All language subtitles for Phantom India - 07

PHANTOM INDIA
Reflections on a Journey

Wednesday, April 17.

Bombay, the end of our journey.

ItS like being back in the West.

Like Calcutta, Bombay is a port
built by the English for colonial needs.

Today it's the economic capital,
the city of the future-

In the suburbs here,
you feel you could be anywhere-

Monotonous stretches
of /0 w-rent apartments,

like anywhere else
in the industrialized world.

Impersonal construction sites
rise next to shantytowns

crammed with people
from all over the country.

You never get used to the poverty
in India, even after four months.

Especially in the cities,
where it shows its most terrible face.

But the villages of India,
behind their charm and beauty,

often conceal even greater
economic distress.

Thats why many peasants,
deeply in debt or without land,

leave their villages
and come here for work.

Some leave family behind
and return home in a few years-

Others bring wife and children,
severing ties with village life forever.

Like all industrial metropolises,
Bombay has suburban trains

that transport hordes
of commuters day and night,

packed to overflowing.

Many people sleep
and eat on the streets.

There's no place for them,
because even in the shantytowns

rents are high.

Bombay no longer has ricksha ws,

but goods are still transported
by handcart,

which are cheaper than trucks.

For those living on the street,
often without employment

each day is a new battle.

It takes endless ingenuity
just t0 survive.

The numerous sidewalk vendors
are mostly southern Indians.

Craftsmen punch holes in copper
stencils for printing patterns on cloth.

One stencil is used for each color.

Certain designs call
for a dozen stencils.

These craftsmen are Muslims.
They fill an entire district',

where they ply their traditional trades

of goldsmith, potter,
decorative painter, musician.

Islamic cultural influence
dates back to the Mongolian emperors,

who ruled here before the English.

/t deeply marked the architecture,
painting and music of northern India,

as well as many aspects of daily life."

cuisine, language, clothing
and agriculture.

Under Mongolian rule, many
lower-caste Hindus converted to /s/am.

Near the Ha/I Ali mosque,

this woman prepares
garlands of flowers for worshippers.

When the English left in 1.947,

the Muslims, concentrated
in the northwest and northeast

separated from India
to form Pakistan-

After a period of bloody turmoil,

millions of Hindus and Sikhs
left Pakistan t0 seek refuge in India,

while Muslims
fled in the opposite direction.

Yet there are still
50 million Muslims in India today,

making it, paradoxically,
the second-largest Muslim nation.

Sometimes there are local conflicts
between religious communities,

but in general, Muslims are accepted
with remarkable tolerance.

The muezzins call,
broadcast over a loudspeaker,

summons the faithful to prayer.

The Ha/I Ali mosque,
on an island 500 yards from the shore,

is cut ofi' from land at high tide.

This ultramodern petrochemical factory
is located in Thane,

a suburb of Bombay,
in a large industrial comp/ex

On the other side of the be y stands
the country's first nuclear power plant.

Every sailor in the world
knows Bombay's red-light district

just like in any European
or South American port.

But for us,
fresh from the country's interior,

this ofiicial/y sanctioned prostitution
is staggering.

Everywhere else in India,
prostitution is secret invisible,

like an embarrassing sore
one carefully conceals.

In many cities,
it's practically nonexistent

The women are often very beautiful.

Most are Telugu peasants
from Andhra Pradesh.

An old man moves from room to room,

purifying with incense.

Prostitution may be accepted here,
but alcohol is not.

Ifs a "dry” city,
like many regions of India,

for reasons
more religious than social.

The Bombay stock exchange displays
the same collective hysteria

as Paris or Milan.

Outwardly its the same incomprehensible
frenzy and exaggerated gestures.

These men playing
at frenzied capitalist games

are still marked by tradition.

Before making a trade,
many Bombay businessmen

consult their astrologer

to see whether omens are favorable

and which astral period is best.

Industrialist Pashabhai Patel
made a fortune in farm machinery.

He's a delegate of the Swatantra,

a party of large landholders
and capitalists,

to the right of the Congress Party,
its current opponent

“We have 50 members
in a parliament of 450,

but many Congress Party delegates
disagree with the current government

After coming elections, we hope to form
a right-wing majority with them.

We 're fighting for free enterprise.

Ifs the only path
for our country's development

WhatS catastrophic
about go vemment policy

is the planned economy
it imposes on the country.

Enormous sums are invested
in state-run industries,

which all show huge deficits.

Only one was profitable this year,
earning a 1% profit,

while private business
earns as high as 20%.

The Congress Party has been
drifting t0 wards Russia,

and that's one of the reasons
we oppose them-

To us, the Congress Party is nothing
but Communism in disguise.

I know there S more social justice
in the US than in the USSR,

though some try
to convince me otherwise.

/ndia could make a big leap forward
if its policies were set right.

We're on the threshold
of an industrial revolution.

Twenty years from now, thanks
to our cheap and abundant labor force

and our philosophical background,

we can beat the West
just like the Japanese have. ”

Gigantic fortunes are being made
in India today.

For capitalists like Pashabhai Patel,
the future is bright

But there's another side to the coin-"
a total lack of social laws,

the over-exploited working masses,

and unimaginable corruption
and fiscal fraud.

The Pars! are the pioneers
of Indian capitalism-

We attended a wedding of rich Pars/j

celebrated according to the Mazdean
rite, founded by Zarathustra-

India's few hundred thousand Pars!
are concentrated in Bombay.

They came here from Persia
to escape Muslim persecution-

The Parsi don't cremate their dead.

They expose the bodies on raised
platforms cal/ed “towers of silence, ”

where they're devoured by vultures.

These towers are found in gardens
in the middle of Bombay,

and entry is strictly forbidden.

This tiny community suddenly became
wealth y at the tum of the century,

in the first wave of industrialization.

The Tatas, a Parsi family,
founded India S first steelworks

and today rules
a gigantic capitalist empire.

Though at the vanguard
of modem India,

the Parsi fiercely defend
their traditions and uniqueness.

A Parsi who marries
outside the community

is immediately ostracized.

This yoga class in Bombay
might appear to carry on tradition,

but it doesn't.

Many of the students
are well-heeled Pars/j

as foreign to the philosophy
of yoga as the French.

Strangely enough, the wave of interest
in yoga in the West

/ed to a somewhat spurious revival
in its country of origin.

There S a new nostalgia
for the past.

Bombay's bourgeois will discuss
the evils of consumerism with you.

This yoga master, who asks his students
t0 “measure the immeasurable, ”

spends several months a year
in Switzerland,

where he is Yehudi Menuhin 's
private instructor.

On a downtown street,

a police instructor teaches a young
recruit the ritual of directing trafiic.

Indian soldiers fanatically perpetuate
the traditions of the British army.

One day,
an especially spic-and-span ofi7cer,

crop tucked under his arm
and mustache freshly waxed,

told me nostalgically,
“We're the last of the true English.

There are no more in Eng/and. ”

The ultimate in Westernization."

India today has
its own left-wing intellectuals.

Vina yak Purohit lives in a beautiful
house filled with books and an'.

His wife is rich. He belongs to the SSP,
one of four Socialist parties.

When we interviewed him, he 'd just
finished writing a p/a y on the revolution.

"Don't think I in? exaggerating
when I sa y there are foreign powers

who will stop at nothing
to destroy India S unity.

India has the potential to be
a major power in this part of the world,

so the y seek to divide it. ”

To him, whether ifs China, America, or
Eng/anal, everyone's out to get India-

This socialist intellectual
pushes fervent patriotism

to ridiculous extremes-

He s obsessed
with the border of Pakistan.

Pakistan is his pet peeve.

“Giving up even a small part of India

threatens the entire country.

We must stop this policy
of appeasing the aggressor.

What is Pakistan?

A puppet country
invented by imperialist powers

to set up their military bases
on the Indian border. ”

This extreme nationalism
is found in many Indian politicians

on both the right and left.

They criticize the government
for its "weakness ” towards Pakistan-

In this modern textile mill
with Swiss machinery,

the emphasis is on efiiciency
and productivity.

Ifs highly automated,
with relatively few workers-

The management takes
full responsibility

for training its workers.

Unions don't exist.

These workers, still attached
to the past by religion and caste,

have no class consciousness as yet.

Near Bombay, a brand-new factory
builds jeeps under American license-

It was meant t0 produce 25 a day -

nothing for a country like India -

but it was reduced to 17
after arm y budget cuts-

India has insu/ficient cars.

It produced only
60, 000 cars and trucks last year.

To obtain a car for private use,

you must be on a waiting list
for seven to 10 years-

The May Day parade of Left Communists
only drew a few hundred people,

despite all the pa/fyS efio/fs

after sufiering a crushing defeat
in local elections.

Communists don't play as important
a role in India as we 'd expect,

because they're divided,

they hesitate between reform
and revolution,

and their ideology is antithetical
to traditional lndian thought

Many of them, formed in the ranks
of the English Communist Party

f0//0 wing strictly Marxist ideology,

seem to be waiting for the complete
industrialization of the country to act

What they lack is a Mao Tse-tung

someone t0 adapt
Marxism and Leninism

to the specific conditions in India-

Days earlier we 'd filmed
these same musicians and dancers

at a Congress Party demonstration,

where the parade
was over a mile long.

The Congress Party
is very powerful in Bombay.

The Congress Party, despite recent
defeats, still dominates politics.

It may be its own worst enemy.

It's currently caught in a violent
power struggle between factions

that began after Nehru's death-

Nehru supported
a democratic socialist regime,

a happy medium between
planned economy and private property.

His daughter, /ndira Gandhi
currently prime minister,

has trouble following
this political agenda.

Many of her parfys leaders
declare themselves right-wing

and represent the interests
of the new classes of rich peasants,

retailers and manufacturers.

A new political force celebrates
its victory in local elections."

Shiv Sena,
an extreme right-wing movement

serving purely local interests.

/t expresses native Bombay residents '
desire to defend themselves

against the invasion
by immigrants from southern /ndia,

who are both despised and feared

Shiv Sena is a mass movement
and claims 500, 000 members.

Its slogans are racist and xenophobic.

This man, Ba! Thackery,
is Shiv Sena's founder.

A former cartoon artist,
he's a remarkable orator,

mixing cynical humor and demagog y.

In this speech, he attacks Bombay 's
Muslim community for the first time

in violent terms.

“If Muslims aren 't happy,
let them g0 to Pakistan-

We gave them their own country.
Let them go and /eave us alone. ”

I interviewed him the next day.
He eagerly defended his cause.

“People living in a particular state
must get a preference.

I see nothing wrong with that.

/f people from here can't find jobs
or housing, where can they go ?”

Thackery favors a strong government.

'Ruling with a firm hand
doesn't mean dictatorship-

I'm not talking about dictatorship,
just keeping the people in line.

We need order in this country.

Yes, I'm anti-Communist.

/f Communists took power tomorrow,
I 'd be the first to fight them-

I'm not hunting for power.

These people should have preference.
Their rights should be respected

I in? fighting for justice, nothing else-

Physical violence
was there before us.

/t would be wrong to attribute
it to Shiv Sena-

There might have been
individual actions here and there,

but don't blame
our organization for that. ”

Despite what Thackery says,

new immigrants crammed
into shantytowns like this

are victims of systematic violence
from Shiv Sena activists.

These southern Indians are Catholics

from the state of Madras.

They don't speak the same language
as the other inhabitants.

They ire marginalized, unorganized,
undefendeof, non voters-

The reasons for these conflicts
are essentially economic.

We spoke with Ra/ani Desai
an economist with an Oxford degree.

She S optimistic

and speaks of her country
with a kind of scientific detachment'.

“There is American influence,
certainly,

but it's limited.

Foreign businesses here
don't directly influence Indian politics.

They pressure
their governments to do it.

Our weakness isn't that they're here,
but that we heed them here.

We need their raw materials
and technology.

So they can impose their terms.

India is socialist in that the government
tries to structure the economy,

and capitalist in that businesses
are allowed to develop freely

within the governmente framework.

Are we badly administered?
Yes, we are.

Nothing can be done at this time.

You understand,
in such a stratified society,

with such a small elite,

one has every reason to act
in one's own interests-

And this is what is done. ”

What are the reasons
behind the economic crisis?

"Mainly the failure of the monsoons
in the last two years-

The drought caused poor harvests,

and since the economy is mainly
agricultural, grain prices rose.

This was taken as a sxgna/ to curb
investment, and that led to recession-

We've stepped up grain production.

We still need 15 million more tons
a year, but we 'll make it.

There S a new generation
of capitalist farmers

who use modem methods
and have investment capital.

They've been very successful.

But we can't expect this to happen
all over the country.

There are so many peasants
and so little arable land

that industrialization is necessary,

if only to absorb
some of the excess rural population. ”

This beautiful young woman
who speaks like a technocrat

is a living example
of Western/zed India.

But she only represents
a microscopic minority.

An Indian friend told me of a village
35 miles from Bombay

where the people weren't even aware
the English had left

After two weeks in Bombay,

we wanted to immerse ourselves
in traditional /ndia one last time.

A few miles from the city,
a small village called Vra/eshwari

was celebrating
its annual temple festival

This crowd swept up
in religious fervor

is the image I'll keep of India.

Everywhere in the world,
industrial civilization

shatters societies
and erases tradition.

Our world is becoming
the same everywhere.

But India resists,
for its social and religious structures

are stronger and more vital
than anywhere else.

In the temple courtyard,
families from the entire region

have come to stay for several days-

We come upon a marriage procession.

We 're leaving for Bombay,
itS our last day of shooting,

and we think these will be
our last images of India.

But India will prove us wrong
yet again.

On our way back,
we came across these salt flats.

In India, we discovered with wonder
another way of being,

another way of living
and seeing the world

that made us all feel nostalgic,
like a secret forever lost.

But we felt all along it was
a world living on borrowed time.

Here, where the population is greater
than Africa and South America combined,

modern life increasingly takes the form
of man exploiting his fellow man.

Translation by LYNN MASSEY
for SUBTEXT SUBTITLING