[protestors sing 'Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram' (devotional song)]
[sharp slapping sounds, protestor yelping repeatedly in pain]
[protestor groans in pain]
[group of protestors screams]
[heavy wooden doors slam shut]
[protestors shout and push repeatedly against the door]
The Viceroy Lord Chelmsford has said,
"The newest movement is the gravest threat
that has confronted British rule in India."
-Wah! -Brilliant! Brilliant.
The success of the Non-cooperation Movement has
shaken the British empire to its very core!
-Wah! -Spectacular!
And for the first time,
Hindus and Muslims are working together towards the same cause in harmony.
Excellent!
And what of the Chauri Chaura incident?
We have become so high-flying as a party
that we are out of touch with the harsh ground realities of our movement.
Bapu...
Bapu, what happened in Chaura Chaura...
is the only incident of violence across the nation.
A stain on a carpet can be cleaned.
But a stain on one's character lasts forever.
There is a bloodstain on the character of this movement.
Once the flame of violence has been lit, it will spread like wildfire.
We must stop this movement here.
Bapu! Calling off this movement would mean
setting the fight for freedom back by decades.
The British government is in shock at the people's cooperation with the movement.
You are giving them what they want by calling it off!
You are giving them their power back!
So long as I remain an active satyagrahi,
I shall remain non-violent in word and deed.
We have all pledged to follow the ideals of satyagraha.
We have failed, perhaps,
in teaching the core values of non-violence to our people
therefore, we all bear moral responsibility for this event.
Bapu is right.
For now, calling off Non-cooperation is the right thing to do.
No. Too plain!
Clothes represent modesty to him, remember.
Not vanity.
All the same, you are the Vicereine. Not a scullery maid.
[giggles] Scullery maid-?!
We have to put our best foot forward, hm?
Now, how do I look?
Do hurry along, Dickie! You know he's a stickler for time.
Change!
Alright, come on, hurry up!
Yes, I know... put it in there now...
Why do I have to get bloody changed?!
Somebody get the Vicereine!
Here we go...
Your Excellencies! Mr. M.K. Gandhi.
Thank you.
Mr. Gandhi. It is an honour to have you with us!
Thank you.
My wife, Edwina.
Pleasure.
Lady Louis. Lord Louis. Thank you for inviting me.
Please, shall we?
Please.
Thank you, please.
Is everything alright, sir?
Something we could help you with?
What time is it?
Time?
Oh, um... It's just gone past 9:30.
I lost my watch.
I've had it for 16 years and now it's gone!
That's awful!
I hope it was not of great value?
Hardly.
An eight-shilling Ingersoll. Comes to five rupees.
I do not usually care much for material possessions.
But if I am to devote every minute of my day to God's work,
I need to know the time, right?
Allow me to order a replacement.
Lord Louis, my watch was not merely a device,
but more like an article of faith.
I think someone stole it on the train.
Well, perhaps if you had flown down, as I had suggested, then...
It is so ironic you say that, Lord Louis...
since it was your people in South Africa
that got me used to travelling in the third-class railway carriage.
He's absolutely freezing!
Dickie, please, go and turn the air conditioning off!
The poor man will catch pneumonia!
George, the air conditioning. Turn it off.
Dickie, give me your jacket!
The air conditioning...
Please. Allow me.
Thank you, my dear.
I dressed for the Delhi summer, Your Excellency.
But it seems you have brought the London winter with you!
Perhaps outdoors might prove a little bit more favourable, hm?
Press inside the Viceroy's House?
You really are different from your predecessors.
A policy of transparency.
The people of India can't accept what they don't know.
It is simply our way of letting them in.
Now that you have done so...
Come!
Let's give them a show!
Today, a momentous meeting takes place
between the Mahatma and the Mountbattens at the Viceroy's House in Delhi.
The topic of discussion is likely to have been the Transfer of Power plan.
The entire nation waits with bated breath
to see how this meeting will change the future of India.
Quite the performance!
You knew what they wanted and you gave it to them.
Bravo, sir, bravo!
I did it for you, Your Excellency...
Hoping you give me what I want in return.
And that is?
We've talked about everything,
but the most important thing of all
partition.
Please, Lord Louis, don't do it!
Sir, I can hand-on-heart assure you that dividing India
is the last thing I want.
It is a solution that I refuse to resort to if there's any other choice.
But right now, I am struggling to see any viable alternative.
[mournful music begins]
Make Jinnah the Prime Minister!
What?
[Dickie laughing tentatively] You can't be serious!
You are serious.
It is all about grabbing the power at the end of the day, isn't it?
So let's hand all of India over to Jinnah,
instead of just the parts he wants.
It's that simple, is it?
Your Excellency, Jinnah is projecting an image of strength,
but has feet of clay.
Egotists like him crave to be admired and validated.
Indulging him will appease him.
And what about Congress?
They'll hang me out to dry!
Leave that to me.
Jawahar and Sardar are like my sons.
At my word, they will do or die.
I'll get them around.
Very well.
Edwina and I are due to be away a few days, an official tour of the Punjab.
I wish you safe travels.
If, upon our return, you can deliver a formal assurance
from Nehru and Patel and the rest of the Congress, then,
and only then, am I prepared to back your proposal.
Fair?
What say you?
Rest assured, Lord Louis,
you shall have it!
I can only imagine what Jinnah will say when he hears of this.
Wily old Gandhi!
That sly old man has the whole world fooled.
Do you think the Viceroy will fall for Gandhi's tricks?
Even if he does...
Punjab will bring him back to reality.
[intense music begins]
Move them aside! Come on! Quickly!
Tiwari?
Jaswant bhai?
Operator?
Is anybody even in the office?
Oh, this too I must do myself...
Oh my...
Even at this age, I have to do these petty tasks...
Portraits of stubborn people are often stubborn too...
Oh, Bapu! Please sit.
Come in, please sit.
I am alright over here...
Vallabhbhai!
Vallabhbhai...
The Muslim League strike in Bombay has led to
riots in the city.
Enforce Section 144 across the city.
People are violating the curfew...
The police might have to...
Do whatever it takes to stop the riots.
Yes...
Until yesterday, it was the British wielding laathis.
Today, it is us...
That was tyranny, Bapu.
This is our responsibility.
I cannot allow anyone to violate the law.
But you let them violate our country very easily, Sardar.
Once this border is drawn,
it can never be erased.
I know, Bapu, we differ on this matter.
Please trust me...
none of us wanted partition.
The circumstances we are faced with are such that this seems to be the only path.
A path can only be charted by walking...
not by sitting on a throne.
This power has changed you, Vallabhbhai.
Please sit on this throne...
Please sit here and tell me...
What should we do to prevent the partition?
Is your throne more important...
or your country?
Must I really answer this question, Bapu?
Then protect your country...
and the throne...
give it to Jinnah.
[camera shutter clicks]
[bangles clink as Edwina picks them up]
The entire village was destroyed.
A revenge attack on the Sikhs, as far as we can tell,
for tearing down a flag at a League rally.
Uh, survivors, Your Excellency.
They're waiting to be heard.
Where are all the women?
Camped in a local granary.
I want to be taken to them.
-George, if you don't mind. -Of course, sir.
Please, go with him.
[bangles clink in Edwina's hand]
Thank you.
Please...
[in Punjabi] Where do I even begin, sahab-ji...
[continues speaking in Punjabi]
He says Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus, all lived together peacefully on their street.
But that all changed two days ago
when a Muslim mob from outside attacked us.
Carry on.
[speaking in Punjabi]
[in Hindi] Ma'am can you...speak in English...
-the Vicer...Vicereine- -Sir!
I can speak English.
Madam, she is saying,
"When I heard about the attacks, uh,
they rounded up the Sikh women,
and put them in the granary godown."
[in Punjabi] Those rioters
gathered us in a field,
and sir, they forced us to recite the Kalimas.
Even though in a different tongue,
it is still the name of the Lord...
so we said it, but they shot us anyway.
[multiple gunshots]
[speaking in Punjabi]
They couldn't decide if these men were Muslim, Sikh, or Hindu...
So, they just...
left them to rot...
News reached us that after killing all the men in the fields,
they were heading back for the women.
[screaming mob draws nearer]
[sound of kerosene being poured]
[fire crackles]
I need some time.
That is when all the women decided, in order to protect their honour...
[sobs] They would all jump
Even little girls were not spared...
Not even the little girls, madam.
[Edwina heaves and sobs]
And you want me to join hands with him?
Jinnah is being petulant, so you will hand him the country?!
India is not a toy, Bapu, that...
This you think of when you have to give up your throne...
not when you gave up your country!
You are the Mahatma...
for you, everybody is equal.
But for me, those come first that
want to stay in this country, in Hindustan.
I think it more appropriate to partition the country...
than to force Jinnah upon them.
The scent of power has made you forget satyagraha, Vallabhbhai!
You have forgotten that satyagraha demands sacrifice.
How much?
How much sacrifice?
I have devoted my whole life to this satyagraha.
I gave you everything I have.
My courage, my resolve, my dreams...
everything.
Bapu...
I have followed in your footsteps all my life.
Forgive me.
I will not be able to today...
I will not be able to today.
No.
You have removed me from your heart, Sardar.
Remove me from the wall too.
Unrest is spreading east into Gurgaon and northwest up the Jhelum to Attock.
I have the army on standby.
The Viceroy is not the only one with an army,
and he is well aware of it.
Pakistan is not the dream of one now, it is the dream of millions.
And when our workers take to the streets,
it is not to be beaten up with laathis like the Congress workers!
And Mountbatten knows that hindering the creation of Pakistan can have
only one consequence...
CIVIL WAR!
So Punjab is doomed either way.
We're damned if we do, and we're damned if we don't.
Any news on Gandhi?
This is the water of the Satluj, which will come down through the dam.
Here, there will be a fan, which is called a turbine.
When the water reaches it, it will spin very fast.
And through the magic of science, there will be electricity.
And then the houses and the villages and all of Punjab will have light!
Excellent!
-Pandit-ji -[chorus] Bapu!
-[chorus] Namaste, Bapu! -Namaste.
Iyengar, the children, can you... Who wants ice cream?
[chorus] I do!
Can you take them
The partition of India
is the only way, Bapu.
I have seen it in Bihar...
how deep this hatred is rooted.
And in Noakhali, I have seen these roots of hatred being cut away.
Hatred is very heavy...
most people are unable to carry it for long, Jawahar!
We can defeat hatred.
By letting Jinnah win
I see you have spoken with Vallabhbhai...
For this country, I have
spent 9 years in jail.
3259 days!
Vallabhbhai has spent 5 years and 8 months.
Maulana, 10 years.
And Jinnah?
The sacrifices of so many cannot be,
will not be forgotten in the face of the ambition of one man.
We don't have to defeat the enemy...
we have to win him over...
For years, we have tried...
But we are tired now.
With the few years I have left,
I want to help build a free India.
I have made promises,
to myself,
to this land.
I would like to keep them.
And I will make sure I do, no matter who stands in the way.
So you all have made up your minds...
Your Excellency! Your Excellency!
Sir? Sir?
Mr. Ismay, sir.
A wire through from Northern Command.
The army is no longer in a position to maintain order in Punjab.
I have talked to Governor Jenkins.
14,000 troops have been withdrawn.
The war has left us short of officers.
And with mounting conflict between Hindus and Muslims,
they can't be trusted to perform their duties with neutrality.
Oh, make your point, man!
It would appear...
all roads lead to one solution...
Partition.
You called for me, Bapu?
Vallabhbhai and Pandit-ji did not agree?
There was a time when they would both do anything I asked.
That time cannot come back
however, my watch has come back!
The thief has returned it.
See, Bapu!
Miracles can happen any time.
Not this time, Pyarelal...
Write a letter to the Viceroy for me.
Dear Lord Louis,
I apologise
for being unable to keep my promise.
I was unable to convince Jawahar and Sardar
it is my own fault.
I forgot, sons often wish to chart their own path when they get older.
Perhaps our destination is still the same.
But our paths differ.
I am unable to walk with them...
and they do not wish to walk with me.
A man may try with all his might...
but if his limbs do not support him,
he is helpless.
I, too, am helpless.
Now, it is you who must decide.
The ball is now in your court.
Lord Louis, it breaks my heart to tell you that
I have failed in keeping my word.
I have failed.
[clock ticks]
[a knock on the door]
Yes?
Your Excellency.
Hmm?
Political Reforms Commissioner, Mr. V.P. Menon.
Uh, Mr. Menon, thank you for joining me on such short notice.
Not a problem, Your Excellency.
You've had an impressive run.
Constitutional Advisor to not one, but two Viceroys!
Three, sir!
You make it three.
It is my privilege, of course, Your Excellency.
Hmm...
Privilege.
Your Excellency.
I want you to work up a proposal. For the Transfer of Power.
Factoring in the division of the Punjab and Bengal.
Sir?
You up for the challenge or not?
Yes, sir, I am, absolutely.
Ensure that all sides are kept happy.
Get to it.
[tense theme music swells]