Gandhi—legend and legacy

Press, 30 August 1984, Page 19

Gandhi—legend and legacy

Textiles are at the centre of India’s economy, accounting for 17 per cent of industrial product. Tens of millions of people are employed in hand-loom weaving and two million in the textile mills.

On January 23, 1982, the quarter of a million people working in Bombay’s textile mills went on strike. In May, 1982, when “Wise Man and the Wheel — the Legend and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi” was filmed, they were still on strike. Their demands called into question the attitudes that had governed India since Independence. Using film specially shot in India in 1982, along with rare archive film, “Wise Man and the Wheel” examines the road to India’s

independence, the power of cotton, the effect on Indian trade unions and, above all, the influence of Mahatma Gandhi on all these matters.

In 1982, Sir Richard Attenborough’s feature film presented Gandhi as 100 per

cent hero. However, James Bellini, the writer and presenter of “Wise Man and the Wheel,” sees Gandhi’s contribution to India in a rather different light.

It was Gandhi’s credo that the road to material and spiritual regeneration of India lay in the villages and in a dedication to handcrafts. The coming of mechanical industry has called this into question.

© “Wise Man and the Wheel” will be screened on One at 10 p.m. tomorrow.