Gandhi Page #30

Gandhi reacts -- with surprise and caution.

GANDHI:

Indeed.

FIRST YOUNG MAN:

He tells us you need help. And we

have come to give it.

Again Gandhi is surprised -- but even more cautious. Behind

him, the crowd begins to chant "Gandhi -- Gandhi."

GANDHI:

I want to document, coldly,

rationally, what is being done here.

It may take months -- many, many

months.

FIRST YOUNG MAN:

(they're eager,

impressed)

We have no pressing engagements.

It sounds casually ironic, but they look determined, even

angry.

GANDHI:

You will have to live with the

peasants.

(They nod.)

I have nothing to pay you.

(They only smile.)

Hmm.

He is looking at them with a soupçon of skepticism but he is

beginning to smell victory. His name echoes around him and

is taken up even louder as the news spreads to the street.

GOVERNOR'S OFFICE - CHAMPARAN - INTERIOR - DAY

Almost total silence. The room is long, large and imposing --

hardwood floors, overhead fans, an aura of wealth and

permanence. Footsteps pace its acres of space... and Sir

George Hodge comes into frame. He is rich, middle-aged, Tory --

and at the moment feeling impotent and harried.

SIR GEORGE:

I don't know what this country is

coming to!

The Governor, Sir Edward Gait -- the portrait of the King

prominent behind him -- is feeling as cornered as Sir George

but for different reasons. His desk is arrayed with several

tall stacks of folders -- all with exactly the same covers --

and on one corner of the desk, some folded newspapers. We

can just read "Gandhi" in a headline. He taps one of the

folders irritably with his hand.

SIR EDWARD:

But good God, man, you yourself raised

the rent simply to finance a hunting

expedition!

Sir George looks at him -- half defensive, half defiant.

They are old friends -- the same school, the same social

class, long together in India -- and their argument is an

argument between friend who accept the same premises. But

even so the Governor feels the game has not quite been played

fairly.

SIR EDWARD:

And some of these others --

(he gestures to the

folders again)

beatings, illegal seizures, demanding

services without pay, even refusing

them water! In India!...

Sir George is staring out of the window, vexed, bristling

but defensive.

SIR GEORGE:

Nobody knows what it is to try to

get these people to work!

SIR EDWARD:

Well, you've make this half-naked

whatever-he-is into an international

hero.

He picks up one of the papers irritatedly, the London Daily

Chronicle.

SIR EDWARD:

"One lone man marching dusty roads

armed only with honesty and a bamboo

shaft doing battle with the British

Empire."

(He lowers the paper

dismally; then the

ultimate bitterness)

At home children are writing "essays"

about him.

Sir George looks at him and sighs heavily. Sir Edward stares

back, then drops the paper back on his desk.

SIR EDWARD:

I couldn't take another two years of

him to save my life.

Sir George turns, and paces back toward him. For the first

time we see Sir Edward's personal secretary (a male civil

servant) sitting at a small desk and listening with highly

developed unobtrusiveness.

SIR GEORGE:

What do they want?

It is the first sign of concession. Sir Edward lifts his

eyes to his personal secretary.

PERSONAL SECRETARY

(reading precisely

from a document)

A rebate on rents paid.

(Sir George huffs.)

They are to be free to grow crops of

their own choice. A commission --

part Indian -- to hear grievances.

Sir George looks from him to Sir Edward. A beat.

SIR GEORGE:

(wearily)

That would satisfy him?...

SIR EDWARD:

(a nod; then pointedly)

And His Majesty's Government. It

only needs your signature for the

landlords.

Sir George looks at the document on the secretary's desk. A

moment. The secretary turns it slowly so it is facing him.

Sir George looks at it like a snake. The secretary picks up

a pen and offers it. A second, then Sir George takes the pen

and signs angrily.

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