I first realised that people from different ethnic groups could have very different attitudes to the same death, the same violent deaths- the same killings, when I went to see the film Gandhi for the third time in the cinema at the age of 14. It is something David Cameron would do well to remember.
I first went to a glitzy showing of the film in Leicester Square, London with my whole family, including my aunt and uncle who had come over from India, where some of the people involved with the film had met them at their home in Delhi while it was being made; then with a school friend to see it at Marble Arch, London and finally with cousins and friends in Calcutta. (The owner of the petrol station in Southern Avenue had over a dozen tickets spare and gave them to our uncle- our great favourite, my father’s youngest brother, and I was part of a big group.)
Watching General Dyer, in the film, order the troops to turn their guns on the crowds of unarmed people, children, women and men in Amritsar, and to start the Jallianwala Bagh massacre was an entirely different experience in Gariahat, Calcutta to that in either Leicester Square or Marble Arch. There was a sharp intake of breathe in the audience, a feeling that the general had ordered that he turn his guns on us, us personally and then complete dismay. Where in London it was one more scene of violence in one more film, in Gariahat, Calcutta it was something taken personally. My own reaction to the scene and its horror was entirely different in Calcutta and London. In Calcutta the scene was one of pure evil, and in London there was no reaction, no sound and it was just a film.
Over the last few weeks, I have posted up recollections from my recent tour of the eastern half of the USA. I visited a number of sites relevant to African American history. To mark 
This is the fifteenth of my posts based on a recent tour of the eastern half of the USA. I visited a number of sites relevant to African American history. To mark 
_image_number_431_graphic_depiction_of_how_slaves_were_kept_below_decks.jpg)
Follow @LibDemVoice on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
First National Rally of Boats at Market Harborough, 1950
Demon in Leuven, by Guido Eekhaut
BBC target all the wrong shows
40 years old – I've just re-watched my favourite ever railway programme
Weekly Road Report - West End Ward #dundeewestend
Shropshire Council's review of parking charges is on Wednesday - we won't know it is proposing until the last moment
John Marriott 25th Jan - 11:38pm
Hugh 25th Jan - 10:36pm
Innocent Bystander 25th Jan - 9:51pm
David Raw 25th Jan - 9:37pm
Siv white 25th Jan - 9:33pm
Peter Martin 25th Jan - 7:48pm