First Quote Added
April 10, 2026
Latest Quote Added
"Now don't mistake me. I'm not advising cruelty or brutality with no purpose. My point is that cruelty with purpose is not cruelty - it's efficiency. Then a man will never disobey once he's watched his mate's backbone laid bare. He'll see the flesh jump, hear the whistle of the whip for the rest of his life."
"It is a matter of super-natural indifference to me, whether you contaminate the natives or the natives contaminate you. I have but one concern - our mission. Let any one of you provoke an incident which endangers it and I shall cause that man to curse his mother for giving him birth."
"Midshipmen - be a dull navy without them. Now get that slut off my ship."
"While our mission remains unfulfilled I'm not in any port, Mr Fryer, I'm in command - where you may find one day - it's always lonely. You see, command allows no intimacies. You can hardly expect unquestioning obedience from last night's partner in a debauch."
"I'm not leaving you Mr Christian, not ever. Go to the dirtiest little corner of the world I'll be there, right behind you, with a rope in my hand."
"The King's navy will not rest until every mutineer is captured and executed. Wherever you go, wherever you hide a thousand ships will search you out."
"We need only persuade the British people of something they already know - that inhumanity is its poorest servant."
"[to Captain Bligh] But I assure you, sir, that the execution of my duties is entirely unaffected by my private opinion of you."
"John Mills: There's no chance for people like us to go back to England, give Bligh a bad name and walk free men ourselves. And anyone who thinks otherwise hasn't got the sense that God gave geese."
"Court-martial Judge: The court considers it has obligation to add comment to its verdict. By the force of evidentiary conclusions you, Captain William Bligh, stand absolved of military misdeed. Yet, officers of stainless record and seamen voluntarily all were moved to mutiny against you. Your methods, so far as this court can discern, show what we shall cautiously term an excess of zeal. We cannot condemn zeal. We cannot rebuke an officer who has administered discipline according to the articles of war but the articles are fallible, as any articles are bound to be. No code can cover all contingencies. We cannot put justice aboard our ships in books. Justice and decency are carried in the heart of the captain, or they be not aboard. It is for this reason that the Admiralty has always sought to appoint its officers from the ranks of gentlemen. The court regrets to note that the appointment of Captain William Bligh was, in that respect, a failure."
"The mightiest excitement that ever swept across the sea or the screen!"
"TRUE...TURBULENT...TREMENDOUS!"
"The greatest adventure ever lived becomes the greatest adventure ever filmed!"
"Marlon Brando - 1st Lt. Fletcher Christian"
"Trevor Howard - Capt. William Bligh"
"Richard Harris - Seaman John Mills"
"Hugh Griffith - Alexander Smith"
"Richard Haydn - William Brown"
"Tarita - Maimiti"
"Percy Herbert - Matthew Quintal"
"Duncan Lamont - John Williams"
"Gordon Jackson - Seaman Edward Birkett"
"Tim Seely - Midshipman Edward 'Ned' Young"
Young though he was, his radiant energy produced such an impression of absolute reliability that Hedgewar made him the first sarkaryavah, or general secretary, of the RSS.
- Gopal Mukund Huddar
Largely because of the influence of communists in London, Huddar's conversion into an enthusiastic supporter of the fight against fascism was quick and smooth. The ease with which he crossed from one worldview to another betrays the fact that he had not properly understood the world he had grown in.
Huddar would have been 101 now had he been alive. But then centenaries are not celebrated only to register how old so and so would have been and when. They are usually celebrated to explore how much poorer our lives are without them. Maharashtrian public life is poorer without him. It is poorer for not having made the effort to recall an extraordinary life.
I regret I was not there to listen to Balaji Huddar's speech [...] No matter how many times you listen to him, his speeches are so delightful that you feel like listening to them again and again.
By the time he came out of Franco's prison, Huddar had relinquished many of his old ideas. He displayed a worldview completely different from that of the RSS, even though he continued to remain deferential to Hedgewar and maintained a personal relationship with him.