PHANTOM INDIA Reflections on a Journey
Wednesday, April 17.
Bombay, the end of our journey.
ItS like being back in the West.
Like Calcutta, Bombay is a port built by the English for colonial needs.
Today it's the economic capital, the city of the future-
In the suburbs here, you feel you could be anywhere-
Monotonous stretches of /0 w-rent apartments,
like anywhere else in the industrialized world.
Impersonal construction sites rise next to shantytowns
crammed with people from all over the country.
You never get used to the poverty in India, even after four months.
Especially in the cities, where it shows its most terrible face.
But the villages of India, behind their charm and beauty,
often conceal even greater economic distress.
Thats why many peasants, deeply in debt or without land,
leave their villages and come here for work.
Some leave family behind and return home in a few years-
Others bring wife and children, severing ties with village life forever.
Like all industrial metropolises, Bombay has suburban trains
that transport hordes of commuters day and night,
packed to overflowing.
Many people sleep and eat on the streets.
There's no place for them, because even in the shantytowns
rents are high.
Bombay no longer has ricksha ws,
but goods are still transported by handcart,
which are cheaper than trucks.
For those living on the street, often without employment
each day is a new battle.
It takes endless ingenuity just t0 survive.
The numerous sidewalk vendors are mostly southern Indians.
Craftsmen punch holes in copper stencils for printing patterns on cloth.
One stencil is used for each color.
Certain designs call for a dozen stencils.
These craftsmen are Muslims. They fill an entire district',
where they ply their traditional trades
of goldsmith, potter, decorative painter, musician.
Islamic cultural influence dates back to the Mongolian emperors,
who ruled here before the English.
/t deeply marked the architecture, painting and music of northern India,
as well as many aspects of daily life."
cuisine, language, clothing and agriculture.
Under Mongolian rule, many lower-caste Hindus converted to /s/am.
Near the Ha/I Ali mosque,
this woman prepares garlands of flowers for worshippers.
When the English left in 1.947,
the Muslims, concentrated in the northwest and northeast
separated from India to form Pakistan-
After a period of bloody turmoil,
millions of Hindus and Sikhs left Pakistan t0 seek refuge in India,
while Muslims fled in the opposite direction.
Yet there are still 50 million Muslims in India today,
making it, paradoxically, the second-largest Muslim nation.
Sometimes there are local conflicts between religious communities,
but in general, Muslims are accepted with remarkable tolerance.
The muezzins call, broadcast over a loudspeaker,
summons the faithful to prayer.
The Ha/I Ali mosque, on an island 500 yards from the shore,
is cut ofi' from land at high tide.
This ultramodern petrochemical factory is located in Thane,
a suburb of Bombay, in a large industrial comp/ex
On the other side of the be y stands the country's first nuclear power plant.
Every sailor in the world knows Bombay's red-light district
just like in any European or South American port.
But for us, fresh from the country's interior,
this ofiicial/y sanctioned prostitution is staggering.
Everywhere else in India, prostitution is secret invisible,
like an embarrassing sore one carefully conceals.
In many cities, it's practically nonexistent
The women are often very beautiful.
Most are Telugu peasants from Andhra Pradesh.
An old man moves from room to room,
purifying with incense.
Prostitution may be accepted here, but alcohol is not.
Ifs a "dry” city, like many regions of India,
for reasons more religious than social.
The Bombay stock exchange displays the same collective hysteria
as Paris or Milan.
Outwardly its the same incomprehensible frenzy and exaggerated gestures.
These men playing at frenzied capitalist games
are still marked by tradition.
Before making a trade, many Bombay businessmen
consult their astrologer
to see whether omens are favorable
and which astral period is best.
Industrialist Pashabhai Patel made a fortune in farm machinery.
He's a delegate of the Swatantra,
a party of large landholders and capitalists,
to the right of the Congress Party, its current opponent
“We have 50 members in a parliament of 450,
but many Congress Party delegates disagree with the current government
After coming elections, we hope to form a right-wing majority with them.
We 're fighting for free enterprise.
Ifs the only path for our country's development
WhatS catastrophic about go vemment policy
is the planned economy it imposes on the country.
Enormous sums are invested in state-run industries,
which all show huge deficits.
Only one was profitable this year, earning a 1% profit,
while private business earns as high as 20%.
The Congress Party has been drifting t0 wards Russia,
and that's one of the reasons we oppose them-
To us, the Congress Party is nothing but Communism in disguise.
I know there S more social justice in the US than in the USSR,
though some try to convince me otherwise.
/ndia could make a big leap forward if its policies were set right.
We're on the threshold of an industrial revolution.
Twenty years from now, thanks to our cheap and abundant labor force
and our philosophical background,
we can beat the West just like the Japanese have. ”
Gigantic fortunes are being made in India today.
For capitalists like Pashabhai Patel, the future is bright
But there's another side to the coin-" a total lack of social laws,
the over-exploited working masses,
and unimaginable corruption and fiscal fraud.
The Pars! are the pioneers of Indian capitalism-
We attended a wedding of rich Pars/j
celebrated according to the Mazdean rite, founded by Zarathustra-
India's few hundred thousand Pars! are concentrated in Bombay.
They came here from Persia to escape Muslim persecution-
The Parsi don't cremate their dead.
They expose the bodies on raised platforms cal/ed “towers of silence, ”
where they're devoured by vultures.
These towers are found in gardens in the middle of Bombay,
and entry is strictly forbidden.
This tiny community suddenly became wealth y at the tum of the century,
in the first wave of industrialization.
The Tatas, a Parsi family, founded India S first steelworks
and today rules a gigantic capitalist empire.
Though at the vanguard of modem India,
the Parsi fiercely defend their traditions and uniqueness.
A Parsi who marries outside the community
is immediately ostracized.
This yoga class in Bombay might appear to carry on tradition,
but it doesn't.
Many of the students are well-heeled Pars/j
as foreign to the philosophy of yoga as the French.
Strangely enough, the wave of interest in yoga in the West
/ed to a somewhat spurious revival in its country of origin.
There S a new nostalgia for the past.
Bombay's bourgeois will discuss the evils of consumerism with you.
This yoga master, who asks his students t0 “measure the immeasurable, ”
spends several months a year in Switzerland,
where he is Yehudi Menuhin 's private instructor.
On a downtown street,
a police instructor teaches a young recruit the ritual of directing trafiic.
Indian soldiers fanatically perpetuate the traditions of the British army.
One day, an especially spic-and-span ofi7cer,
crop tucked under his arm and mustache freshly waxed,
told me nostalgically, “We're the last of the true English.
There are no more in Eng/and. ”
The ultimate in Westernization."
India today has its own left-wing intellectuals.
Vina yak Purohit lives in a beautiful house filled with books and an'.
His wife is rich. He belongs to the SSP, one of four Socialist parties.
When we interviewed him, he 'd just finished writing a p/a y on the revolution.
"Don't think I in? exaggerating when I sa y there are foreign powers
who will stop at nothing to destroy India S unity.
India has the potential to be a major power in this part of the world,
so the y seek to divide it. ”
To him, whether ifs China, America, or Eng/anal, everyone's out to get India-
This socialist intellectual pushes fervent patriotism
to ridiculous extremes-
He s obsessed with the border of Pakistan.
Pakistan is his pet peeve.
“Giving up even a small part of India
threatens the entire country.
We must stop this policy of appeasing the aggressor.
What is Pakistan?
A puppet country invented by imperialist powers
to set up their military bases on the Indian border. ”
This extreme nationalism is found in many Indian politicians
on both the right and left.
They criticize the government for its "weakness ” towards Pakistan-
In this modern textile mill with Swiss machinery,
the emphasis is on efiiciency and productivity.
Ifs highly automated, with relatively few workers-
The management takes full responsibility
for training its workers.
Unions don't exist.
These workers, still attached to the past by religion and caste,
have no class consciousness as yet.
Near Bombay, a brand-new factory builds jeeps under American license-
It was meant t0 produce 25 a day -
nothing for a country like India -
but it was reduced to 17 after arm y budget cuts-
India has insu/ficient cars.
It produced only 60, 000 cars and trucks last year.
To obtain a car for private use,
you must be on a waiting list for seven to 10 years-
The May Day parade of Left Communists only drew a few hundred people,
despite all the pa/fyS efio/fs
after sufiering a crushing defeat in local elections.
Communists don't play as important a role in India as we 'd expect,
because they're divided,
they hesitate between reform and revolution,
and their ideology is antithetical to traditional lndian thought
Many of them, formed in the ranks of the English Communist Party
f0//0 wing strictly Marxist ideology,
seem to be waiting for the complete industrialization of the country to act
What they lack is a Mao Tse-tung
someone t0 adapt Marxism and Leninism
to the specific conditions in India-
Days earlier we 'd filmed these same musicians and dancers
at a Congress Party demonstration,
where the parade was over a mile long.
The Congress Party is very powerful in Bombay.
The Congress Party, despite recent defeats, still dominates politics.
It may be its own worst enemy.
It's currently caught in a violent power struggle between factions
that began after Nehru's death-
Nehru supported a democratic socialist regime,
a happy medium between planned economy and private property.
His daughter, /ndira Gandhi currently prime minister,
has trouble following this political agenda.
Many of her parfys leaders declare themselves right-wing
and represent the interests of the new classes of rich peasants,
retailers and manufacturers.
A new political force celebrates its victory in local elections."
Shiv Sena, an extreme right-wing movement
serving purely local interests.
/t expresses native Bombay residents ' desire to defend themselves
against the invasion by immigrants from southern /ndia,
who are both despised and feared
Shiv Sena is a mass movement and claims 500, 000 members.
Its slogans are racist and xenophobic.
This man, Ba! Thackery, is Shiv Sena's founder.
A former cartoon artist, he's a remarkable orator,
mixing cynical humor and demagog y.
In this speech, he attacks Bombay 's Muslim community for the first time
in violent terms.
“If Muslims aren 't happy, let them g0 to Pakistan-
We gave them their own country. Let them go and /eave us alone. ”
I interviewed him the next day. He eagerly defended his cause.
“People living in a particular state must get a preference.
I see nothing wrong with that.
/f people from here can't find jobs or housing, where can they go ?”
Thackery favors a strong government.
'Ruling with a firm hand doesn't mean dictatorship-
I'm not talking about dictatorship, just keeping the people in line.
We need order in this country.
Yes, I'm anti-Communist.
/f Communists took power tomorrow, I 'd be the first to fight them-
I'm not hunting for power.
These people should have preference. Their rights should be respected
I in? fighting for justice, nothing else-
Physical violence was there before us.
/t would be wrong to attribute it to Shiv Sena-
There might have been individual actions here and there,
but don't blame our organization for that. ”
Despite what Thackery says,
new immigrants crammed into shantytowns like this
are victims of systematic violence from Shiv Sena activists.
These southern Indians are Catholics
from the state of Madras.
They don't speak the same language as the other inhabitants.
They ire marginalized, unorganized, undefendeof, non voters-
The reasons for these conflicts are essentially economic.
We spoke with Ra/ani Desai an economist with an Oxford degree.
She S optimistic
and speaks of her country with a kind of scientific detachment'.
“There is American influence, certainly,
but it's limited.
Foreign businesses here don't directly influence Indian politics.
They pressure their governments to do it.
Our weakness isn't that they're here, but that we heed them here.
We need their raw materials and technology.
So they can impose their terms.
India is socialist in that the government tries to structure the economy,
and capitalist in that businesses are allowed to develop freely
within the governmente framework.
Are we badly administered? Yes, we are.
Nothing can be done at this time.
You understand, in such a stratified society,
with such a small elite,
one has every reason to act in one's own interests-
And this is what is done. ”
What are the reasons behind the economic crisis?
"Mainly the failure of the monsoons in the last two years-
The drought caused poor harvests,
and since the economy is mainly agricultural, grain prices rose.
This was taken as a sxgna/ to curb investment, and that led to recession-
We've stepped up grain production.
We still need 15 million more tons a year, but we 'll make it.
There S a new generation of capitalist farmers
who use modem methods and have investment capital.
They've been very successful.
But we can't expect this to happen all over the country.
There are so many peasants and so little arable land
that industrialization is necessary,
if only to absorb some of the excess rural population. ”
This beautiful young woman who speaks like a technocrat
is a living example of Western/zed India.
But she only represents a microscopic minority.
An Indian friend told me of a village 35 miles from Bombay
where the people weren't even aware the English had left
After two weeks in Bombay,
we wanted to immerse ourselves in traditional /ndia one last time.
A few miles from the city, a small village called Vra/eshwari
was celebrating its annual temple festival
This crowd swept up in religious fervor
is the image I'll keep of India.
Everywhere in the world, industrial civilization
shatters societies and erases tradition.
Our world is becoming the same everywhere.
But India resists, for its social and religious structures
are stronger and more vital than anywhere else.
In the temple courtyard, families from the entire region
have come to stay for several days-
We come upon a marriage procession.
We 're leaving for Bombay, itS our last day of shooting,
and we think these will be our last images of India.
But India will prove us wrong yet again.
On our way back, we came across these salt flats.
In India, we discovered with wonder another way of being,
another way of living and seeing the world
that made us all feel nostalgic, like a secret forever lost.
But we felt all along it was a world living on borrowed time.
Here, where the population is greater than Africa and South America combined,
modern life increasingly takes the form of man exploiting his fellow man.
Translation by LYNN MASSEY for SUBTEXT SUBTITLING