:00:00. > :00:32.Welcome to Witness, here at the British Library in London.
:00:33. > :00:35.This month we have another five people who have witnessed
:00:36. > :00:37.extraordinary moments in history first-hand.
:00:38. > :00:40.We will be remembering a royal wedding in Japan,
:00:41. > :00:43.a remarkable feat of engineering under the Alps, and a new
:00:44. > :00:52.But first, we are going back to August 1947, when India gained
:00:53. > :00:55.independence from Britain and was split into two
:00:56. > :00:58.countries, mainly Hindu India and mainly Muslim Pakistan.
:00:59. > :01:00.Partition affected the lives of millions of families.
:01:01. > :01:07.Mohammad Amir Ahmed Khan's was one of them.
:01:08. > :01:11.I am Mohammad Amir Ahmed Khan, known as Sulaiman to family and friends,
:01:12. > :01:20.I am from a Muslim family which once ruled a very large feudal estate,
:01:21. > :01:22.including the beautiful a palace in Mahmudabad in
:01:23. > :01:43.But the Indian government is laying claim to my property,
:01:44. > :01:59.No-one is paying for it, so these days, everything is crumbling.
:02:00. > :02:11.The partition of India into two states, a Muslim majority
:02:12. > :02:13.state called Pakistan, and a Hindu majority
:02:14. > :02:21.It was estimated that one million people died,
:02:22. > :02:28.Some Muslims went to the state of Pakistan.
:02:29. > :02:37.It was not just the country that was divided.
:02:38. > :02:47.In the late '50s, my father took Pakistani nationality,
:02:48. > :02:53.and that is when my family's problems began, because when India
:02:54. > :02:58.and Pakistan went to war in 1965, the government laid
:02:59. > :03:05.There was an act of Parliament called the Enemy Property Act,
:03:06. > :03:07.which empowered the government to take over temporarily
:03:08. > :03:19.It was not just our family which was affected.
:03:20. > :03:27.The properties are worth billions of dollars.
:03:28. > :03:30.But our issue is that only my father took Pakistani nationality.
:03:31. > :03:52.We had to fight our case from the lowest to the highest
:03:53. > :04:02.And the Supreme Court judge said that by no stretch of imagination
:04:03. > :04:05.could I be considered an enemy, and considered me the heir
:04:06. > :04:07.to my father's properties, but then the government went
:04:08. > :04:21.and changed the laws and the battle has begun again.
:04:22. > :04:27.I suppose, like so many people in India and Pakistan,
:04:28. > :04:30.we are still caught up in the repercussions of partition
:04:31. > :04:45.and the acrimonious relations between India and Pakistan.
:04:46. > :04:50.In a way, I have been forced to live in the past.
:04:51. > :04:59.And with apologies to Yeats, I feel as if I am drowning
:05:00. > :05:07.in a beauty that has long since faded from this Earth.
:05:08. > :05:09.Mohammad Amir Ahmed Khan, speaking to us from his beautiful
:05:10. > :05:15.Next, to the summer of 1965, when a remarkable feat
:05:16. > :05:20.The Mont Blanc tunnel runs for 11 kilometres under the Alps.
:05:21. > :05:29.The dream of decades has come true and the Paris-Rome motor journey
:05:30. > :05:35.To both France and Italy this was an historic occasion.
:05:36. > :05:37.The joint opening ceremony was performed by General DeGaulle
:05:38. > :07:20.From here, this looks a pretty big hole, but when you think
:07:21. > :07:23.of the size of the mountain through which it is being driven,
:07:24. > :07:26.it is rather like trying to drive a needle through the granite
:07:27. > :09:11.Franco Cuaz is 91 now, and long retired, but he still lives
:09:12. > :09:18.Now, in 1977 a state hospital near Paris began quietly changing
:09:19. > :09:24.Obstetrician Dr Michel Odent believed that childbirth had
:09:25. > :09:28.He wanted a more natural approach, so he introduced a pool
:09:29. > :09:39.There is something special about the relationship
:09:40. > :09:46.As soon as it is lifted into the air, its lungs
:09:47. > :09:57.Dr Michel Odent, obstetrician, this is his maternity unit,
:09:58. > :10:00.run according to his deeply felt beliefs about women
:10:01. > :10:15.The right place to give birth would be the right place to make love.
:10:16. > :10:20.When I arrived in 1962, the way women were giving birth
:10:21. > :10:27.was the same as in any hospital, on a table, with legs in stirrups.
:10:28. > :10:38.But gradually, gradually, we reconsidered everything.
:10:39. > :10:40.We have introduced the concept of home-like birthing rooms,
:10:41. > :10:50.a smaller room with no visible medical equipment,
:10:51. > :10:53.to help women to feel more at home in the hospital.
:10:54. > :10:56.At a time when they still have the vision as hospital
:10:57. > :11:04.as a place where you come when you're sick, to die.
:11:05. > :11:07.1:00am, and a young couple have driven 150 miles
:11:08. > :11:09.to have their first baby here, in an ordinary state
:11:10. > :11:19.By changing the environment, we have attracted more women
:11:20. > :11:21.to our maternity unit, women coming from far away.
:11:22. > :11:30.And that is why I became an obstetrician!
:11:31. > :11:34.From 200 births a year, to 1,000 births a year.
:11:35. > :11:36.A pool to help mothers ease the pain of labour.
:11:37. > :11:39.Babies are occasionally born under water.
:11:40. > :11:45.We have painted the walls in blue, dolphins on the walls.
:11:46. > :11:50.They wanted to enter the birthing pool before it was full.
:11:51. > :11:57.The main objective was to break the vicious
:11:58. > :12:10.All medication, all drugs have side-effects.
:12:11. > :12:13.After being in the womb in warm fluid for nine months,
:12:14. > :12:15.the baby emerges happily into the warm water
:12:16. > :12:25.with its life-support system from the mother still intact.
:12:26. > :12:28.I remember the visit we had with this British obstetrician.
:12:29. > :12:43.Well, I do not think we would have room for it in our hospital.
:12:44. > :12:45.And I find Dr Odent's views about it a wonderful mixture
:12:46. > :12:52.I do not think the word "mysticism" is appropriate.
:12:53. > :12:55.It is true that I tried to consider in a scientific language
:12:56. > :13:04.TRANSLATION: It felt like a family atmosphere, very reassuring.
:13:05. > :13:13.It gave you confidence in yourself, and that is what I needed.
:13:14. > :13:16.I was pleased when I heard women talking in a positive way
:13:17. > :13:27.We have to learn from positive experiences,
:13:28. > :13:30.Michel Odent now lives in London and birthing pools are widely
:13:31. > :13:39.Remember, you can watch Witness every month on the BBC News Channel,
:13:40. > :13:41.or you can catch up on over a thousand radio programmes
:13:42. > :13:48.Next, we're going back to August 1972 when the dictator Idi Amin
:13:49. > :13:50.ordered Uganda's Asian minority to leave the country, accusing them
:13:51. > :14:30.80,000 people were forced to leave Uganda, including Gita Watts.
:14:31. > :14:35.We had 90 days to sort everything out, to get out of the country and
:14:36. > :14:44.he sort of made the impression that if we didn't get out on time, we'd
:14:45. > :14:48.be sitting on fire. More than 12,000 towns and villages like this in
:14:49. > :14:53.Uganda. In every one of them, the Government is pressing its campaign
:14:54. > :15:00.against the Asian traders. The Asian community was close-knit, all the
:15:01. > :15:04.Asian shops inrolled together and we all knew each other. Each family and
:15:05. > :15:09.all the kids knew each other. We weren't well off but we were
:15:10. > :15:13.comfortable. People started rushing to the embassies and my dad had to
:15:14. > :15:18.sign everything over. That means his assets and his business, over to the
:15:19. > :15:23.Ugandan bank. We were given ?55, that's all he was allowed to take
:15:24. > :15:32.with him. It was just unbelievable, you know, after everything that he
:15:33. > :15:38.earned, he was just left with ?55. When we first got to the airport,
:15:39. > :15:41.people's luggage was opened and people were checking for gold and
:15:42. > :15:47.money and, for some reason, my parents put a ring on my finger. We
:15:48. > :15:52.were told to get that ring off me because the ring was so tight we
:15:53. > :15:59.struggled to take it off. My parents tried everything to take this ring
:16:00. > :16:03.off. In the end, it was cut off. The scariest bit was that we had
:16:04. > :16:09.soldiers with guns and knives surrounding us. I was panicking
:16:10. > :16:14.trying to get this ring off. It was a relief that we had to go on
:16:15. > :16:18.display when the plane was taking off. My dad was probably thinking,
:16:19. > :16:23.you know, he got his family out of the country at last. But he was
:16:24. > :16:27.leaving back something that he really loved, the country that he
:16:28. > :16:32.loved. The Asians arrived in cold wet weather at Stansted, whole
:16:33. > :16:36.families arriving with little cash. The few belongings they brought
:16:37. > :16:42.often seemed of nothing more than sentimental. The time of the year we
:16:43. > :16:48.arrived it was winter time. That made it worse as well with the rain.
:16:49. > :16:53.I had not seen the snow before. We were scared because we didn't know
:16:54. > :16:58.where would we go. I mean, my mum was told to take us to Leicester, a
:16:59. > :17:06.town called Leicester, we didn't know what it was like, we didn't
:17:07. > :17:12.know any English when I grew up and went to secondary school I came
:17:13. > :17:16.through a lot of racial abuse from kids, you know, calling names and
:17:17. > :17:23.waiting for me outside school and wanting to like beat me up and not
:17:24. > :17:28.liking my colour. Recently, we just went back to Uganda. I just wanted
:17:29. > :17:35.to see the country that I was born in and why my parents loved that
:17:36. > :17:41.country so much. It was nice to go back to the hospital where I was
:17:42. > :17:46.born. It really was an amazing experience. In all, 60,000 Asians
:17:47. > :17:52.were expelled from you began Da, nearly half settled in Britain,
:17:53. > :17:58.including Gita watts. Finally back to 1959 and a ground-breaking Royal
:17:59. > :18:03.wedding in Japan. Witness has been to Tokyo to meet a TV director whose
:18:04. > :18:12.coverage of the TV event entranced the nation. So he marries a
:18:13. > :18:56.commoner, breaking tradition of over 200 years.
:18:57. > :19:02.The ceremony lasting 15 minutes took place in a wooden shrine within the
:19:03. > :19:05.walls of the imperial palace. There was no hint of any western influence
:19:06. > :19:10.in the wedding ritual. In robes such as the members of the imperial
:19:11. > :19:18.family have worn for centuries, the Crown Prince and his bride were made
:19:19. > :19:22.man and wife. Burdened by no fewer than 12 kimonos, it took the
:19:23. > :20:23.Princess three hours to dress. The total weight was 33 pounds.
:20:24. > :20:28.Cheers accompanied them all the way as they proceeded on their drive
:20:29. > :21:50.through Tokyo. That is all from us this month. I
:21:51. > :21:54.hope you will join us next month back here at the British Library.
:21:55. > :21:57.We'll have five extraordinary accounts of hiss true through the
:21:58. > :21:59.eyes of people who were there. For now, from me and the rest of the
:22:00. > :22:31.team at Witness, goodbye. It's certainly looking like a
:22:32. > :22:34.weekend of two halves. Best of the weather today, cloud and some rain
:22:35. > :22:36.on the way tomorrow. Especially in the west.