What happens
The Pacific Story presents a documentary-style account of the untouchables of India and their struggle for social recognition. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, an educated untouchable, leads a mass gathering at the village well, where his people are forbidden from drawing water. The program traces the origins of untouchability in the caste system, describes the dispute over separate electorates at the Round Table Conference in London, and recounts the campaign to open public roads and temples. It also describes efforts toward reform, the political and economic arguments among Indian leaders, and the continuing social divisions among the untouchables themselves. The episode first aired on February 17, 1946, on NBC.
Bombay and surrounding villages, London, Pune, Lucknow, and Travancore, India, in the early twentieth century.
Characters: Dr. Ambedkar, Gandhi, Nehru, Ahmed Khaji
Listen for: Ambedkar's speech at the village well and his burning of the Manusmriti.
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.