Bharat Ek Khoj 50: And Gandhi Came, Part II
Channel: PublicResourceOrg
Date: 2016-09-03

Bharat Ek Khoj—The Discovery of India
A Production of Doordarshan, the Government of India’s Public Service Broadcaster
Episode 50: And Gandhi Came, Part II

With Shabana Azmi as Rangamma, Om Puri as Patel Range Gowda, Ila Arun as Gangamma, Pallavi Joshi as Ratna, Virendra Saxena as Rachanna, Irfan Khan as Bade Khan, Bhavana Mukativala as Radhamma, and Chandrakant Kale as the Harikatha Singer. Playback by Chandrakant Kale, Ranjana Joglekar, Jolly Mukherjee, Pankaj Mitra, Anand Kumar, and Shobha Joshi Excerpts from Kanthapura by Raja Rao.

Nehru notes that against the all-pervading fear amongst Indian people of the British Raj, Gandhi’s quiet and determined voice was raised, ‘Be not afraid’. Suddenly, the black pall of fear was lifted from the people’s shoulders. To the ordinary village folks, it made all the difference.

The song picks up the refrain that the Congress would hereafter rule in the rural front and initiate Rama Raj by abolishing Ravana Raj of the aliens. While Murthy declines to appoint an advocate to plead for him, Rangamma’s visit to the town to look for a defence lawyer is in vain. She returns with the news that Murthy has been sentenced to a three-month imprisonment. Rangamma and Ratna now pick up the cudgel and begin organising the female front of volunteers after the model of Sarojini Naidu, Annie Besant and Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay. They resolve not to fight back, even if beaten. There are mild protestations from the ilk of Narayan not to allow their female folk go in for public demonstrations.

News comes that Murthy is released, but the nightmare is not over. The tidings of the Dundee March and Salt Satyagraha trickle in to enthuse the villagers no end. People decide to observe Maun (silence) to strengthen the Congress. There is tumultuous singing of another favourite Bhajan of Gandhi, by Narsinh Mehta: Vaishnavajanato Tene Kahiye…

Further news trickles in that the police has lathi-charged the corps of volunteers at Mahatma’s prayer meeting. This only steels the people’s resolve not to pay tax and offer passive resistance. A new phenomenon is women taking out processions and picketing in front of liquor-shops to stop their men folk from alcoholism. The tax-evasion campaign takes an ugly turn, with the police auctioning off the landed property of the defaulters in Kanthapura. Women, under the guidance of the hiding men, put up resistance, but the police open indiscriminate fire killing many and injuring several. There is chaos now from a failed resistance, with people leaving Kanthapura en masse for Kashipura near Mysore and leaders like Murthy, Rangamma and Ratna imprisoned for six months. There is also news trickling in that at the apex, Nehru and Gandhi do not quite agree on non-violence.

Nehru observes that, by 1930, Gandhi seemed, to his countrymen, able to link the past with the future and to make the present appear as a stepping-stone to the future of life and hope. Thus he affected a vast psychological revolution not only among those who followed his lead, but also among his opponents and those neutrals who were still ambivalent.


Producer Doordarshan
Language Hindi

Credits

Uploaded by Public.Resource.Org
Based on Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of India
With Roshan Seth as Jawaharlal Nehru
Om Puri as the Narrator
Produced and Directed by Shyam Benegal
Chief Assistant Director was Mandeep Kakkar
Executive Producer Raj Plus
Script by Shama Zaldi and Sunil Shanbag
A production of Doordarshan