Original subtitles

- [Narrator] Our history is no more than a serious

of incredible events.

Every one of us can influence it's course.

The most infinitely small of our decisions

can influence the future of humanity.

To know the past, is to foresee the future.

1968, New Delhi.

While the British army besieges the city,

various rebel factions wage a fight to the death

for control of the neighborhoods.

India, the last Jewel of the British Empire

is bathed in fire and blood.

In the previous century, Gandhi, a young lawyer

fighting for civil rights was assassinated,

lynched by an angry mob.

Without him, India never gained it's independence.

The religious communities became more isolated than ever.

Today the situation is out of control.

Hindus and Muslims are engaged in a ruthless fight

while the impotent British army watches.

But none of this ever happened.

In 1896, a small grain of sand saved Gandhi

and allowed him to share his message of non violence.

May 26th 1893, Gandhi, a young lawyer

registered with the London Barr Association

is brutally kicked off a South African Train.

January 13th 1897.

A group of angry protestors attacked Gandhi and his family

and threatened to hang him from a tree.

March 1930.

Gandhi begins a march across India.

He is followed by ten's of thousands of Indians.

These three inextricably linked events are key

moments in the life of Gandhi, and the emancipation

of the former British colony, India.

(crying)

India, 1858.

Just one year ago,

Indian soldiers from the

British East India Company mutinied.

The bloody rebellion spread quickly.

The english response was ruthless.

The last islands of resistance are now falling.

To serve as an example the leaders are executed by

being shot out of a cannon.

India is one of the oldest settlements in the world.

From the west the passage through the mountains

has allowed many invaders to penetrate the Valley of Indus.

The river that India is named after.

The history of the region, includes a succession of empires,

like Ashoka's as vast as the Roman Empire at it's peak,

or Guptas, the true golden age of India.

Still up until the 17th century none of these Empires

seemed able to completely control this immense and

highly complex land.

From the north to the south there is not just one

but multiple Indias.

It has an infinite variety of believes

and religious practices, simultaneously

Indian society has developed an unbalanced social system

of the centuries that is based on Castes.

A strict separation of individuals into distinct groups

that are ranked in hierarchal order.

At the bottom of the social pyramid in the lowest

category for humans are the untouchables

who are shunned by the rest of society.

In the 16th century when the Portuguese are already

actively trading with the Indian sub continent

the region is being run by the Mughal Empire.

At the beginning of the following century,

the British are competing with the Portuguese.

December 31st, 1600 in the city of London

entrepreneurs create the British East India Company.

Not long afterwards the Mugahls weakened by war

collapsed and allow the companies influence to spread.

In exchange for British protection several Indian

princes grant vast privileges.

Trading intensifies, a steady stream of wealth

flows between England and it's Indian markets.

Huge plantations produces large quantities of cotton

all of which is shipped to England by boat

and then woven in vast factories.

Soon Indian's can only find English clothing

in their markets.

Gradually all trace of the

traditional Indian economy disappears.

Two centuries later the trading company is fully established

imposing heavy taxes and equipped with it's own army.

The company reigns over an immense merchant empire.

But, after the 1858 revolt, it is dissolved

and India passes under the rule of the Crown.

Victoria, Queen of England, becomes Empress of India.

This is the birth of the British Raj.

- [Robot] Welcome to the memory of humanity.

Every historical event regardless of how small

is recorded and connected

you only need to change one to upset all the others.

Here we are able to control time

analyze and compare billions of events

in order to rewrite history in infinite ways.

For example, let's go back to the middle of the 19th Century

to the heart of the Victorian era.

At the height of it's empire, the United Kingdom

is the worlds leading power, the Union Jack

waves it colors on every continent.

However, not all the inhabitants of the empire

are citizens or share equal status.

The English are convinced that their society

is superior to others.

In India they are perfectly comfortable with the caste

system, the English simply place themselves above

the others.

In other colonies like in South Africa,

the condition black people is particularly humiliating

and degrading and Asian people are practically slaves.

The empire is based on extreme inequalities.

- [Narrator] May 26th 1893, South Africa.

This man, how was thrown from a train like a piece

of filth for daring to sit in a first class compartment

is deeply humiliated.

What could he have possibly done wrong?

This man is a gentlemen attorney registered at the Barr

in London.

Here, neither his diplomas nor his English education

can balance the scales.

In the eyes of the white colonialists he is a Cooley,

a duragatory term denoting one of the too many

asian laborers.

His name is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

And this misadventure will change him forever.

He will no longer tolerate this type of injustice.

Arriving in South Africa for work,

he will soon be confronted by the reality.

His compatriots have been reduced to the condition

of slaves, thousands of them are working on huge plantations

in this English colony thousands of white

Europeans ruthlessly exploit the tens of thousands of

Indians and millions of Africans without reservation.

This brutal reality pushes the young lawyer

off the side lines.

In 1893 he begins defending Indian workers

who have been mistreated by their white employers.

On march 22nd he discovers that a bill

designed to suppress Indian voter rights

is being prepared.

He immediately launches a huge campaign to protest this.

For the British, the name Gandhi is becoming synonymous

with agitator.

December 19th 1896.

After a short stay in India,

Gandhi returns to South Africa with his family

but when he arrives at the Port of Durban,

the authorities place the ship in quarantine

for sanitary reasons.

Curiously the white Europeans are allowed to disembark.

Certain rumors in town, go so far as to say

that Gandhi has deliberately brought a plague

to South Africa.

At the dock, a crowd of protestors scream insults

and death threats at the Indian passengers.

Gandhi understands that he, not the ship

is being quarantined.

He finally obtains authorization to go a shore

with his family but only at night and with a police escort.

Once he reaches the dock, the protestors

come out of hiding and rush toward the little group.

The situation quickly gets out of control,

then the police chiefs wife, passing by in a carriage

on the way back from a dinner in town

rushes towards the scene and brandishes her umbrella

using it and her status to protect the poor Indian family.

Escorted by the lady to screams from the angry crowd

demanding he be hanged, Gandhi and his family

flee the scene.

- [Robot] We have arrived at a point of divergence.

A point of divergence is a key moment,

a cross roads in our history where our world can swing

from on side to the other.

Gandhi has just miraculously escaped a mob

that was ready to lynch him.

If the English lady had not intervened

the lawyer would have surely ended up

at the end of a rope.

At this time his name and his actions

were already well known in South Africa and in India.

His violent death would have served as a warning

to anyone contemplating taking up the torch of protest.

In India, without Gandhi and his peaceful influence

it is probable that the tensions between Indians

and British colonialists would have escalated

into a spiral of violence.

- [Narrator] During the night, August 5th 1904,

Gandhi cannot sleep.

He cannot stop thinking about something that he read

earlier that day.

A brilliant book by John Ruskin.

The British writer explains that the production

of good and wealth involves human beings,

and that not everything should be sacrificed

for financial interests.

Those ideas are similar to Ahimsa,

a religious Hindu concept where by life,

present in all things should be respected.

Intense reflection, pushes Gandhi to adopt new ideas,

and to put them into daily practice.

His life style is profoundly modified.

Thinking that people often eat too much

while others do not have enough to eat

he decides to set an example and begins fasting regularly.

He cut's his own hair, and cleans his own toilet.

For him, these are no longer menial tasks

and every human should take care of their own needs.

Too often the witness of violence against women

he associates sexuality with violence

and takes a vow of chastity.

Impressed by the British women's fight to obtain

voting rights, he sets a new doctrine into motion

based on civil disobedience and non violence.

Satyagraha.

Say no to injustice firmly.

Publicly and often illegally, but never violently.

And accept the consequences of your actions.

July 31st 1907.

When the government decrees that all Indians

must be registered with the authorities

and present proof of their identity at all times

Gandhi has a chance to test his method.

Having become an influential leader,

he suggests that the Indians in South Africa

refuse to cooperate.

This is followed by thousands of Indians being imprisoned

including Gandhi himself.

August 16th 1908.

In a public place and under the watchful eyes of the

police he goes even further and convinces thousands

to burn their registration papers.

Severely beaten, he ends up once again behind bars.

The brutal British response causes Gandhi to write

that he has discovered the source of evil.

Western civilization and modernity.

In 1913 he has part of the law revoked and

decides to return to India the following year.

- [Robot] Force or violence?

Gandhi endures beatings and humiliation without reacting.

From his point of view this is a show of self control

and therefor a moral strength.

When Gandhi goes on a hunger strike,

Indians see it as proof of his determination.

From the viewpoint of the English it is a sign

of weakness and cowardice the British

after two centuries of occupying Indian soil

still don't understand how Indian society functions.

They respond to the protest with demonstrations of strength

Winston Churchill goes so far as to label Gandhi

as seditious and unclean Fakir.

70 years later in 1981 the British will handle

hunger strikes in the same way.

During the protests lead by Irish republicans.

After 66 days without food,

the activist Bobby Sands will die

without succeeding in influencing the English government,

will Gandhi's non violent actions be more successful?

- [Narrator] January 9th 1915.

Gandhi arrives in Bombay.

He is welcomed triumphantly by his compatriots.

They are waiting for him to ascend to the head

of the Indian congress, the political party

working towards independence.

However he has just returned from a 21 year stay in Africa.

He doesn't really know his native country anymore.

So he set's out to travel across India and listen

to it's people.

He learns that the situation is even worse than he thought.

Misery is everywhere.

The British have overtaken off the countries resources,

famines are frequent and the population

is crowded in swamps.

India, miserable, has lost it's dignity.

Gandhi decides to take action.

He establishes and Ashram, a sort of monastery

where he trains his disciples in non violence.

Followers call him Baku, the father.

Then Mahatma, or great soul.

In the beginning he doesn't know exactly how to proceed.

March 30th 1919, he obtains the first results

by organizing a national strike.

All of India responds to his call for a general strike.

The country is completely paralyzed.

This demonstration of strength lands him

once again in prison.

Protests in support of him begin soon after.

April 13th 1919.

British general Dyer, decides to teach the Indians

in his own words, "a proper lesson."

He orders his men to shoot straight into a peaceful

and unarmed crowd, without warning.

Modern rapid fire rifles, against innocent men

women and children.

The carnage is horrifying.

Gandhi,

astounded, loses his last illusions about the

legitimacy of the British government.

His goal, which until that moment,

was to gain additional rights for Indians

becomes total independence.

He rises to the head of congress and quickly presents

his program.

Boycott British schools, courts and English products.

Then stop paying taxes and desert all police

and army posts.

Gandhi can count on over 300 million Indians.

The British are less than 100,000.

The only answer they are able to give is violence.

The systematic repression, is brutal.

March 1930.

The British authorities, learned that Gandhi

has launched a 250 mile march across the country.

His objective is to circumvent the law

requiring Indians to buy British salt

by going to the beach and collecting it himself.

It wouldn't have been so notable

if he had been all alone.

But Gandhi is accompanied by tens of thousands of Indians.

A human wave submerges the British prohibitions.

More than 60,000 people are arrested and thrown

in over crowded prisons.

But that changes nothing.

For Gandhi this is only the beginning of a long

period of resistance that will see him cross

from one side of the country to the other

all ways peacefully, yet tirelessly rallying people

to his cause.

In 1942, in the middle of World War II,

Gandhi reads his Quit India Declaration.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill

miraculously crushes what he perceives as a sedition.

And as all the members of congress arrested.

More than 1000 protestors are slaughtered.

But in the aftermath of the war,

Churchill's defeat in the election,

allows the working part, long since supporters

of India's independence to take power.

It seems that the time has come.

- [Robot] Living together.

India is on the verge of obtaining it's independence.

But this emancipation comes with new challenges.

Indian society is extremely complex.

For example, the inequality of the caste system

goes hand and hand with multiple religions.

Especially Hindu and Islam.

But at that time,

the two faiths are considered incompatible.

Muslims, present mostly in the north

or unevenly spread out across the land.

And represent around 16% of the population.

Which is the largest minority in India.

Tensions between the two communities are very strong.

Gandhi makes great efforts to end the conflicts

and keep his country united.

British powers aware of this script within Indian society

use it as leverage in the negotiations.

If India gains it independence.

It would divide the country.

Divide,

and rule.

- [Narrator] With Churchill on the sidelines,

independence is within reach.

But the fight is far from being over.

One of the leaders of the Independence Movement

the Muslim Muhammad Ali Jinnah, defends the idea

of separating India into two countries.

Pakistan for Muslims, the rest for Hindus.

For Gandhi, this separation would be catastrophic

and a terrible failure.

Across the country, more and more riots break out.

Hindus massacre Muslims.

Muslims kill off Hindus.

On each side, people are becoming more erratic.

Gandhi is increasingly isolated.

Nehru, his political ally does everything he can

to preserve a unified India in spite of the

two faced Gena, who while officially condemning

the anti Hindu protests,

secretly encourages their outbreaks.

The separation of India seems inevitable.

August 15th 1947.

After months of negotiations, independence is proclaimed

to the cries, "victory to Mahatma Gandhi."

But the old man is not present.

Disgusted he could not share this jubilation.

The day before, he saw his country ripped itself in two.

India on one side, and Pakistan on the other.

This results in huge population displacement.

Leaving their homes, millions of Muslims

make their way to the distant and all new Pakistan.

And cross paths with Indian refugees

heading in the opposite direction.

Inevitably clashes occur and escalate into massacres.

Gandhi tirelessly crosses the country side

desperately promoting non violence.

He achieves miracles.

During his trip, the troubles cease,

but often start back up after he leaves.

One year later, while on his way to morning prayers

Gandhi is shot three times by a young nationalist

who believes the Mahatma is a traitor.

Hindus and Muslims, after centuries of living together,

are drawn into a spiral of conflicts and will become

irreconcilable enemies.

But that, is another story.

- [Robot] Who truly was Gandhi?

The Son, he was the liberator of India.

A hero in the fight against the imperialists.

For others, he was a spiritual guide, sometimes compared

to Jesus Christ.

His fight for women and the untouchables made him

a humanist.

It is certain that radical Indian nationalists

considered him a traitor.

His indifference for the plight of the black

South African population has lead some

to call him a racist.

But one thing is certain, he is one of the people

who's left a considerable mark on the 20th century.

Martin Luther King Jr. acknowledged being influenced

by Gandhi's ideas.

He too was cut down by extremists bullets.

Just like many other agents of change.

In the darkest hours of the fight for Indias

independence when the country was on the brink of Civil War

this man dressed in simple cloth,

and standing all alone,

was stronger than an army.

(epic music)