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India Walk

Watched this documentary made by a British guy who walks across India retracing the steps of the Mahatma and investigating how the events that followed India's independence impacts Indians today. I was not sure what to make of that premise as Smart laid out his itinerary for the road-trip given his stated goals. The man decided the way to do it was to go from Kashmir to Kanya Kumari along the west coast of the country. 

As someone born into a family of refugees from Bangladesh to Kolkata, I had big a problem with this. How can anyone tell a comprehensive story of partition in India without considering what happened in Bengal? So we would need to start by recasting this is a road-trip spanning the Northern and Southern tips of India. That is a valid way to discover some part of India but to pretend it is about exploring the aftermath of Partition is both disingenuous and disrespectful. 

Smart failed to deliver on multiple counts unfortunately - this was not a good road-trip story because he over-emphasized the physical hardships he had to endure at the cost of showing the viewer what India looks and feels like. Traveling that far by foot is expected to be physically demanding so there is no sense in whining about it once a person has made the choice to do things the hard way.  

Perhaps to expatiate colonial guilt Smart is desperate to demonstrate that Gandhi is supremely relevant and revered in India. He is a the happy byproduct of the Empire and that somehow legitimized the British Raj and the likes of Gandhi - and the way the independence was gained. Smart was able to garner some lukewarm liking for the Mahatma but most of the folks he talked to had nothing positive to say about him. With that Smart failed to make the case of the relevance of the Dandi march to present day India and Indians. On all other counts I could not find much to like about this documentary effort. 

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