0:00:22 > 0:00:27Welcome to this special edition of Witness, from here in Mumbai.
0:00:27 > 0:00:29In the year that marks 70 years since Indian independence,
0:00:29 > 0:00:32I will bring you five witnesses who have experienced extraordinary
0:00:32 > 0:00:35moments in this country's history.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38This month on the programme, India's first track and field
0:00:38 > 0:00:41gold-medallist, the woman who brought this country's first
0:00:41 > 0:00:45case of sexual harassment to court and the curious case of Indian
0:00:45 > 0:00:48deities appearing to drink milk.
0:00:48 > 0:00:49First, we travel to Delhi.
0:00:49 > 0:00:54In 1947, when India and Pakistan split during partition,
0:00:54 > 0:00:56millions were forced to leave their homes
0:00:56 > 0:00:58because of the ensuing violence.
0:00:58 > 0:01:01Kuldip Nayar was one of many who began a desperate journey
0:01:01 > 0:01:05in search of safety.
0:01:05 > 0:01:07NEWSREEL: A subcontinent larger than the whole of Europe becomes two
0:01:07 > 0:01:09self-governing dominions within the British
0:01:09 > 0:01:11Commonwealth of Nations.
0:01:11 > 0:01:16But India's future welfare largely depends upon communal harmony.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22I'm a Hindu and I was living in Pakistan.
0:01:22 > 0:01:27I wanted to live in Pakistan, but I was not allowed to.
0:01:27 > 0:01:33Some extremists drove us out of our house.
0:01:33 > 0:01:35NEWSREEL: The novelty of independence has worn
0:01:35 > 0:01:38thin and all the time the bloodshed goes on.
0:01:38 > 0:01:40Throughout this vast land, Hindus and Muslims seek safety
0:01:40 > 0:01:42in new surroundings.
0:01:42 > 0:01:47We had to leave Pakistan, now a Muslim state.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50We decided, why don't we go to Delhi?
0:01:50 > 0:01:54When things settle down we will come back.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57But we never realised there was no coming back.
0:01:57 > 0:01:58NEWSREEL: Fleeing from their looted, bloodstained towns
0:01:58 > 0:02:01comes a new exodus.
0:02:01 > 0:02:04Already 1.5 million have been exchanged between the two dominions.
0:02:04 > 0:02:07Another 2 million are preparing for their trek.
0:02:07 > 0:02:12I was very unhappy, but I had to leave my home.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16One cardinal, Indian cardinal, who had been transferred
0:02:16 > 0:02:21to India, who met my father.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24My father was a medical practitioner.
0:02:24 > 0:02:29He said, now that he was going to India, could he do something for me?
0:02:29 > 0:02:34He said, take my three children to India.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37He said, I can't accommodate three, but I can accommodate one.
0:02:37 > 0:02:40So I was the one who had to go there.
0:02:40 > 0:02:47I was crying, because I did not know whether I would see them again.
0:02:47 > 0:02:51As soon as we reached that main road, I found
0:02:51 > 0:02:55thousands of people there, as if the whole of humanity had come
0:02:55 > 0:02:59on the street, the road.
0:02:59 > 0:03:04Women, with trailing children, littered luggage,
0:03:04 > 0:03:07piled up bodies, stench.
0:03:07 > 0:03:16All these things I saw.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19But in this Jeep, when we went further, this was now
0:03:19 > 0:03:20surrounded by the people.
0:03:20 > 0:03:21They stopped us.
0:03:21 > 0:03:22They said, "You take us along".
0:03:22 > 0:03:25We said, "There's no space".
0:03:25 > 0:03:30An old, sick gentleman, with a flowing beard,
0:03:30 > 0:03:36he had this small child and said, "Take this, my grandson".
0:03:36 > 0:03:38I said, "But I am still a student".
0:03:38 > 0:03:42I couldn't do that.
0:03:42 > 0:03:47But I still remember his face - helplessness.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50As soon as we reached no-man's-land, which was the border
0:03:50 > 0:03:55on the Pakistan side, there was a convoy of Muslims
0:03:55 > 0:04:00going into Pakistan and we were entering India.
0:04:00 > 0:04:04We looked at each other.
0:04:04 > 0:04:11We didn't speak, but there was a strange kind of kinship,
0:04:11 > 0:04:16a kinship that both of us have left our homes, our friends
0:04:16 > 0:04:25and neighbourhoods and both had been broken on the rack of history.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33They moved on and we moved on, but we didn't exchange any words.
0:04:33 > 0:04:35We only looked at each other.
0:04:35 > 0:04:41That thing I can never forget.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45Kuldip Nayar went on to become one of India's most
0:04:45 > 0:04:47celebrated journalists.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50And now to another man whose life has been shaped
0:04:50 > 0:04:53by the violence of partition.
0:04:53 > 0:04:55Milkha Singh was a young boy when both his parents
0:04:55 > 0:04:57were killed in front of him.
0:04:57 > 0:05:01His father's last words spurred him to do great things,
0:05:01 > 0:05:05as he told Witness.
0:05:05 > 0:05:06NEWSREEL: Independence was proclaimed and celebrated,
0:05:29 > 0:05:31NEWSREEL: Independence was proclaimed and celebrated,
0:05:31 > 0:05:33but it had been obtained at a terrible price,
0:05:33 > 0:05:38and the price was division of India - partition.
0:05:42 > 0:05:44For a while the north of India ran with blood,
0:05:44 > 0:05:47as Hindus and Muslims and Sikhs grimly slaughtered one another.
0:07:19 > 0:07:22Men and women pass Prince Philip on the saluting base.
0:07:35 > 0:07:37COMMENTATOR: And for the very first time he's going
0:07:37 > 0:07:40hard round that bend.
0:08:50 > 0:08:52And in 2013, Milkha Singh's extraordinary story was turned
0:08:52 > 0:08:55into the Bollywood film Bhaag Milkha Bhaag,
0:08:55 > 0:08:58'Run Milkha Run'.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01Now to 1983 and the first case of sexual harassment brought
0:09:01 > 0:09:03to court in the country.
0:09:03 > 0:09:06Rupan Deol Bajaj took on Punjab's top policeman and changed Indian
0:09:06 > 0:09:10legal history in the process.
0:09:10 > 0:09:12She may be educated, uneducated, working class,
0:09:12 > 0:09:14she may be an officer, a high-ranking officer
0:09:14 > 0:09:17like me, all women.
0:09:17 > 0:09:18Nobody is immune.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22And it happens every day.
0:09:22 > 0:09:28In 1988, I was serving as special secretary of finance.
0:09:28 > 0:09:32I had about 20,000 people under me.
0:09:32 > 0:09:3490% were men.
0:09:34 > 0:09:40There was a dinner party, hosted by the home secretary, and Mr
0:09:40 > 0:09:45KPS Gill, who was the director general of police, was also there.
0:09:45 > 0:09:49He called out to me and he said, "Mrs Bajaj, I want to talk
0:09:49 > 0:09:52to you about something."
0:09:52 > 0:09:57He got up and he came and stood in front of me, towering above me.
0:09:57 > 0:10:03He put a finger in my face, like that, and he said,
0:10:03 > 0:10:04"Up, come on, up."
0:10:04 > 0:10:06"Come along with me."
0:10:06 > 0:10:10"Come on, you come along with me."
0:10:10 > 0:10:14So I said...
0:10:14 > 0:10:16I said, "Mr Gill, go away from here."
0:10:16 > 0:10:19"You're misbehaving."
0:10:19 > 0:10:26And I got out from the gap in between him and me
0:10:26 > 0:10:29and when I was going, that is the time when he...
0:10:29 > 0:10:31Well, he slapped me on the bottom.
0:10:31 > 0:10:33That's what he did.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36Always people have considered it to be a very trivial thing,
0:10:36 > 0:10:39but I could not get over the enormity of it.
0:10:39 > 0:10:45Letting it go meant living with a lowered self-esteem,
0:10:45 > 0:10:49gulping down my humiliation, facing that person every day,
0:10:49 > 0:10:53facing all the other people.
0:10:53 > 0:10:55The consequences of complaining I had not really
0:10:55 > 0:10:58estimated at that time.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01Nobody was willing to take up the case for me because they were
0:11:01 > 0:11:05so frightened of the DGP - he was the highest ranking
0:11:05 > 0:11:08police officer, with all the powers of life and death.
0:11:08 > 0:11:13No one wanted to do anything against him.
0:11:13 > 0:11:17And I found that no one had ever filed in section 509 and 354,
0:11:17 > 0:11:23which were the lesser offences against the modesty of women.
0:11:23 > 0:11:2917 years, long years, of my life, all of it was taken
0:11:29 > 0:11:32up by this one case.
0:11:32 > 0:11:35The lower courts had quashed the case, they had thrown it out.
0:11:35 > 0:11:40The case reached the Supreme Court and they called for all the records,
0:11:40 > 0:11:47reinstated the matter and also gave their definition of modesty.
0:11:47 > 0:11:51They reprimanded the High Court judge and said, this can't be
0:11:51 > 0:11:55treated as something trivial.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59All the people in every household, this was the talk
0:11:59 > 0:12:03between husband and wife.
0:12:03 > 0:12:07The limelight was not on KPS Gill.
0:12:07 > 0:12:11The entire focus was on me.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14Why have I registered a case?
0:12:14 > 0:12:17There must be something wrong with me!
0:12:17 > 0:12:21I attended the proceedings of the trial throughout,
0:12:21 > 0:12:25along with my husband, but on the day the verdict came,
0:12:25 > 0:12:31I specially requested - I said, "I didn't want to go there".
0:12:31 > 0:12:36KPS Gill was expecting to win, so they had the police band there.
0:12:36 > 0:12:40Then my husband's driver rang up and said, "Madam,
0:12:40 > 0:12:42he had been convicted on both counts".
0:12:42 > 0:12:44It's the mindset I fought against.
0:12:44 > 0:12:46I never fought against KPS Gill, I fought against
0:12:46 > 0:12:50the mindset of society.
0:12:50 > 0:12:54People started saying now offences against women are increasing.
0:12:54 > 0:12:56They are increasing.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59No, now more women are speaking up.
0:12:59 > 0:13:02Mrs Bajaj, at her home in Chandigarh.
0:13:02 > 0:13:04Remember, you can watch Witness every Wednesday
0:13:04 > 0:13:07on the BBC News channel, or you can catch up on all our films
0:13:07 > 0:13:17and more than 100 radio programs on our online archive.
0:13:17 > 0:13:19Next, after the trauma of partition,
0:13:19 > 0:13:20Just go to: bbc.co.uk/witness.
0:13:20 > 0:13:22Next, after the trauma of partition,
0:13:22 > 0:13:24Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru persuaded modernist architect
0:13:24 > 0:13:26Le Corbusier to reinvent India, by building a new capital city
0:13:26 > 0:13:28for the province of Punjab.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31Our next witness, Sumit Kaur, is the former chief
0:13:31 > 0:13:34architect of Chandigarh.
0:13:34 > 0:13:35Le Corbusier got his first opportunity to design
0:13:35 > 0:13:39a whole new city in India, where Nehru commissioned him
0:13:39 > 0:13:42to lay out the capital city of the Punjab -
0:13:42 > 0:13:45Chandigarh.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52He wanted the citizens of the state of Punjab and India as a whole
0:13:52 > 0:13:55to regain their confidence, which could have been shattered
0:13:55 > 0:13:58due to this traumatic partition of the country
0:13:58 > 0:14:02into India and Pakistan.
0:14:02 > 0:14:07And to bring back the faith in the future.
0:14:07 > 0:14:09He wanted revolutionary ideas.
0:14:09 > 0:14:13Buildings have to become santuaries from the climate.
0:14:13 > 0:14:17The sunbreakers break the summer sun when it is high in the sky,
0:14:17 > 0:14:21and admit the winter sun when it is low.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24Corbusier was very concerned about the harsh climate of this
0:14:24 > 0:14:28particular city and the region and he wanted to provide comfortable
0:14:28 > 0:14:33conditions, living conditions for all the residents.
0:14:33 > 0:14:36The city is cut up into 30 residential sectors
0:14:36 > 0:14:38by the road system.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41Each residential sector has its own shops, post
0:14:41 > 0:14:45office, school, health centre, playground, gardens.
0:14:45 > 0:14:48The road system is designed in such a way that no door of any
0:14:48 > 0:14:52house or building opens onto a thoroughfare of fast traffic.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55My grandparents were migrants from Pakistan and I do remember them
0:14:55 > 0:15:02very clearly telling us that we were lucky to have taken
0:15:02 > 0:15:06this house in Chandigarh where we had because of this a huge
0:15:06 > 0:15:09lot, which we had, which had an abundance of green,
0:15:09 > 0:15:17both on the front and the rear.
0:15:17 > 0:15:19We used to cycle and I remember feeling like
0:15:19 > 0:15:21a lord because the roads
0:15:21 > 0:15:25were so wide and we used to have just fun going up and down.
0:15:25 > 0:15:27The Indians are also proud of the city centre,
0:15:27 > 0:15:29the business area with its banks and administrative buildings,
0:15:29 > 0:15:32which to a Westerner look monotonous, grey and empty.
0:15:32 > 0:15:34The Indians regard it as dignified and clean.
0:15:34 > 0:15:38A mark of maturity.
0:15:38 > 0:15:41Le Corbusier was given a mandate, that you have this limited
0:15:41 > 0:15:49budget and the city cannot afford beyond that.
0:15:49 > 0:15:53Because of his creative genius, he was able to use local material,
0:15:53 > 0:15:56locally available materials.
0:15:56 > 0:16:02They were very good bricks, the soil was very good, you know.
0:16:04 > 0:16:06What is architecturally one of the most modern cities
0:16:06 > 0:16:10in the world is being built by men and women who have to cut
0:16:10 > 0:16:12each brick, each measure of earth and concrete
0:16:12 > 0:16:22as they would 4,000 years ago.
0:16:24 > 0:16:28The Open Hand monument signifies the very concept of the city.
0:16:28 > 0:16:35The open palm signifies open to give and open to receive and a lot
0:16:35 > 0:16:38of people from Pakistan had to migrate to India and they had
0:16:38 > 0:16:44to be suitably housed and it stands majestically,
0:16:44 > 0:16:45beautifully positioned against the backdrop
0:16:45 > 0:16:52of the Shivalik hill.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55As so often, Le Corbusier has put his work on a grandiose scale,
0:16:55 > 0:16:57using the mountains as a background.
0:16:57 > 0:17:03Today we are fighting to preserve the backdrop of the Shivalik hills.
0:17:03 > 0:17:07It is marred by urbanization and the intent of keeping it green
0:17:07 > 0:17:12as Corbusier envisioned is lost, I think the city would
0:17:12 > 0:17:18lose quite a bit.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21It is our duty as citizens that we must save Chandigarh.
0:17:21 > 0:17:25Now our final film this month.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28In the mid-1990s, millions of Indians were gripped by reports
0:17:28 > 0:17:32of sacred statues drinking milk.
0:17:32 > 0:17:38We we look at a tale of what some believe was a miracle.
0:17:38 > 0:17:43We look at a tale of what some believe was a miracle.
0:17:43 > 0:17:45The elephant god credited for bringing prosperity
0:17:45 > 0:17:48is seen drinking milk.
0:17:48 > 0:17:53Some declared it a miracle others cashed in, charging five times
0:17:53 > 0:17:59the normal price for milk.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26So widespread were the reports of a miracle that India's Federal
0:20:26 > 0:20:29Department of Science and Energy was asked to investigate.
0:20:29 > 0:20:35They were sceptical and said the molecules of milk
0:20:35 > 0:20:36were being drawn by the texture of the statue.
0:21:51 > 0:21:54He still worships at the same temple.
0:21:54 > 0:22:02We will be back at the British library later this month to give
0:22:02 > 0:22:06you another round-up of Witness, but for now thank you for watching.