For Global Peace with Social Justice in a Sustainable Environment

Urmila Devi and Mahatma Gandhi

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

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

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

E-mail- dr.yadav.yogendra@gandhifoundation.net;

dr.yogendragandhi@gmail.com

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

Urmila Devi and Mahatma Gandhi

Urmila Devi, the widowed sister of the late Deshbandhu Das, will be leaving here on the 27th by the Madras Express. She will be accompanied by her son. She is being sent there in response to Gopala Menon’s suggestion that a sister from the North may be sent. She has a weak heart; she must not therefore be rushed too much. She leads an austere life of a Hindu widow. She is an accomplished English scholar and has been doing public work for years in Bengal. I could not think of a fitter woman for work to be sent from the North. Urmila Devi can address men as well as women. She must be taken to the homes of the orthodox and she must be taken to Harijan quarters. I do not know where it is proposed to house her. If no other arrangement has already been made, I suggest the Gujarati house where I was taken during the last tour. She should be provided with a mosquito curtain if [there] are mosquitoes at all. She should be provided with a commode wherever possible. She is a pure vegetarian. 1

When Smt. Vasanti Devi Das, Urmila Devi Sen and, Suniti Devi were arrested, some sisters from Ahmadabad decided to form a Volunteer Corps and court arrest. Consequently, forms of the pledge were placed before them. The first idea was to publish the list after fifty names had been enrolled. This happened before the Congress session. 2 You have neglected me entirely. But I know that you have done so to save my time. I want you to devote the whole of your time to nothing but and khaddar. It is the only visible symbol of peace, all-India unity and our oneness with the masses including the so-called untouchables. Please show this to Basanti Devi and Deshbandhu. I hope he is well and strong. Prisoners cannot afford to be ill. You know, of course, that Shankerlal Banker is with me. 3

Shrimati Urmila Devi and her children have been spinning regularly for some time now. And Deshbandhu himself took lessons on the takli. But he finds spinning harder than giving defeats to the Government or winning cases for clients. “My husband can hardly turn the key of his box right; I have always to help him”, pleaded Basanti Devi on behalf of her husband. “You can, therefore, understand why it is so difficult for him to learn spinning.” But Deshbandhu has assured me that he is going to insist on learning spinning. He had lessons in spinning at the wheel in Patna. They were interrupted by his illness. He told me that he thoroughly believed in the charkha and wanted to help it in every way possible. It was a perfect pleasure to me to see the whole house-hold of the Mayor of Calcutta plying the charkha in fashionable Darjeeling creating a charkha atmosphere there. Needless to say, they were all dressed in khaddar. For Deshbandhu khaddar is not ceremonial wear. It is habitual with him. He tells me it would be difficult for him to revert to the foreign or mill-made cloth even if he wished to. 4

I was wondering why I had not heard from you for such a long time as a letter was overdue from you. You need evidently a prolonged stay in Kashmir. You invite me to Puri and you hold out the temptation that you will be with me all the time I am there. But I am not my own master in this matter. If I was, at the present moment I am enjoying so much rest and peace at the Ashram that I would like to leave it. Heat is no terror for me. I can sustain it well especially as I have no active work to do but Jamnalalji and Shankerlal Banker are my managers and I am under promise to them to go to a hill station. If sea-side would answer the purpose I have a place better even than Puri not known at all and it is only a few miles from my birthplace where I can get perfect quiet and rustic life without the insolent palaces that frown upon you in Puri and the distressful sight of famine-stricken people who flock to the temple to get a handful of dirty rice from the pilgrims. Puri reminds me not of the holy associations it once had but of the degradation to which we have been reduced now. For, is it not now a sanatorium for the soldiers who are paid with our own money to suppress our liberty? Puri has no attraction for me. It makes me sad to think of it. And I felt miserable all the time I was there though friends had put me in a most comfortable place just facing the sea-side and were covering me with extraordinary kindness. But they had no remedy for the mental torture that I was going through as I contemplated the barracks and the misery of those starving Oriyas and the callous indifference of the moneyed people. I can thoroughly understand the wonderful behaviour of your sister. I wish her all success in her defiance of drugs and doctors. I envy her courage. She will quit her body, even as the Bhagavad Gita describes, joyfully, i.e., even as an owner leaves his house which has given its use and is now about to crumble to pieces. 5

You need not worry about my health. I gained one pound during the last week. The heat does not trouble me though at the present moment we are certainly boiling. I am delighted with your description of your hospital. I was a little uneasy over the delay. When you meet Dr. Bidhan do please give him my regards and congratulations. I am glad you are taking so much interest in it. It would be a fine thing if you can attach yourself to the hospital. It is worth doing. When many things will have been forgotten this memorial will be remembered. The memory of him will grow if the institution becomes a living force in the life of Calcutta. I would not tempt you to come to Sabarmati for the A.I.C.C. meeting. I hardly think you could bear the dry heat of this place but it will be perfect during the Puja holidays when the rains will be in full swing; you could then stay as long as you like and if your presence is not required there you could stay till it is time to go to Assam. 6

I am glad however that ailing sister has passed away. She must have suffered tortures during her last months. But you shock me by the news you give me about the rest of the family. I do wish that Mr. Das will go to England and have prolonged rest. I am writing to Basanti Devi as also to Mr. Das. What is the matter with Bhaskar? How is Bhombal getting on? May God give you the peace of mind that you need so much at this time of toil and anxiety. Do keep me informed from time to time. 99 chances to one I am not going to Finland. Perhaps you know that Devdas underwent an operation for appendicitis. He is quite all right now. Probably, he is being discharged today. He will go to Mussoorie for convalescence. Jamnalalji is staying in Mussoorie. He will join him there. How is the Hospital getting on? 7 I was shocked to hear from Urmila Devi that you had very serious heart trouble. I hope however that the worst is over and that you are quite yourself again. Urmila Devi tells me you have been strongly advised to go to England and take some rest there. Whether you go to England or not, or elsewhere, I do hope you will take rest for a long time and avoid all anxiety and strain. 8

Urmila Devi gives me a chapter of sorrows. She tells me that Justice Das had serious heart trouble, that Money is ailing and losing strength and that Bhaskar is dangerously ill. You know that my sympathies are all with you. What is the matter with Bhaskar? Do please let me have a line. 9 I have written that letter hurriedly and whilst your brain was in a whirl, it is perfectly coherent and without a single slip. It grieves me to learn that Basanti Devi has ill stood the strain of Bhomble’s death. Coming so soon on top of Deshbandhu’s death and with the illness of Mona and Baby, no wonder she has broken down. But, I do hope that she has now recovered from the shock and has somewhat reconciled herself to God’s will. I am glad to hear that Sujata has risen to the occasion and that she is bearing her grief bravely. Do ask her to drop me a line. How I wish I was there at this juncture. But that cannot be. May God comfort you all? 10 Urmila Devi tells me that you are bearing your grief bravely. I know you are a good girl. Do give me a line to tell me how you are feeling. May God be with you? 11

The newspapers wholly exaggerate the real thing. So far as I am aware, there is nothing wrong with me. Of course, I am weak because of my non-milk fruitarian experiment. But I am under strict medical observation and making the experiment under their watch and with their permission. There is therefore not the slightest cause for anxiety. I am sorry about your eyes. You must not work them beyond their capacity. Mahadev just now lives between Bardoli and Sabarmati. He is helping Vallabhbhai. He went to Bardoli last night and won’t return before Monday morning. You will see something from me in the current issue of Young India with reference to the 12th of March also. Really newspaper reports do more harm than good. But I must not give you a long letter. Doctors want me to take complete rest and I am carrying out their instructions almost to the letter. I write or dictate just a little correspondence and confine myself to editing Young India and Navajivan, and for the most part remain lying on bed except for spinning, attendance at the prayer meetings and a few minutes’ walk early in the morning and in the evening. 12

You are never without troubles. But they should be treated as chasteners. Dhiren’s case is difficult to advise upon. Idealistically he should disobey every order of externment and internment and submit to any punishment that may be given to him. But that is a matter for him to judge. Before he can disobey the orders I have in mind, he must have the inner conviction that disobeying is a duty and imprisonment for disobeyance not a task but a matter of joy. And such joy is possible only when one considers such imprisonments as conducive to individual as well as national growth. But what actually should be done I cannot really confidently say. You know Dhiren better than I do and after all Dhiren will be largely guided by what you would have him to do. You must also consider to what extent you will be able to bear his imprisonment and sufferings, and then come to a conclusion. Of course Dhiren if he submits to the externment order is due to come to the Ashram and stay as long as he likes. There is always working for young men like him. 13

You must have seen in the papers that I have returned to the Ashram. You may now come whenever you like with Dhiren. I can understand and even appreciate Dhiren’s disappointment. Everything however comes to those who wait, and if Dhiren has patience and qualifies himself, he may hope to take part in the final struggle which must come sooner or later if the time of its advent can be accelerated by those who wish to take part in it. I hope that Sudhir is now thoroughly restored. 14

This letter will serve to introduce to you Shrimati Urmila Devi who is the only surviving widowed sister of the late Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das. Her only son is studying at the Agricultural College in Poona. In order to supervise his education and be near him, she has broken up her home in Calcutta and intends to settle down in Poona. I told her that it would be better for her and would fit in with her spirit of service if she stayed at the Seva Sadan and did some work there or stayed at Professor Karve’s University, whichever she preferred or whichever was possible. I would therefore like you to discuss with Shrimati Urmila Devi the possibilities of her being able to render service and otherwise advise her. Of course she has no desire to ask you to go out of your way to accommodate her in the Seva Sadan. She would like to feel that she would really be of service to the institution if she decided to stay there at all. At first I thought I would give a separate letter to Prof. Karve. But whilst dictating this, I thought that I would confine myself only to this letter and leave you to introduce Shrimati Urmila Devi to Prof. Karve and let her see both the institutions and make her choice, if a choice is at all open to her. And naturally what I have said regarding the Seva Sadan applies equally to Prof. Karve’s Home. 15

You are never without your full share of worries. I hope however that Dhiren is now fairly restored to health. Devdhar can be found at his house or at the Seva Sadan. When he is in Poona, I think he always goes to the Seva Sadan. We have many patients suffering from malaria at the Ashram just now. It is nothing surprising because it is the season. It never worries us because the treatment is only one: fast while the fever lasts and quinine proceeded by some opening medicine. 16 I sent Dhiren, before I received your letter, my message to him through you. Here is a letter received by me from Devdhar. I hope you have already met him. Mahadev is still in Bardoli looking after Bardoli Inquiry affairs. I hope the climate of Poona is agreeable to you. 17 Mr. Devdhar sends me copy of letters written to you and reports to me that you have been laid up in bed at Dr. Sen’s house. What could the matter be with you? And how are you now? Who is Dr. Sen Mahadev was here for three days. He went last night to Bardoli and expects to return on Friday or Saturday. 18

Things in Bengal are certainly most deplorable but I do not know what can be done from here. I thought that arbitration was the only thing that can relieve the tension. What else could be done either by the Working Committee or me personally? Subhasbabu came here and gave Sardar Vallabhbhai a long indictment against Syt. Sen Gupta. Vallabhbhai has filed it hoping to be able to investigate the complaints when both the parties were present. Can you suggest any other way out of the difficulty? 19 What a tragedy! As you were going out that day, I was about to shout out, when Sarojini said you were all coming back soon. And I subsided. But so it was to be. It was to me a sharp reminder that I was a prisoner and therefore not to have all my way. It is a good thing to have these shocks. They keep me humble. The lesson is, never put off till tomorrow what you can do today and never put off till the next moment what you can do this moment. I wanted to know all about you and your children. Now you must write fully about your joys such as you may have and sorrows that you do have. But sorrows of God’s servants are their joys. They are the fires through which God tries and purifies them. Unmixed joys of this earth will stink in our nostrils and we should die of want of the oxygen of sorrows. I have read your letter to Mahadev. Let your boy go through the hard mill of difficulties instead of getting a soft job. 20

By a constant study of the Gita, you should learn to shed all care. When God is the caretaker for us all, why need we carry the burden? Ours is but to do the task that falls to our lot. Hence I would urge you not to think of retirement. True retirement is not a physical state, it comes from within. We have to find retirement in the midst of ceaseless work. And, are not the minds of those who are living in caves, oftener than not ceaselessly at work? We should not brood on our hard lot. The lot of those who would serve is generally, if not always, hard. 21 My fast ought not to disturb you. It is part of discipline. It is a privilege earned by hard spiritual toil. It is a most powerful weapon in the armory of a worshipper of truth and ahimsa. It has therefore to be used sparingly. Not everyone can use it. You should therefore rejoice that I can use it. This assumes that with me it is spiritually used. If I am self-deceived, Heaven help me and all you who have faith in me. But if you grant its spirituality in my case, then coercing fast of mine should be a thrill of joy and a source of strength for you. It must move all those who have love for me but that movement should mean a spur to greater performance of duty. I know you can have no difficulty in grasping what I have written. You shall no longer therefore grumble when you learn about my fast in future. Who knows when the next fast will come! I hope you will understand my Hindi. I shall certainly talk to Jawaharlal. Arrangements will be made for you here. You will get a room with a lavatory nearby. You will be able to cook for yourself. I shall be busy with my work in Sodepur but you can come whenever you wish. 22

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