Ben Kingsley credited as playing...
Mahatma Gandhi
- Nahari: I'm going to Hell! I killed a child! I smashed his head against a wall.
- Gandhi: Why?
- Nahari: Because they killed my son! The Muslims killed my son!
- [indicates boy's height]
- Gandhi: I know a way out of Hell. Find a child, a child whose mother and father have been killed and raise him as your own.
- [indicates same height]
- Gandhi: Only be sure that he is a Muslim and that you raise him as one.
- Gandhi: They may torture my body, break my bones, even kill me, then they will have my dead body. NOT MY OBEDIENCE!
- Gandhi: Whenever I despair, I remember that the way of truth and love has always won. There may be tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they may seem invincible, but in the end, they always fail. Think of it: always.
- Soldier: Mr. Gandhi, sir. I have been instructed to inquire the subject of your speech tonight.
- Gandhi: The value of goat's milk in daily diet. But you can be sure that I will also speak against war.
- [last lines]
- Gandhi's voice: When I despair, I remember that the way of truth and love has always won. There may be tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it: always.
- Conductor: [stopping Gandhi on the train in South Africa] What are you doing in here, coolie?
- Gandhi: I reserved this car. I have a ticket.
- Conductor: How did you get hold of it?
- Gandhi: I sent for it by post. I am an attorney.
- European Passenger: An attorney! There are no colored attorneys in South Africa - move your black ass into third class where it belongs!
- Porter: I'll take your luggage, sir...
- Gandhi: No, wait.
- [he takes out his card and shows it]
- Gandhi: You see? 'Mohandas K. Gandhi, Attorney at Law.' I am on my way to Pretoria to conduct a case...
- European Passenger: Didn't you hear me? There are no colored attorneys in South Africa!
- Gandhi: Sir, I was called to the bar in London, and enrolled in the High Court of Chancery. I am therefore an attorney. And since I am, in your eyes, 'colored,' I think we can deduce that there is at least one colored attorney in South Africa.
- Hindu: Bapu! Bapu! Bapu, please don't do it!
- Gandhi: What do you want me not to do? Not to meet with Mr. Jinnah? I am a Muslim, and a Hindu, and a Christian, and a Jew, and so are all of you. When you wave those flags and shout, you send fear into the hearts of your brothers. That is not the India I want! Stop it! For God's sake stop it!
- Gandhi: Where there's injustice, I always believed in fighting. The question is, do you fight to change things or to punish? For myself, I've found we're all such sinners, we should leave punishment to God. And if we really want to change things, there are better things than derailing trains or slashing someone with a sword.
- Gandhi: We think it is time that you recognized that you are masters in someone else's home. Despite the best intentions of the best of you, you must, in the nature of things, humiliate us to control us. General Dyer is but an extreme example of the principle... it is time you left.
- Kinnoch: With respect, Mr. Gandhi, without British administration, this country would be reduced to chaos.
- Gandhi: Mr. Kinnoch, I beg you to accept that there is no people on Earth who would not prefer their own bad government to the good government of an alien power.
- Brigadier: My dear sir! India *is* British. We're hardly an alien power!
- [silence]
- Gandhi: I want to welcome you all. Every one of you. We have no secrets. Let us begin by being clear... about General Smuts' new law. All Indians must now be fingerprinted... like criminals. Men and women. No marriage other than a Christian marriage is considered valid. Under this act our wives and mothers are whores. And every man here is a bastard.
- Kahn: He has become quite good at this.
- Gandhi: And a policeman passing an Indian dwelling, I will not call them homes, may enter and demand the card of any Indian woman whose dwelling it is.