G. Finlay Shirras and Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

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Mailing Address- C- 29, Swaraj Nagar, Panki, Kanpur- 208020, Uttar Pradesh, India

 

 

G. Finlay Shirras and Mahatma Gandhi 

 

G. Finlay Shirrs was a British and well known learned man who worked in India. He worked on the science of public finance, poverty and kindred economic problem of India, report on energy into agriculture in the Bombay presidency, report on working class budget in Bombay, the burden of British taxation, report on wage of cotton labour and Indian finance banking. He was one of the close British officers and Mahatma Gandhi took a number of information by him. He guided him also.

Some students from your college have come to me for advice regarding your refusal to admit to the college certain students who had taken part in the civil disobedience movement. Without entering into a discussion of the Delhi Settlement, may I suggest that at the present moment it would be hardly proper to refuse admission to the students who took part in the movement? Is it not a fact that the whole of the student world was stirred to the very depths by the national awakening, and whether they took any direct part in the movement or not there is no doubt that they were all filled with the spirit of the time. For the sake of peace therefore I would urge you to withdraw your orders and admit all the students without imposing any conditions. I have given my opinion to the students which I have published in Navajivan that any undertaking given by the students as to nonparticipation in any future struggle or regret about participation in the past would be wholly inconsistent with self-respect. I would also go further and say, what I have not said in my opinion referred to above, that it would also be inconsistent with the students’ inmost belief. I hope you would not consider this letter a presumption. 1

I thank you for your letter of 25th instant, in reply to mine. I understand that you have admitted all students but seven. There is therefore, I presume, no question of want of accommodation. So far as the internal discipline is concerned I suppose that what you regard as indiscipline was more or less common to the majority of students. But what perhaps you have in mind is that the seven students were ring-leaders. I suggest that, if it was right to take the other students, it would be wrong to keep out the ring-leaders. The Delhi Settlement makes no such distinction between the leaders and the rank and file. I would urge you, therefore, to take the remaining students and avoid a possible crisis. 2

I thank you for your prompt reply to my letter of 30th ultimo as also for the correction about non-admission of students. I have now seen two of them and they tell me that they are not aware of their having created any disturbance in the work of the college unless you have in mind the strike that took place in the college and in which practically the whole college was involved. They tell me that if they have been guilty of any conduct which would be considered dishonorable or which would amount to insubordination they are prepared to make proper amends. They assure me that they have never desired or promoted any indiscipline in the college. They have undoubtedly held strong nationalistic views as they do even now. They took an energetic part in the national movement. What they tell me is that so far as their conduct in the college is concerned it was free from any reproach. I understand too that there is nothing to be said against their private character, which I personally, as one having had a great deal to do with students during the past nearly 40 years of public life, attach the greatest importance to. They tell me too that they have issued no notice to which any exception can be taken. I would therefore thank you to let me know the definite charges which you have in mind and which impelled you to refuse them admission. I would also thank you to furnish me with copies of the notices you hold to be objectionable. 3

I thank you for your further letter of 3rd instant. It was good of you to have taken in Syt. C. H. Desai and I would like you to extend the same liberal treatment to the other students. 4 You will please forgive me for my inability to acknowledge your letter earlier. I have been so engrossed in work here as to be unable to keep pace with my correspondence. I had no notion that my last letter was delivered to you with the envelope unclosed. I quite recognize the force of your argument that my letter should not have been delivered through the very students whose cases were under consideration. I thank you for your exhaustive reply. Having regard to the detailed information you have given to me, I have advised the students, who have not been admitted, to cease agitating for admission, and I have every hope that they will accept my advice. 5

I thank you for your letter received by me in Simla. You may make what use you like of my letter of the 11th inst. With reference to your inquiry about Rev. Joseph Doke I regret to inform you that the Rev. Gentleman died many years ago. I think in 19091. He died a martyr to his cause. 6

 

References:

1. Letter to G. Findlay Shirras,  June 24, 1931
2. Letter to G. Findlay Shirras, June 30, 1931
3. Letter to G. Findlay Shirras, July 3, 1931
4. Letter to G. Findlay Shirras, July 4, 1931
5. Letter to G. Findlay Shirras, July 11, 1931
6. Letter to G. Findlay Shirras, , July 17, 1931