Gandhi...

These are from the movie Gandhi :

1.Young Gandhi is in South Africa travelling in a train and is spotted by an Englishman who complains to the Ticket Examiner on board:

Ticket Examiner: Just what are you doing in this car, coolie?

Gandhi: Why, I have a ticket. A first-class ticket.

Ticket Examiner: How did you get it?

Gandhi: I sent for it in the post. I'm an attorney and I didn't have time to -

Englishman: There are no coloured attorneys in South Africa. Go and sit where you belong!

A worker : I'll take your luggage back, sir.

Gandhi: No, no, no. Just a moment, please. You see? (Handing one of his cards to the Ticket Examiner) Mohandas K. Gandhi, attorney at law. I'm on my way to Pretoria to conduct a case for an Indian trading firm.

Englishman: Didn't you hear me? There are no coloured attorneys in South Africa.

Gandhi: Sir, I was called to the bar in London and enrolled at the High Court of Chancery. I am, therefore, an attorney. And since I am, in your eyes, coloured, I think we can deduce that there is at least one coloured attorney in South Africa.

Englishman: Smart bloody Kaffir! Throw him out.

Ticket Examiner: Just move your black ass back to third class or I'll have you thrown off at the next station.

Gandhi: But I always go first class! I've travelled all th -

And before he gets to say anything else, he gets thrown off the train at the next station.


2. This is at a public meeting where many Indians and a few English officers have gathered and Gandhi addresses them, to protest against a new law that had been recently passed by the English government in South Africa.

Gandhi: I want to welcome you all, (and looking at the English officers) everyone of you. We have no secrets. Let us begin by being clear about General Smuts' new law:

"All Indians must now be fingerprinted. Like criminals, men and women. No marriage other than a Christian marriage is considered valid."

Under this act, our wives and mothers are whores, and every man here is a bastard. And a policeman passing an Indian dwelling, ha, I will not call them homes, may enter and demand the card of any Indian woman whose dwelling it is.

Some from the audience shout: Goddamn them!

Gandhi continues: Understand he does not have to stand at the door. He may enter.

One from the audience shouts: I will not allow it! I swear to Allah. I'll kill the man who offers that insult to my home and my wife... and let them hang me!

Another from the audience says: I say, talk means nothing! Kill a few officials before they disgrace one Indian woman. Then they might think twice about such laws. In that cause, I would be willing to die!

Gandhi: I praise such courage. I need such courage because, in this cause, I too am prepared to die. But, my friend, there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill. Whatever they do to us, we will attack no one, kill no one, but we will not give our fingerprints, not one of us. They will imprison us. They will fine us. They will seize our possessions. But they cannot take away our self-respect, if we do not give it to them.

An Indian from the audience asks: Have you been to prison? They beat us and torture us. I say that we should -

Gandhi: I am asking you to fight. To fight against their anger, not to provoke it. We will not strike a blow. But we will receive them. And through our pain we will make them see their injustice. And it will hurt, as all fighting hurts. But we cannot lose. We cannot.

They may torture my body, break my bones, even kill me. Then they will have my dead body, not my obedience. We are Hindu and Muslim children of God, each one of us. Let us take a solemn oath in His name that, come what may, we will not submit to this law.


3. India had gained Independence from the British. It's like it had lost it again because of this civil war that had broken out between the Hindus and the Muslims. Gandhi began fasting and told the Indians he would continue to fast until all the Hindus and Muslims stopped fighting.

A Hindu comes to talk to Gandhi and throws a piece of roti on him and says:
Here, eat! Eat!
I'm going to hell... but not with your death on my soul.

Gandhi: Only God decides who goes to hell.

The Hindu: I killed a child. I smashed his head against a wall.

Gandhi: Why?

The Hindu:They killed my son. My boy (indicating the boy's height). The Muslims killed my son!

Gandhi: I know a way out of hell.
Find a child.
A child whose mother and father have been killed.
A little boy about this high (indicating the same height ) and raise him as your own. Only be sure that he is a Muslim and that you raise him as one. Go.
Go. God bless you.