! Off we go.

ENGINE RUMBLES,
HORN HONKS

Oh, I'm hearing that roar now.

ENGINE ROARS

HORN HONKS

In post-independence India,

Royal Enfields were ridden
by the military,

the police and heads of villages.

They came to symbolise prestige,

and today they retain
an enduring cool.

ENGINES RUMBLE

When the British ruled in India,

they aimed to create
a home from home,

and brought with them a favourite
institution, the gentlemen's club.

The Madras Club was founded in
1832 as a men-only, white-only

establishment for civil servants
and officers.

Today, it is open to Indian
and female members.

I'm meeting historian
Sriram Venkatakrishnan

to learn about the East India
Company's beginnings in India.

Nice to meet you. Good to see you.

Sriram, what did the East India
Company do here in 1639?

Very little.

In fact, when they came here,
they were pretty unsure about

what is it that they
were going to do.

All that they knew was this was
a location where there was

cloth to be had.

This was a centre for weaving
and sourcing textiles for export.

Was Madras a spectacular
natural harbour?

It wasn't. The closest that any ship
could come was two miles in the sea,

and then a set of rafts rowing over,

and every English man and woman
off-loaded onto the backs of these

oarsmen, who were wearing nothing
other than a loincloth,

and then get onto that raft,
and then being rowed ashore.

It was said that, you know, if you
survived the six-month journey,

it was still hazardous to
travel the last two miles

between where the ship stopped
and to Madras,

so, you know, anything could happen
even then.

So, you imagine struggling
all the way for six months

and then dying at the last bit.
THEY LAUGH

But, even so, thousands of tonnes of
freight must have travelled

by that route. Absolutely.

And what is very interesting is that
in 1856 when the first railway

engines came, each one
weighing 13 tonnes

and being off-loaded from a ship
by using a mechanical crane

onto these rafts,
and then getting the raftsmen

to bring the engines onto shore,
and there was a public holiday to

watch the way the engines were being
off-loaded and brought onto shore.

Now, that is spectacular.

So, from such modest starts, then,

how can one explain that
the East India Company becomes

a private organisation that
virtually runs a country... Mm-hmm.

..that deposes rulers, that has
an enormous army and a navy?

How can one account for this?

You have to thank
the French for that.

The French taught the English that,
apart from trade,

you could also get onto managing
kingdoms on behalf of rulers

and things and people like that,

and, at that time,
we had a singularly inept

set of rulers over here,

and all our rulers had 300 wives,
450 concubines

so every one of them had
two children,

so, by the time the ruler died,

there were 900 claimants
to the throne

and so they were easy pickings.

The French could back one,
the British could back the other,

and that's how the whole thing
started.

And from then on came
Dalhousie's doctrine of lapse,

which said that if
a king dies intestate,

and if he doesn't have an heir,

the kingdom goes to the
East India Company.

The kingdom goes to
the East India Company?

I have never understood
the logic of this,

but it did happen.

Quite amazing.

Trading in commodities such as
cotton, silk, dye, salt,

tea and opium, the East India
Company's business grew

to account for half of
the world's trade,

and rewarded handsomely the wealthy
merchants and aristocrats

who were its shareholders.

Its dominance came to
an end in 1858,

when the British Crown
assumed direct control of India

in the new British Raj.

The East India Company
has been said to surpass

the most rapacious of
modern multinationals.

How do you look back on it?

I would agree with that statement.

It was an exceedingly
exploitative system

that somehow gave a few benefits in
the process of being exploited -

that's how I would classify it.

The Portuguese had been here, the
Dutch, the French and the British.

Why did the British succeed
where the others had not?

One, they were more tenacious.

Secondly, I think they schemed
a lot better than anyone else.

They understood the Indian psyche
exceedingly well,

and so they managed to get their
hands on what they wanted.

Thirdly, they did not interfere
with the local practices

and the religion.

They were here for commerce,

and the way they schemed and the way
they organised themselves,

they had the right man
at every moment,

till somewhere in 1920 or so,

when you find that
we had the right man, Gandhi,

and then things moved in
a different direction.

My rail journey across the south has
shown me a modern India.

British-built railways and the
English language itself

helped to unify this
vast, multicultural,

multilingual subcontinent,
but, from the start of the

East India Company here in Madras,
Britain's interest was to export

India's wealth and to import
British machinery.

The seeds of the new hi-tech India
were sown not by the colonial Raj

but by a forward-looking
Maharajah of Mysore.

Hello.

Next time, I'll learn about
19th-century drug dealing...

The amount of opium almost
made it impossible

for people to not be addicts.

..explore an enormous
locomotive factory...

You could run a perfectly decent
horse race in here.

..discover how British cotton
led to conflict...

They were flooding the market,

and making us lose the handloom
industry.

..and get a lesson in meditation.

Focus all your mind on the tip of
your nose.