American Rhetoric: Movie Speech

"Gandhi" (1982)

Mr. & Mrs. Gandhi Address the People of India

Audio mp3 of Addresses delivered by Rohini Hattangadi and Ben Kingsley

  Katsturba Gandhi: ...But now something worse is happening. When Gandhi G and I were growing up, women wove their own cloths. But now there are millions who have no work because those who can buy all they need from England. I say, with Gandhi G, there is no beauty in the finest cloth if it makes hunger and unhappiness.

Mohandas K. Gandhi: My message to you is the message I have given to your brothers everywhere: To gain independence, we must prove worthy of it. There must be Hindu-Muslim unity always.

Second, no Indian must be treated as the English treat us. We must remove untouchability from our hearts and from our lives.

Third, we must defy the British.

Not with violence that will inflame their will, but with a firmness that will open their eyes. English factories make the cloth that makes our poverty. All those who wish to make the English see, bring me the cloth from Manchester and leaves that you wear today, and we will light a fire that will be seen in Delhi and in London.

And if, like me, you are left with only one piece of homespun, wear it with dignity.