All language subtitles for BBC.Great.Indian.Railway.Journeys.Series.1.4of4.Lucknow.to.Kolkata.720p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org.eng

I am 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.

The extensive empire,
says Bradshaw's,

25 times the size of England
and Wales,

situated between the mountains
of Afghanistan,

Kashmir and Tibet to the north, the
Bay of Bengal and Siam to the east,

the Indian Ocean on the south,
and the Arabian Sea and Persia
on the west.

Extraordinarily, this vast area,
with its tens of millions of people,

was governed by a private enterprise

which also ran an opium monopoly,

the East India Company, until
the bloodthirsty Indian Rebellion
of 1857.

Then, at last, the British
Government grew exasperated
with the greed

and mismanagement of the company,
and absorbed India into the British
Empire.

My journey will take me past
the poppy fields,

along the Ganges River,

towards the seeds of independence
in Bengal.

I begin in the state of Uttar
Pradesh at its historical capital
Lucknow,

famously besieged during the
rebellion against British rule.

From there, I will head east
to Ghazipur,

once the centre of the opium
industry, and through the flat,

fertile state of Bihar, to the great
Buddhist temple at Bodh Gaya.

I'll cross into West Bengal,

and gain traction in a railway plant
in Chittaranjan,

before finishing in Kolkata,
former seat of the British Raj.

Along the way, 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 markets
and making us lose our hand loom
industry...

..and get a lesson in meditation.

Focus all your mind...

..on the tip of your nose.

My first stop will be Lucknow which
Bradshaw's tells me is the old
capital of Awadh,

a picturesque collection of domes,
pillars and spires.

Here, a succession of nawabs
and kings reigned from 1716 until
the deposition of the last king

in 1856, followed by the
Sepoy Revolt.

A monarch deposed by a private
company!

Little wonder that bloodshed
followed.

Bradshaw travellers would have heard
of Lucknow,

scene of exceptional British
military valour.

But whether they understood the
causes and the consequences of the

rebellion is more doubtful.

Lucknow is known to have one of
India's loveliest stations

built just after my Bradshaw's
Guide.

This is the capital
of Uttar Pradesh.

The city's impressive monuments
are unmistakably Islamic,

dating back to the Mughal rule of
the nawabs and is now the centre of

India's Shia Muslim community.

Wide boulevards and manicured
gardens sit alongside teeming narrow

backstreets.

The bazaar is one of the oldest
and most popular places to shop.

The colours in India are beautiful.

Overwhelming,
particularly in the markets.

The clothes, the shoes, the fruit,
the spices,

it makes me feel really understated
in my attire.

This city is famous for its cuisine,
and kebabs are a speciality.

Hello.

Oh, it's hot.

Can I try it, please?

The story goes that an old nawab
who'd lost his teeth,

set a competition to see who could
make the softest kebabs,

and it was made by a man who had
one hand,

and one-handed in the local language
is tunday.

So a man who had lost a hand made
a kebab for a man who'd lost his
teeth.

Thank you very much.

Served on a leaf.

Wow.

Mm, it's good.

Thank you.

Spicy, too. Very spicy.

Today, Lucknow is a peaceful city
of around three million people.

Hello. But in 1857, a full-scale
uprising spread across
northern India.

These streets fell into the hands
of rebel sepoys,

Indian troops recruited by the East
India Company,

angry at religious insensitivity
displayed by British officers.

The city's residency was
the headquarters of the British
Commissioner for

the territory, Sir Henry Lawrence,

and became the site of a bloody
five-month siege.

The noble defence of Lucknow,
says Bradshaw's,

is one of the most glorious
episodes.

The Lucknow residency will always
remain a sacred memorial of English

valour and self-sacrifice.

These ruined walls speak of the
horrors endured by and the heroism

displayed by the British.

It's as though the whiff of gun
smoke was still in the air and,

not mentioned by Bradshaw, the
stench of British atrocities too.

In the preserved ruins
of the residency,

I have arranged to meet history
professor Saleem Kidwai.

Professor, why is there a rebellion
in the kingdom of Awadh in 1857?

Um, because there was a rebellion
all over north India.

Sepoys had already mutinied in
Meerut, they had taken Delhi.

In Awadh, there was particularly
good reason because Awadh had a very

harsh history at the hands of
the East India Company.

When the kingdom was annexed in
1856, without any legitimate cause,

they decided to remove the king in
conditions that were extremely

humiliating. The city's pride
was hurt.

And it led to violence.

It led to violence.

When this famous siege of Lucknow
begins, who is in the residency?

It is the British residents
of Lucknow.

It's people from close by who've
come here for refuge or safety.

Their sons, loyal Indian soldiers,
there are schoolboys
and missionaries,

and of course their families.

And what sort of defence can they
mount from these buildings?

It was all makeshift defence because
this wasn't meant to be a defensive

structure. What was it like in here
on a daily basis during those five

months? It was constant
bombardment, constant skirmishes.

There was no full-scale assault.

The rebels weren't prepared for it,
they did not have a commander,

they did not have a plan.

What they did was to constantly fire
from every direction into the

residency. And the signs of this are
on the walls all around us.

Absolutely, yes.

Three months into the siege,

the first attempt by British forces
under General Sir Henry Havelock

to free their fellow countrymen
inside, failed.

The siege continued for another two
months before a much larger force

under Sir Colin Campbell managed
to evacuate the survivors.

This was an action of great heroism.

And was recognised as such by the
awarding of Victoria Crosses,

the record for the largest number of
Victoria Crosses, 18 in one day,

28 in one action, um,

just shows you how seriously the
British Government took the defence

of the siege of Lucknow and how
heroic they considered it.

What were the casualties?
Large, unfortunately very large.

Of the 3,000 people in here,
900 men, women,

children and schoolboys survived.

And many of them were in very poor
shape.

With survivors rescued
from the residency,

the British left Lucknow
in rebel hands.

But Campbell and his forces returned
in March 1858 to take back the city

and to punish the rebels.

When the British retook Lucknow,
what are the consequences for
the city?

Horrendous. Um, the British
were outraged.

There were extremely exaggerated
stories about the rape
and molestation of British women.

So, the British tied rebels to
cannons and blew them up.

They identified as many as they
could find, and hung them publicly.

They identified not just the rebels
but anyone who had helped
the rebels,

confiscated their lands, they
mistreated places of religion.

So, at all levels,
there was vengeance.

What were the consequences for
India, of the rebellion of 1857?

India became a full-scale colony.

1857 clearly showed that the Indian
possessions were too valuable to be

left to the East India Company,

to the misrule of the board of
directors who were not controlled by
politicians.

So Queen Victoria had to step in.

Vestiges of the rich culture and
traditions of this part of India

are in evidence all around me.

The ornate Qaisar Bagh Palace
was built in 1850 by Wajid Ali Shah,

the last nawab of Awadh.

A much-loved ruler, he was a poet
and a great patron of the arts.

I'd like to know more about
the cultural legacy of these royal
nawabs

whose deposition caused such
a furore.

In the palace grounds at the
prestigious Bhatkhande Music
Institute,

they teach an ancient form of dance
that was popular at royal occasions.

Hello, Dr Khare.

Dr Ruchi Khare is an assistant
professor here.

Dr Khare, what is the dance that you
perform and teach here?

I perform kathak dance.

Kathak dance is a very popular
classical dance style of northern
India.

Kathak is all about storytelling.

What is the connection between
kathak and the royal nawabs?

The nawabs of the 19th century
were very culture-loving people.

They sat on the throne of Lucknow.

They promoted this art in
their regime,

and they invited all the talented
kathak artists from nearby towns and

places, and they kept them in their
court.

Did the nawabs participate
in the dance?

Yes. Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, he was
himself a kathak artist.

He had trained under a dancer
in this court.

Was kathak for the aristocracy,
or was it a popular thing?

It started from the elite because
the king himself promoted it.

But then, since it was very,
very entertaining,

it became very popular
among the masses.

And the people you teach now,
the students,

will they go on to be kathak
performers?

They want to pursue it as a career.

There are different avenues.

It can be teaching choreography,
stage performer,

but the important thing is that they
are very passionate about dancing.

I am not known for my sense of
rhythm but Dr Khare has bravely
offered to teach me a few steps.

This side, this side.
This side.

Turn from the side.
Ah, this side.

I could see why professionals
train for years.

I am bidding farewell to Lucknow
and continuing my journey east
to Ghazipur.

PA: For the kind information of
passengers, train number...

Bradshaw's says that night
travelling saves time,

and is to be recommended especially
during the summer months.

With the mercury bursting
the thermometer,

I'm guessing that sleeper travel
is the better option.

In truth, most people on these
sleepers go to bed in their day
clothes,

but I believe in maintaining
standards.

Good evening.
Good evening. Do you speak English?

Yes. I'm going to Ghazipur.

Where are you going?
I'm going to Varanasi.

Varanasi, famous city on the Ganges.

Very lovely. Well, I've got the top
bunk, I hope I don't disturb you.

Have a nice sleep.
Thank you. Goodnight to you.

Ever helpfully, my Bradshaw's tells
me first and second class passengers

will not be disturbed for tickets
at night.

Small packages and valuables should
be carefully disposed of at night
out of reach of an open window.

Bradshaw's is my one valuable item,

that can go under my pillow
and no-one will find it.

The train swayed quite a lot so I
was not so much rocked to sleep as

shaken awake. But it was
air-conditioned and I do start
a bright new day

where I want to be.

As I slept, we travelled around 200
miles across the plains of

Uttar Pradesh to the state's far
eastern border.

My next stop will be Ghazipur which
the guidebook tells me lies in a

picturesque tract in the valley
of the Ganges.

Opium, sugar, indigo and tobacco
are raised.

In that little word, opium, casually
tossed into the sentence,

lies unimaginable wealth,

indescribable human degradation,
and not one,

but two wars between Britain
and China.

When you first arrive in Ghazipur,

there really is only one place
to head.

First glimpse of the famous Ganges
River, as Bradshaw's says,

the sacred Ganga, 1,500 miles long,

which rises in two heads on the
south side of the Himalayas.

I am moved to see it so tranquil
and majestic.

And by the fact that, for Hindus,
it is a goddess,

the embodiment of all holy waters.

And all along its banks,

the devout enter the river to cup
the deified liquid in their hands,

and to give thanks to their
ancestors and to the gods.

But this river also played an
essential role in a business
that was anything but holy.

Hi. How lovely to see you.

Utacha Chatterpajaya is an expert
on the opium trade.

How does it come to be that
opium production becomes so prolific

along the banks of the Ganges?

You need the heat for the opium
to dry,

and soil fertility along the banks
of the Ganges is great for growing
opium.

How does the opium trade from
India to China get going under the

East India Company? Opium was being
farmed in India before the British
get here, under the Mughal state.

But, at that time, it's a smaller
amount of produce.

But what the East India Company
really does is concentrate
the market.

They join all the dots
along the river,

get people to grow opium
next to each other,

and they connect the production side
of the market all the way to private

traders who are buying opium in
the docks in Calcutta,

who then go on to sell it in
ports in China.

It's the application of the
Industrial Revolution or of
capitalism,

to opium, really. It's exactly what
it is, yes.

And so the opium left the fields
around here,

left the factories around here,

and the Ganges River was the conduit
by which the opium left for China.

The Ganges is exactly the reason why
the East India Company is able to

connect all the little markets
along the way.

And they really became very wealthy
on this, didn't they?

Absolutely. The opium trade expands
through the 19th century into the

early 20th, and in terms of revenue,

if you add all the opium markets
that were existent in India,

that's about 17% of the total money
being made in India at the time.

What do you think was the impact
on the Chinese people of all
this opium?

Politically, I think it was a huge
problem for the Chinese.

Addiction was badly affecting
workers.

The amount of opium that was pumped
into China almost made it impossible

for people to not be addicts.

China tried to exclude opium,

but Britain was willing to go to war
to keep open its lucrative trade.

Why did Britain and China fight two
so-called Opium Wars?

For the control in the Chinese
market.

China was producing goods which
the British wanted to buy.

Primarily tea. Opium became one way
of crashing into the Chinese
economy.

They used gunboats in Hong Kong
to humiliate the Chinese army
in the first

Opium War, and then the second.

And the treaties that were signed
following the ceasefires almost gave

the British complete control
on ports in the interior trade
in China.

So, the trade was that British
people drank tea out of porcelain,

while the Chinese smoked opium.

Absolutely, yes, I wouldn't have
said it better.

Just a few minutes walk from
the Ganges in Ghazipur,

this opium factory was opened by
the East India Company in 1820.

Dry opium was brought here from
the surrounding fields,

and to another factory in Patna
about 100 miles east.

It was turned into cakes, and packed
into crates,

to be transported upriver.

Following pressure from a Quaker led
movement in Britain, in 1906,

Parliament declared the trade
morally indefensible,

and around ten years later,
it ended.

From then, opium was processed only
for medicinal and scientific
purposes.

Today, the opium and alkaloid works
covering 43 acres,

is a vast enterprise employing 900
people.

Hi. What a pleasure to meet you.

You are welcome to Ghazipur factory,
opium factory.

Mr K Valson is the works manager.

It feels like we're surrounded
by historic buildings.

These are the components of an opium
factory, are they?

Yeah. You can see we have a very
nice water tank.

This was built in 1906.

And then the one that you see on
this side is the well.

Still if you go near it, you'll find
a lot of water gushing in.

It is basically Ganga water.

From the Ganges. From the Ganges.

We need water for the process,
for cleaning, washing, mixing,

modulating. Now, I saw on your sign,
Government opium factory.

So, it's owned by the Government,
is it? Opium is a restricted item.

Only the Government of India,
through our Ministry of Finance,

can operate.

It can buy, it can sell, it can
manufacture, it can import,
it can export.

When I arrived, I came through very
solid gates, there were armed
guards.

Yes. You have to be very careful
of this stuff.

It would have a huge value on
the illicit market.

Yes, very valuable.

We ensure that nothing goes out
of this place.

Now, I don't think you're going to
let me inside the manufacturing

process. Obviously not, for security
reasons,

I'm not permitted to allow you to go
inside.

But tell me what goes on in there.

Earlier, it was fully manual,
but it is highly mechanised now.

We have legally licensed farmers.

They will cultivate opium.
They hand it over to us.

We seal it in the presence of
representatives, and we bring
it here.

We wash it with water, we dry it,

then concentrate it for the
manufacturing of opium alkaloids.

And what is the opium used for these
days?

Basically, we prepare only codeine
phosphate which is used as a cough

syrup. In 1943, they started
an alkaloid plant also.

They are manufacturing now morphine,
codeine is there.

So, you're making an important
contribution to modern medicine
here.

Yes, obviously, because there is no
alternate to this.

An alternative, even if it is there,
it is very highly costly also.

I didn't think I'd be saying this,
but congratulations to you, sir,

on managing an opium factory.
Yeah, thank you, sir.

Today, I am picking up my journey
at Mughal Sarai Junction

but there's a snag.

One of the hazards of travelling by
train in India, let it be said,

is that they do run late, and I mean
very late.

The column on the right-hand side
shows you the delays that are

anticipated. There's one delayed
by six hours and 30 minutes.

And by the way, these tend to be
optimistic estimates.

I mean, it is perfectly
understandable.

The trains wend thousands of
kilometres across the subcontinent.

But it does make planning
very difficult.

At least there are useful ways
to pass the time while you wait.

The competition between open-air
barbers is fierce.

It's a cut-throat business!

In my experience, mobile phone
coverage in India is pretty good,

and Wi-Fi is readily available.

And here at stations they have
sockets so that you can charge up
your equipment.

Plug in with a round
two-pin adapter,

connect, switch on...

PING!

Ah, the ping.

With my train showing no signs
of arriving,

I'll seek out some extra reading
material.

AH Wheeler, book stall
and newsagent,

a feature of most Indian railway
stations, founded in 1877.

In the 1880s,

a young Rudyard Kipling who needed
to pay his passage back to England

approached Wheeler's proposing that
they publish cheap throwaway reading

material for railway passengers.

Published as the Indian Railway
Library,

it featured Kipling's short stories.

It made him his money, and more
importantly, it made his name.

A beautiful display of books
and magazines.

Hello, sir.

What's that thing there?

The Indian Railway Timetable.

The Indian timetable. Wow.

How much is that? 60 rupees.

60 rupees, I'll take that.

Thank you.

That's very kind of you, thank
you, have a good day.

Beautifully illustrated.

The Indian Railway Timetable.

Like a Kipling short story, it
should be taken with a pinch of
salt!

Finally, four hours after it was
due, my train arrives.

This is the Grand Chord line,

This is the Grand Chord line,

one of two parts of the main Delhi
to Kolkata route.

Trains on the first line opened by
the East Indian Railway in 1866,

stopped more frequently, in order
to maximise revenue.

As that line became busier,
a faster route was needed,

and this one cut the journey
by 50 miles.

Rama Rao Annavarapu worked on the
Grand Chord line for 34 years.

Rama Rao, I'm Michael.
Oh, nice meeting you.

How do you do?

My Bradshaw's tells me that the
Grand Chord line was constructed in

1907. Why was it so important to
construct a more direct line between

Kolkata and Delhi? As the traffic
went up,

they found it was becoming more and
more expensive to pass this traffic

over the longer route.

And, more importantly,
they discovered coal.

And all this coal had to be
transported to Delhi.

So, the stimulus for the Grand Chord
line was actually freight rather
than passenger. Very, very much.

Freight was given much more
importance in the Grand Chord.

It's only later that we started
running more and more passenger
trains.

Were you from a railway family?

My father, he was station master.

And how did you find your career
in the railways?

Wonderful. Yes.

I would say. The work is very
satisfying.

I was in operations, and operations
always give you challenges.

And living conditions are good.
We have lived in various places.

I had occasion to see the whole
country,

even my children have grown up
and seen down my seen so many
places.

And you railway men and women,
are you a family, a brotherhood?

I don't think there's any
brotherhood that is closer than
the railways.

Really? Yes.
We find wherever you are,

the railway men always come
to your help.

My next stop will be Bodh Gaya.

The book tells me the town is
celebrated as the cradle of Buddhism

of which religion the great temple
at Bodh Gaya,

of which religion the great temple
at Bodh Gaya,

seven miles from the railway
station, is now one of the chief
remnants.

By the side of the Mahabodhi,
grew the Bodhi tree under
which Gautama,

Prince Siddhartha attained the title
of the Buddha.

I confess I don't understand every
word of that but I shall go to the

temple to seek enlightenment.

Bodh Gaya is the holiest pilgrimage
site for the world's half a billion
Buddhists.

A temple was first built here in the
third century BC by the Indian

emperor Asoka.

This stunning Mahabodhi Temple
is around 1,500 years old.

I'm greeted by the chief monk.

Welcome to Mahabodhi temple.
Thank you so much.

And my guide will be the Venerable
Deepam Chartree who looks after
visitors from all over theworld.

The temple is absolutely wonderful.

Who was the Buddha? Buddha was a
prince who was born in Nepal.

He travelled across from Nepal to
Bodh Gaya and he spent almost six
years in

this very place crossing his legs
in a meditation posture.

To find out the ultimate truth
of suffering or the ultimate...

..things of human life.

How did he do that, what was his
method?

Meditation was the first and very
important method and meanwhile,

he sacrificed so many things.

Self-denial? Yes.

Fasting was the biggest sacrifice.

And what is the importance of the
Bodhi tree?

The Bodhi tree that you can see here
is almost fourth-generation
Bodhi tree.

The Buddha seated beneath the tree
and achieved enlightenment,

the ultimate happiness that every
people deserve.

How long have you been a monk?

13 years. What is your daily life
as a monk?

I have one routine that I have
to follow from morning four o'clock
until

ten o'clock evening, just to take
care of the temple, the people,

those who come here to worship.

I have morning meditation where
I can concentrate my mind.

Each day, one hour a day.

But whatever I do,

I am very much a peaceful minded
person.

Beside the sacred Bodhi tree
Venerable Deepam has agreed to teach
me the basics

of meditation.

One more.

I find it very hard to sit
cross-legged.

I used to do it as a child,
I've lost the ability.

All Buddhists have to be able to do
it, don't they? Yeah.

If you are sitting in this posture
you can focus the feeling between

your land and body.

How do you begin to concentrate,
to meditate?

What do you do? A good teacher from
Myanmar, from Burma,

taught me a very simplest process
of concentrating mind.

And I really practice every day.

When I shut my eyes I firstly, I
find, I try to relax my whole body.

I try to stop thinking.

If you focus all your mind on tip of
your nose

and observe the flow of air inside
and outside,

breathing in and out very slowly,

full concentration.

That is called Vipassana meditation.

I enjoyed that. And actually, it's
quite noisy here but even so,

I found I was going inside myself,
concentrating on the tip of my nose,

even though I couldn't see it.

CHANTING

Venerable Deepam, is this the most
special place there is for
a Buddhist?

Yes, there is, this is the holiest
place for all Buddhists.

It is considered that every
Buddhist should visit
once in a lifetime.

Hello. Hi.

May I ask where you are visiting
from?

I'm from Singapore. What is the
significance to you as a Buddhist
of this place?

This is considered
the epicentre of Buddhism.

It's where Lord Buddha
achieved enlightenment.

How would you describe enlightenment
to me?

It just means that you have
awakened, gone beyond the material
world.

Have you been able to achieve
that yourself?

Of course not!

So the average Buddhist
doesn't attain it?

We are all striving to reach
that point.

How long will you spend here?

A month. You come every day
to the temple?

I do. I've actually made friends
with the various wandering monks.

In fact, we became friends
on Facebook.

When you go back to Singapore, what
effect will it have had on you
to come here?

Well, I think I'll be
a much nicer person than I was.

So nice to talk to you.
Thanks so much. Bye-bye.

The next part of my journey
will take me 200 miles,

south-east from Bodh Gaya
into West Bengal.

I'll stop at the railway town of
Chittaranjan before finishing
in Kolkata,

India's oldest port on the banks
of the Hooghly River.

Bradshaw's written in 1913 remarks
that the Indian railway system is
just

under 32,000 miles in extent,
growing by about 1,000 miles every
year,

390 million passengers and
71 million tonnes of goods.

It represented the most enormous
captive export market for British

manufacturers of locomotives.

Since independence, the railways
have gone on modernising.

I wonder how that great demand has
been met since the tie with Britain
was broken?

I'm getting off at Chittaranjan
to find out.

I'm getting off at Chittaranjan
to find out.

First impressions, Chittaranjan has
a much bigger station than I would
have expected for somewhere

I regard as pretty remote.

It is one of those cities that
exists only because of the railways.

One of the largest locomotive works
in India is situated here.

I'm surprised to find it green and
peaceful with fresh smelling air.

Chittaranjan, like a number of
railway locomotive works,

decided to build its own village,

well, town and very beautiful
it is too.

Set amongst woods with its
own lakes,

so the main works are over there in
the distance and then all around
here is the accommodation.

People came from neighbouring
Bangladesh and all over India to be
employed

here and then each of those probably
has four members of the family,

so it turns out to be a really
sizeable community.

The vast site covers 4,500 acres
and includes schools,

leisure facilities and even
a children's train ride.

The factory began production in 1950
on the day that India became a

republic. And now employs a
workforce of 11,000 people.

This workshop is enormous.

It is the largest at Chittaranjan.

980 metres long.
That is very nearly a kilometre.

You could run a perfectly decent
horse race in here.

When imperial engineers developed
India's rail network from
the mid-19th

century onwards, the locomotives had
to be imported from Britain.

Workshops were established in India
to maintain them.

But Indian initiatives to build
engines at home were stifled

so as to protect British industry.

One of the things that India
resented about the British Raj
was our insistence

on exporting goods from the
United Kingdom to India,

denying India the opportunity to
develop its own industrial base.

That was particularly true perhaps
of railways.

So on independence,

India decided that it really needed
to put that situation right.

These works began in the 1950s,
making steam engines,

before moving to diesel and electric
models in the 1960s.

Hello.
How are you?

The mainstay of this factory
for quite a long time has been

6,000 horsepower locomotives
and this is the starting point.

This is 6,000 horsepower, yeah?
This is a chassis.

This is the chassis.

This is where it all begins.
Yes, yes.

Which is what you've done over there
already.

Then the cab and the roof.

The chassis doesn't look like much,
really.

But once you put the sides on
and when you put the cab on,

you begin to get something
that looks like a loco.

And this is the finished product.

300 locomotives roll out of this
factory every year.

Mr VP Patak is the general manager.

It is a matter of pride for us that
our locomotives are hauling the

fastest trains which are running in
India and the heaviest freight

traffic.

They are producing their own goods
here for their own market.

This is part of modern India and has
been a long-running theme in Indian

politics. Mahatma Gandhi urged
Indians to reject foreign textiles

and live in homespun cloth.

The present-day Prime Minister
Mr Modi campaigns on the slogan,

Make In India.

As night falls,

I'm embarking on the final leg of my
journey which will take me around
120 miles to Kolkata.

Known as Calcutta under colonial
rule,

it reverted to its original Bengali
name in 2001.

This is the late evening premium
express service.

It is air-conditioned,
it's comfortable, of course.

It's running reasonably on time.

Hurray! And what's more, in my
ticket price they include dinner.

No great surprises, if you've been
in India for awhile.

Rice and daal and vegetable
and bread and yoghurt.

But, hey, it hits the spot.

How do you like the food?

I've been enjoying the food
very much.

I've been eating vegetarian while in
India and there's masses of lovely
flavours.

India is all about flavours
and colours and the spice level also
varies along with that.

And which part of India are you
from?

I'm a Bengali but currently
I'm staying in Jharkand in Ranchi.

I'm heading for Calcutta now.

Kolkata.

Are you not eating your food, sir?

I had some evening snacks on the
way, so I'm really full,

but my wife she is having
some dinner. Yes.

As we're getting in quite late
I thought I'd have dinner on the
train.

Thank you very much.
Enjoy your journey. Bon appetit.

Kolkata, capital of West Bengal.

Kolkata, capital of West Bengal.

And Howrah station is heaving.

Designed in the middle of the 19th
century remodelled at the beginning
of the 20th,

with its 23 platforms it is India's
busiest station and only one of four

main termini in Kolkata.

Great Eastern Hotel, please.
Thank you.

Three things only are necessary
to drive in India.

A horn, good breaks
and nerves of steel.

Most taxi drivers in Kolkata,
it seems, favour the brand-name
Ambassador.

Most taxi drivers in Kolkata,
it seems, favour the brand-name
Ambassador.

But British people would recognise
this as an old Morris Oxford.

What a throwback.

Kolkata is clearly a 24-hour city

but I'm ready for bed.

Hello. Good evening.

The Great Eastern Hotel is the
oldest existing hotel in India.

Mentioned, of course,
in my Bradshaw's guide.

In corners like this it still has
that colonial feel.

By 1913 the newspapers carried
snippets of revolutionary groups.

Why pay that any mind?

Better to focus on the creature
comforts that reminded you of home.

Like porridge and scrambled egg.

Reminders of Kolkata's colonial
past are everywhere.

Ceded to the East India Company in
the 17th century, the port boomed.

And today it's the commercial hub
of East India.

And one of the country's
fastest-growing cities.

It has a population of
four and a half million,

and the streets are some of the most
congested in India.

I think the tram might be my best
bet.

It is almost 40 degrees today, with
humidity climbing to over 70%.

Thank goodness this has no windows.

It also makes it perfect
for sightseeing.

Everywhere in India you see poverty
and beggars.

And the tram takes you from the city
splendours to its slums.

Kolkata was the imperial capital
for almost 140 years until
the British

moved their seat of Government
to Delhi in 1911.

But having lost that honour,

Kolkata achieved a different status
according to acclaimed novelist and

architectural heritage campaigner,
Amit Choudhury.

Tell me about Calcutta at the moment
the city ceases to be the capital of

India. Well, it continues to be the
most interesting city in terms of
all aspects of

culture, including architecture.

The houses are different from
the colonial houses or the grand
mansions of

the North, a mix of Bengali and
European features which are
different in terms of design.

The slatted windows, the red oxide
stone floors,

these open porches, a sense of
space, open rooftops,

ventilators on the sides
of the houses.

But no two houses are identical and
this is a reminder of the fact that

there was an energy and creative
energy in the city in terms
of buildings

and its writing and music,

which made it still creatively
speaking the most important Indian
city

long after it had stopped being
the capital.

Kolkata's best-known creative
spirit was the poet

Rabindranath Tagore.

The first non-European to win
the Nobel Prize for literature,

he was born in his splendid family
mansion in 1861.

Amit, I've heard Tagore
described as the bard of Bengal
and a polymath.

How would you describe him?

I describe him as an innovator, as
an experimenter, great philosopher.

He is not like the old poets.

He's not a devotional poet.

He is not writing about the gods
and goddesses.

He is a modern artist and a great
craftsman of the Bengali language.

What forms does his writing take?

Poems, songs, plays, of course,
novels.

For those who can read him in
Bengali, the hundreds and millions
who can,

what does Tagore mean to them?

Tagore reaches and has reached a lot
of people through his songs,

which are often rendered
quite sentimentally.

But you contrast that with his own
very irreverent and playful use of
the past.

He is using all kinds of material
from Irish drinking songs to

Indian classical forms.

Indian classical music can be sung
for hours.

Tagore compresses songs
into three minutes.

Tagore travelled to Britain in 1912
to promote Gitanjali,

an English translation of
a collection of his poems.

The Irish poet WB Yeats was so taken
with them that he agreed to write an

introduction and in 1913,

Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize
for Literature.

Then he becomes, I think,

the first worldwide celebrity
in the domain of literature.

Everybody knows him.

The Germans, the Japanese, the
Chinese, the Russians, the English,

of course, the Americans. Although
not an active political campaigner,

Tagore was fiercely anti-British and
experimented with redefining what it

meant to be Indian.

He tried to distance himself
from colonial rule by wearing
clothes made

from traditionally spun Indian
fabric.

And here on the streets of Kolkata,

buying local soon became
the battle cry.

The cottage textile industry had
been ruined by the mighty mills of

Lancashire and by unfair trade
practices.

Here at the town hall in August
1905,

a boycott of British cloth was
announced and so was launched
the Swadeshi movement,

meaning reliance on one's own cloth.

Foreign textiles were mounted into
bonfires and with that the
Swadeshi cause

that would later be embraced
by MK Gandhi caught fire.

ARCHIVE: Gandhi works at a spinning
wheel as he talks to his followers.

He tells them that by making their
own cloth,

they will create work and an
industry for themselves.

But more important, they can
boycott English textiles sold
in India.

Recently there has been a resurgence
of the handloom,

with demand from fashion designers
for traditionally made fabrics such
as handspun khadi.

Dashan Shah runs the weavers studio,

making handcrafted clothes
and textiles.

Hello, nice to meet you.
Lovely to see you.

I feel as if I've stepped back
in time.

Yes. Now, people here today are
clearly working in the traditional
way.

Why? Our mission statement of our
company when we started 23 years ago
was

to use as many hands as possible and
keep the cottage industry going and

the traditional techniques
and our history and heritage,

what has been there for the last
2,000 plus years.

And these looms, would they be
recognisable from decades ago?

Yes. There is no machinery.
We have not even added a motor.

And who are the people who are
working here?

They are all master weavers who have
come from the villages and who also
have

their own units, so they may be
doing some bits of work on the side

but they get the kind of respect
and they get the kind of opportunity

over here which they could reproduce
in the villages.

So you are transferring skills?

Yes. To the villages.

Now, from your perspective,

why, in 1905, is there this boycott
in Calcutta of British cloth?

This cloth that came into India were
much cheaper and so they were

flooding the market and making us
lose the handloom industry.

So our handloom goods were being put
on the side and the British goods

were taking over. Was that leading
to unemployment?

It led to a lot of unemployment
as well as no longer feeling
the pride of wearing the cloth

that you weave, which was
a tradition in India, always.

Now, when people start to make
bonfires of foreign clothes
and foreign cloth,

presumably there is a lot of
self-sacrifice involved in that.

They had paid for those things.

Yes, but then what Gandhi and the
other political leaders ignited
within

them is this pride for ourselves
and the pride for freedom.

Realising they are being suppressed
at every level.

So the freedom movement is what
ignited all the people to come out
on the streets,

to give up their foreign clothes,

to burn it and to say that here we
will start a new beginning and we
will go back

to making our own cloth.

Now, MK Gandhi famously goes and
starts a village life and sits with
his spinning wheel.

Is it one like this?

Yes, very similar to this,
but a little bit smaller.

He also had a machine that you can
put into a small wooden box and take
it around with him.

Whenever he travelled he would
carry it.

Weaving for him every morning was
his way of saying that I believe
in what I'm propagating.

Surrounded by men spinning thread,
I'm intrigued to have a go myself.

I think I'm going to kneel rather
than attempt cross-legged.

Yes. Now, finger and thumb
on the thread like that.

Yes. Control the movement.

Moving it from one end to the other,
yes?

Yes. There should be an equal
distribution of the yarn.

Moving it backwards and forwards
across the bobbin so that it forms a

little bump in the middle.

Tell me whether the master weaver
is looking horrified.

You are doing very well.
Are you finding that simple?

I'm finding it simple and quite
restful, actually.

Yes. It does require some
concentration. Yes.

Gandhi urged Indians to make
their own cloth.

For a politician, it was a good
spin.

Handcrafted traditional fabrics are
now a favourite with India's
fashion houses.

These models are sporting some
of this season's looks.

Ladies, hello.

Today is very, very humid and very,
very hot.

How does it feel to be wearing these
kinds of garments?

These are very comfortable to wear.
And it's very skin friendly.

That's very important in this
weather.

Indian weather is so humid and so
hot and these are so thin and they
are

so nice so you don't really feel
that much of heat with this.

And does it make you feel proud?
Does it matter to you to wear
something that's Indian?

Nowadays everyone is more prone
towards the international fashion
brands

but I think wearing khadi in this
form is not only giving us the
Indian background that we have,

it is also promoting the modern wear
so it is a combination of both.

I am feeling patriotic
and good wearing this.

Here in the Maidan City Centre Park,

the Victoria Memorial was built to
commemorate an empress and an Empire

at its height.

When the British government pushed
aside the East India Company,

it may have governed India
efficiently,

trained up an able class of Indian
civil servant,

built railways that tied the country
together.

But it ruled without consideration,

not understanding Indian religions,

trampling on Indian traditions
and Indian pride.

Tagore once wrote to an imaginary
reader in a future age,

"May you feel the living joy
that sang one spring morning,

"sending its glad voice
across 100 years."

Within a century the insensitivities
that caused the Indian Rebellion of

1857 had led the sun to set upon
the British Raj.