0:00:07 > 0:00:14In March 1946, a young American photographer made her way through the slums of Poona, near Bombay.
0:00:16 > 0:00:21Margaret Bourke-White had been sent to photograph an old man whose name
0:00:21 > 0:00:26had become famous throughout the world.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29She found him in a dimly lit room,
0:00:29 > 0:00:33working in silence at a spinning wheel.
0:00:35 > 0:00:37He reluctantly agreed to be photographed...
0:00:37 > 0:00:41but refused to pose and asked her not to use a flash.
0:00:41 > 0:00:47In the heat, humidity and semi-darkness, Bourke-White
0:00:47 > 0:00:50struggled to take her shots.
0:00:50 > 0:00:55Despite the impossible conditions, she managed to capture
0:00:55 > 0:01:01some of the most remarkable images ever taken of the man who was bringing the British Empire
0:01:01 > 0:01:03to its knees -
0:01:03 > 0:01:05Mahatma Gandhi.
0:01:31 > 0:01:37Mahatma Gandhi did more than anyone to liberate India from the British Empire.
0:01:39 > 0:01:43Non-violent resistance, fasting and prayer
0:01:43 > 0:01:45were at the heart of his campaign.
0:01:45 > 0:01:50But Gandhi also used a series of carefully planned photo-opportunities
0:01:50 > 0:01:55to wage a sophisticated campaign against colonial oppression.
0:01:55 > 0:02:00In a country where a large number of people are illiterate,
0:02:00 > 0:02:04it becomes extremely important to communicate with them
0:02:04 > 0:02:08through the means of photographs, through the means of symbols.
0:02:08 > 0:02:13For a non-violent person, the photograph is his greatest weapon.
0:02:14 > 0:02:19Gandhi had a keen understanding of the power of photography.
0:02:20 > 0:02:26Despite his humble image, this self-styled holy man in a loincloth
0:02:26 > 0:02:29would emerge as a master of media-manipulation.
0:02:33 > 0:02:40In 1888, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi arrived at the heart of the British Empire.
0:02:40 > 0:02:44He had come from Gujarat in India to study Law.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48He was 18 years old and keen to make the right impression.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52He tried to really be an English gentleman.
0:02:52 > 0:02:57He tried to learn the violin, ballroom dancing, to learn elocution.
0:02:57 > 0:03:03He was trying to be a fashionable young man.
0:03:03 > 0:03:11Gandhi was soon to pay a visit to one of London's top society photographers, Elliot and Fry.
0:03:11 > 0:03:16They took this photograph of him, looking, as he said himself,
0:03:16 > 0:03:18"the perfect dandy".
0:03:22 > 0:03:24Qualifying as a barrister in 1893,
0:03:24 > 0:03:30Gandhi went to South Africa to work in his uncle's law firm.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34Photographed again in 1906, he still has the appearance
0:03:34 > 0:03:37of a professional western gentleman.
0:03:37 > 0:03:43But his experience of racism and injustice in South Africa
0:03:43 > 0:03:49had already started to bring about a change in his thinking.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53Travelling with a first-class ticket on a train to Durban,
0:03:53 > 0:03:58Gandhi was told to sit in third class because of the colour of his skin.
0:03:58 > 0:04:03When he refused, he was thrown off the train at the next station.
0:04:06 > 0:04:10When Gandhi was pushed out of the train at Maritzburg,
0:04:10 > 0:04:14it was the entire system that pushed him out, with all its fury.
0:04:14 > 0:04:19And that was the time when Gandhi realised what he is up against.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22Gandhi decided to put up a fight.
0:04:22 > 0:04:27But he was already developing his doctrine of passive resistance,
0:04:27 > 0:04:30pledging never to submit to an unfair law,
0:04:30 > 0:04:33nor ever to resort to violence.
0:04:33 > 0:04:38He said that no system of oppression can last
0:04:38 > 0:04:41unless the oppressed co-operate,
0:04:41 > 0:04:46therefore that system of cooperation has to be broken.
0:04:46 > 0:04:48If all the Indians
0:04:48 > 0:04:53stop co-operating and say, "Do your worst!" it can collapse in 24 hours.
0:04:57 > 0:05:02Gandhi's first campaign was against the infamous Black Act of 1907,
0:05:02 > 0:05:07which imposed compulsory registration on all Indians.
0:05:08 > 0:05:15In protest, Gandhi urged them to join him in burning their registration certificates.
0:05:18 > 0:05:23The Black Act was only temporarily suspended and Gandhi was imprisoned.
0:05:23 > 0:05:28But he was firmly established as the leader of Indian protest in South Africa.
0:05:31 > 0:05:37In 1913, Gandhi began the dramatic transformation of his image.
0:05:37 > 0:05:42When British troops shot down a group of peaceful protestors,
0:05:42 > 0:05:44he was outraged.
0:05:44 > 0:05:49In disgust, he vowed to give up the trappings of Western society.
0:05:49 > 0:05:51Dressed as an ordinary Indian,
0:05:51 > 0:05:57in a long white smock and sandals, he posed defiantly for the press.
0:05:57 > 0:06:04He has to fashion himself as a fighter and as a defier of some laws,
0:06:04 > 0:06:10and yet a non-violent defier - he can't carry a gun, but he has to show some discipline.
0:06:12 > 0:06:18Gandhi was using his image to deliver a simple message of solidarity with his people.
0:06:18 > 0:06:23In return, they now named him "Mahatma" - "Great Soul".
0:06:23 > 0:06:27This would be the first of many photo-opportunities that would later
0:06:27 > 0:06:32help bring to an end two-and-a-half centuries of British rule in India.
0:06:34 > 0:06:41At the age of 45, Gandhi returned home to continue his struggle against the British.
0:06:41 > 0:06:43The year was 1915.
0:06:45 > 0:06:50When he disembarked in Bombay, huge crowds were waiting
0:06:50 > 0:06:53to greet the great international lawyer and campaigner.
0:06:55 > 0:07:00But Gandhi wasn't dressed like a man of power and influence.
0:07:00 > 0:07:05He was wearing the clothes of a simple peasant from his home state of Gujarat.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10After 26 years away,
0:07:10 > 0:07:14Gandhi found India greatly changed.
0:07:31 > 0:07:35He saw an enormous amount of poverty,
0:07:35 > 0:07:37wretchedness,
0:07:37 > 0:07:39exploitation,
0:07:39 > 0:07:41Hindu-Muslim violence.
0:07:41 > 0:07:48He also sees fear, how the ordinary Indians shiver in the presence of a white man.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56On the 13th April, 1919,
0:07:56 > 0:07:59British troops opened fire
0:07:59 > 0:08:02on a peaceful demonstration in Amritsar in the Punjab.
0:08:04 > 0:08:10Nearly 400 men, women and children were shot down in the massacre.
0:08:10 > 0:08:12Gandhi was devastated.
0:08:12 > 0:08:19How can we compromise, he asked, while the British Lion shakes its gory claws in our face?
0:08:21 > 0:08:25He comes to the conclusion that he has got to mobilise the Indian people.
0:08:25 > 0:08:31The British were not going to go away unless they were pressurised into doing that.
0:08:31 > 0:08:36Gandhi's response to the violence and oppression was the last thing
0:08:36 > 0:08:39the British expected.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47The cotton growers of India were facing poverty and starvation
0:08:47 > 0:08:51because of the British monopoly on cloth production.
0:08:51 > 0:08:56Gandhi urged all Indians to boycott British-made clothes,
0:08:56 > 0:09:00and make their own, using a traditional spinning wheel.
0:09:00 > 0:09:07An activity which looks very archaic has this profoundly transformative significance...
0:09:07 > 0:09:11A simple gesture with profoundly revolutionary implications.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14Photographs of the emblematic spinning wheel
0:09:14 > 0:09:19began to circulate all over India intensifying the campaign.
0:09:19 > 0:09:23In August 1921, Gandhi went further.
0:09:27 > 0:09:29At a public burning of foreign cloth,
0:09:29 > 0:09:35he discarded his own long white smock and cap, and burnt them in front of the crowd.
0:09:35 > 0:09:42When he burned the clothes, he also burned a system which was supporting it.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46And suddenly everywhere people would fight shy of coming out
0:09:46 > 0:09:50in western clothes and anything which was manufactured abroad.
0:09:51 > 0:09:57The British were uncertain how to respond to the protest.
0:09:57 > 0:10:00There was no law against spinning or burning cloth.
0:10:00 > 0:10:03Nonetheless, Gandhi was arrested and imprisoned.
0:10:05 > 0:10:08When he was released a few weeks later, he turned up
0:10:08 > 0:10:14at a high-society garden party, wearing nothing but a loincloth.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17A Bombay press photographer ensured that the latest
0:10:17 > 0:10:22transformation of Gandhi's image would be seen all over India.
0:10:25 > 0:10:33Over the next ten years, millions of Indians joined him in his peaceful campaign for home rule.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36But the British were ruthless in crushing any form of protest.
0:10:41 > 0:10:46Gandhi then decided to create a photo-opportunity that would attract
0:10:46 > 0:10:50the attention of the whole world.
0:10:54 > 0:11:01On 15th March 1930, Gandhi set out on a high-profile protest march.
0:11:02 > 0:11:06The British had raised tax on the manufacture
0:11:06 > 0:11:09of a basic human necessity - salt.
0:11:09 > 0:11:14Without the means to make salt, countless Indians faced death.
0:11:21 > 0:11:26Gandhi marched for 22 days through the villages of Gujarat.
0:11:26 > 0:11:28His destination -
0:11:28 > 0:11:31the Arabian Sea.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34Thousands came out to watch him pass.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38Hindus marching side by side with Muslims...
0:11:38 > 0:11:43a powerful symbol of Gandhi's dream of Indian unity and independence.
0:11:55 > 0:11:58He had a remarkable sense of a drama.
0:11:58 > 0:12:04He could see a situation, immediately grasp its dramatic potential,
0:12:04 > 0:12:08and then tease it out and build on it.
0:12:08 > 0:12:13To ensure maximum publicity for the cause, Gandhi had sent word
0:12:13 > 0:12:16to international journalists and photographers.
0:12:16 > 0:12:22The Americans were enormously excited and the Chicago Tribune in particular
0:12:22 > 0:12:25sent several photographers here to take pictures of Gandhi.
0:12:30 > 0:12:34On the morning of the 6th of April, the march reached the shore.
0:12:34 > 0:12:38Gandhi bent down to pick up a handful of natural salt.
0:12:42 > 0:12:48It was one of the most simple yet provocative photo-opportunities in history.
0:12:50 > 0:12:52The whole of the world held its breath.
0:12:52 > 0:12:53What is going to happen?
0:12:53 > 0:12:58How will this man act? He has started a drama. How will this drama end?
0:13:02 > 0:13:09The photograph plays this enormous role of being a catalyst.
0:13:09 > 0:13:14And the photographs were of great significance in embarrassing the British government.
0:13:14 > 0:13:18The whole of India is set on fire.
0:13:18 > 0:13:19The moment enough Indians
0:13:19 > 0:13:23realised that they were not going to cooperate in British rule,
0:13:23 > 0:13:27that was the beginning, you might say, of the end.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30The British faltered.
0:13:30 > 0:13:36For the first time, they agreed to begin talks about the possibility of granting independence.
0:13:43 > 0:13:49In August 1931, Gandhi set off for England.
0:13:49 > 0:13:53This photograph was taken as he approached Dover.
0:13:56 > 0:14:01Still dressed as an Indian peasant, he was about to begin negotiations
0:14:01 > 0:14:04with one of the most powerful nations in the world.
0:14:06 > 0:14:13In London, he turned down state hospitality and stayed instead in the slums of the East End.
0:14:14 > 0:14:19Whatever the result of the mission
0:14:19 > 0:14:21that brought me to London,
0:14:21 > 0:14:25I know that I shall carry with me
0:14:25 > 0:14:28the pleasantest memories
0:14:28 > 0:14:31of my stay in the midst
0:14:31 > 0:14:34of the poor people of East London.
0:14:34 > 0:14:40Eagerly followed by the press, he was treated like an exotic celebrity.
0:14:51 > 0:14:53He went to 10 Downing Street,
0:14:53 > 0:14:59met the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Charlie Chaplin.
0:14:59 > 0:15:03Invited to Buckingham Palace to have tea with the King and Queen,
0:15:03 > 0:15:06he turned up still dressed in his loincloth.
0:15:06 > 0:15:11When he was asked after the meeting why he hadn't dressed
0:15:11 > 0:15:14more elaborately, he said,
0:15:14 > 0:15:18"His Majesty had more than enough for both of us."
0:15:19 > 0:15:24With photographers still in tow, he also visited
0:15:24 > 0:15:28the cotton mills of Lancashire, which had once thrived
0:15:28 > 0:15:30on the British cloth manufacturing monopoly.
0:15:30 > 0:15:35There is a photograph with these women in Lancashire -
0:15:35 > 0:15:41that was a courageous move of him to go to people whose jobs probably his movement in India had taken.
0:15:41 > 0:15:46And yet they were willing to support him because they felt that he was fighting
0:15:46 > 0:15:49for some understandable rights.
0:15:49 > 0:15:53The talks with the British government were stalling.
0:15:53 > 0:16:00But they were wary of offending the man who Churchill would later describe as "the half-naked fakir".
0:16:01 > 0:16:09In an act of diplomacy, the Viceroy of India, Lord Irwin, commissioned a photographic portrait of Gandhi.
0:16:10 > 0:16:15Once again, he made his way to the studios of photographers Elliot and Fry,
0:16:15 > 0:16:1843 years after his first visit.
0:16:20 > 0:16:25This shy student, eager to be a fashionable young man,
0:16:25 > 0:16:29now is the leader of this great rebellion
0:16:29 > 0:16:32and he's transformed his personality,
0:16:32 > 0:16:36he's transformed his image, he's transformed his goals.
0:16:36 > 0:16:42And yet he retains, this respect for, warmth for Britain,
0:16:42 > 0:16:48where he had his education and where he had his friends and with whom he had some good fights.
0:16:57 > 0:17:02Back in India, Gandhi was now the symbolic leader of his people.
0:17:02 > 0:17:05His photographs were reproduced everywhere -
0:17:05 > 0:17:09in newspapers, on calendars and posters.
0:17:16 > 0:17:20But in 1932, he turned away from the camera
0:17:20 > 0:17:23and withdrew from the frontline of the struggle with the British.
0:17:23 > 0:17:25In the calm of an ashram,
0:17:25 > 0:17:30a spiritual retreat, Gandhi began his hardest campaign yet -
0:17:30 > 0:17:33trying to settle the differences between his own people.
0:17:37 > 0:17:42Even harder than fighting the British was creating unity and friendship
0:17:42 > 0:17:47between Hindus and Muslims, who had had a history of mistrust.
0:17:47 > 0:17:51Gandhi felt that all of India had to be united for independence,
0:17:51 > 0:17:56but also out of humanitarian impulses, he was appalled
0:17:56 > 0:18:00by the way the caste Hindus treated the untouchables.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03It was far worse than any racialism in South Africa.
0:18:05 > 0:18:12For the next five years, Gandhi dedicated himself to educating and uniting the people of India.
0:18:12 > 0:18:17He lived a simple life of fasting and prayer and was reluctant to be photographed.
0:18:19 > 0:18:23But in 1936, his great nephew, Kanu Gandhi
0:18:23 > 0:18:29asked for permission to document his daily routine in the ashram.
0:18:29 > 0:18:36Gandhi agreed to be photographed, but would never pose, nor allow the use of artificial lighting.
0:18:36 > 0:18:40The results are some of the most relaxed and informal photographs
0:18:40 > 0:18:42of Gandhi ever taken.
0:19:07 > 0:19:12Kanu Gandhi's pictures were taken when Gandhi was relatively at peace,
0:19:12 > 0:19:16with his very close family members or his very close associates,
0:19:16 > 0:19:22so they show Gandhi as a private person, a family person -
0:19:22 > 0:19:25Gandhi in his quieter moments.
0:19:30 > 0:19:36With the outbreak of the WWII, Gandhi seized the opportunity
0:19:36 > 0:19:39to further the struggle for independence.
0:19:39 > 0:19:44In August 1942, he warned the British to "Quit India",
0:19:44 > 0:19:47and urged Indians to "do or die" -
0:19:47 > 0:19:53to wage one last struggle to win independence, or die in the attempt.
0:19:55 > 0:19:57Within 24 hours he was arrested.
0:19:57 > 0:20:04But the British were caught off guard by acts of sabotage on railway stations, telegraph offices
0:20:04 > 0:20:06and government buildings.
0:20:06 > 0:20:10The British were beginning to lose their grip on India.
0:20:18 > 0:20:22By the end of the war, a new world order was emerging.
0:20:22 > 0:20:27Independence for India was a real possibility.
0:20:28 > 0:20:32Life Magazine commissioned the American photojournalist,
0:20:32 > 0:20:39Margaret Bourke-White, to get the story behind the man who had brought the British Empire to its knees.
0:20:39 > 0:20:43A determined professional, Bourke-White would go anywhere
0:20:43 > 0:20:48and stop at nothing to get the picture she wanted...
0:20:48 > 0:20:52but she'd never come across anyone quite like Gandhi.
0:20:52 > 0:20:57"Having thought of Mahatma Gandhi as a symbol of simplicity,
0:20:57 > 0:21:01"I was a bit surprised to find I had to go through several secretaries
0:21:01 > 0:21:03"to get permission to photograph him."
0:21:03 > 0:21:10That was the silence day of Gandhi, so I said, "He won't be able to talk."
0:21:10 > 0:21:13She said he may be observing silence,
0:21:13 > 0:21:15but I am not going to talk to him,
0:21:15 > 0:21:18but I would like to come and see the place where he is living.
0:21:18 > 0:21:22Bourke-White arrived two hours earlier than arranged.
0:21:22 > 0:21:28But instead of being taken to meet Gandhi, she was told that she would first have to learn to spin.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34Finally, only when it was deemed she could spin well enough,
0:21:34 > 0:21:39she was allowed to begin taking photographs.
0:21:39 > 0:21:44But she was told that Gandhi insisted on natural light.
0:21:44 > 0:21:48The camera flash would interrupt his reading.
0:21:48 > 0:21:52"I found the inside of the hut to be even darker than I had anticipated.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55"But when my eyes became accustomed,
0:21:55 > 0:21:57"there sat the Mahatma -
0:21:57 > 0:22:02"a spidery figure. Could this be the man who was leading his people to freedom?"
0:22:02 > 0:22:09Bourke-White pleaded with Gandhi and he finally agreed to allow her three flashbulbs.
0:22:09 > 0:22:13The first flash failed in the heat and humidity.
0:22:13 > 0:22:16On the second, she forgot to pull the plate.
0:22:16 > 0:22:21Finally, the third bulb worked.
0:22:22 > 0:22:24She had her picture.
0:22:31 > 0:22:33After more persuasion,
0:22:33 > 0:22:37Gandhi relented and allowed her to take some more.
0:22:37 > 0:22:44Despite the impossible conditions, Bourke-White created some of the most haunting images of a man
0:22:44 > 0:22:47whose dreams were about to be realised.
0:22:49 > 0:22:53Those photographs are, I think, quite remarkable,
0:22:53 > 0:22:59because they capture...almost, they capture the inner man
0:22:59 > 0:23:04in his dilemmas, his difficulties, his persistence.
0:23:05 > 0:23:11In April 1946, the photos were seen by the three million readers
0:23:11 > 0:23:13of Life Magazine.
0:23:14 > 0:23:16Gandhi and Bourke-White,
0:23:16 > 0:23:20who he jokingly referred to as his "torturer",
0:23:20 > 0:23:22would later become friends.
0:23:22 > 0:23:27'At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps,
0:23:27 > 0:23:31'India will awake to light and freedom.'
0:23:35 > 0:23:40On the 15th August 1947, India was granted independence
0:23:40 > 0:23:42from the British Empire.
0:23:42 > 0:23:45Gandhi had finally realized his dream.
0:23:45 > 0:23:48But his vision of unity was not to be.
0:23:48 > 0:23:55In the negotiations, the sub-continent was divided into two countries - India and Pakistan.
0:23:55 > 0:24:00The majority of the Muslims felt they would prefer to have a separate country,
0:24:00 > 0:24:03so that was a matter of deep disappointment and sorrow to him,
0:24:03 > 0:24:06as it was a kind of failure for him.
0:24:06 > 0:24:11Because he had all his life tried to keep India united.
0:24:11 > 0:24:16Within hours of independence, there was more division and bloodshed,
0:24:16 > 0:24:22as riots broke out between Hindu and Muslim factions across both countries.
0:24:26 > 0:24:31Gandhi now began a series of highly publicised fasts,
0:24:31 > 0:24:36threatening to starve himself to death unless the violence came to an end.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50The ferocious blood-letting seemed unstoppable.
0:24:50 > 0:24:55But word of Gandhi's protest travelled quickly and,
0:24:55 > 0:24:58on 18th January 1948, the fighting ceased.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01It was hailed as a miracle.
0:25:12 > 0:25:1512 days later, on 30th January,
0:25:15 > 0:25:21Gandhi was walking to his daily prayer meeting at Birla House in Delhi.
0:25:21 > 0:25:25The crowd was hardly about 200-250 people.
0:25:26 > 0:25:31This man came forward. I saw him coming forward.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34He wanted to just bow down.
0:25:36 > 0:25:42And at that time he shot from point blank range, hardly about three feet.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45Gandhi had been mortally wounded,
0:25:45 > 0:25:52shot down by a fellow Hindu, who felt betrayed by Gandhi's support for the Muslims.
0:25:54 > 0:25:59He was lifted by six or seven people, taken inside, he was bleeding.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02He was laid on the floor and people started crowding round him.
0:26:03 > 0:26:07Bourke-White had interviewed Gandhi only hours earlier.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10Now she pushed her way back to the house.
0:26:10 > 0:26:14"Thousands of people were straining wildly for one last look at their Mahatma.
0:26:14 > 0:26:20"I could hardly reach the door, but the guards recognized me and helped me through."
0:26:20 > 0:26:27Bourke-White felt it was her duty to get a photograph of Gandhi's body.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30But someone seized her camera and tore out the film.
0:26:30 > 0:26:33She was ordered to leave the building.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39The celebrated French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson
0:26:39 > 0:26:42was also in Delhi at the time.
0:26:42 > 0:26:48He too rushed to document the tragedy and somehow, in all the confusion,
0:26:48 > 0:26:53succeeded in getting the shot that had eluded Bourke-White.
0:27:02 > 0:27:06That night, he also photographed Nehru,
0:27:06 > 0:27:12the new President of India, as he delivered his tribute to Gandhi.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15- NEHRU:- The light has gone out of our lives,
0:27:15 > 0:27:17and there is darkness everywhere.
0:27:17 > 0:27:21And I do not quite know what to tell you, and how to say it.
0:27:21 > 0:27:26Our beloved leader, Bapu as we called him,
0:27:26 > 0:27:30the Father of the Nation, is no more.
0:27:33 > 0:27:38Gandhi's funeral drew over two million mourners.
0:27:38 > 0:27:42His body was decked with flowers, and covered with the new flag
0:27:42 > 0:27:44of the free India.
0:27:44 > 0:27:48It was drawn over five miles to the cremation ground.
0:27:48 > 0:27:55As they set fire to the funeral pyre, Cartier-Bresson was lost in the crowd.
0:27:55 > 0:28:00Normally so keen to take the perfectly composed photograph,
0:28:00 > 0:28:04he simply passed his camera up to someone with a higher vantage point.
0:28:17 > 0:28:20Cartier-Bresson's photographs of Gandhi's funeral
0:28:20 > 0:28:23were published all over the world.
0:28:24 > 0:28:28Images of an independent nation
0:28:28 > 0:28:31united at last,
0:28:31 > 0:28:33in mourning.
0:28:43 > 0:28:47Subtitles by BBC Broadcast - 2005
0:28:47 > 0:28:51E-mail us at subtitling@bbc.co.uk