For Global Peace with Social Justice in a Sustainable Environment

Chhotelal Jain and Mahatma Gandhi

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar

Gandhi Research Foundation, 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

Chhotelal Jain and Mahatma Gandhi

Chhotelal Jain was an associate of Mahatma Gandhi. He was inmate of Sabarmati Ashram. He was a silent worker. He believed in labourer. He did not take any rest before complete his work. He had taken interest in Agriculture and Khadi spinning. He was a freedom fighter and revolutionary before meeting with Mahatma Gandhi. He became Manager of Sabarmati Ashram. He committed suicide on August 31, 1937. Chi. Chhotelal is not likely to have peace here. He wishes immediately to return to the Ashram. He says he is ready to do as you wish. But he wants to have some work all the time. I feel that Chi. Chhotelal should be put either on carding or on weaving. Let him card or spin the whole day. We do need such workers also. Under the arrangement Chi. Chhotelal will not have to come frequently into contact with others and will be able to remain at peace. Nevertheless, if you can think of any other work more suitable for him; you may certainly give him that. 1

Remember your promise to me, that during your retirement into the country you will build up very good health, and you cannot do that unless you cheer up. You must unhesitatingly and in good quantity take milk, curds or any other articles which agree with you. For the present, you should pay attention to building up fine health, and may at the same time do what work you can. I know that you would have felt happier if Vinoba could have been with you at this time. But now you should carry on Vinoba’s work “as well as you can”. How much happier I would be if I did not have to qualify the statement with “as well as you can”! It is up to you to make that possible. I am writing to Rajaji. He will certainly have you. He is certain to come here by the 15th of June. It is not so very far off from now, and so I believe he will decide only after he arrives here. Just the same I shall see what he says. You should always let me have a complete picture of the state of your mind. 2 You will cultivate Chhotelal. He must get out of his awkwardness and moroseness. It is time he blossomed out. 3

Mirabehn and Chhotelal have stayed back in Wardha. Mirabehn will return to the Ashram after completing the work she has started in Bihar. Chhotelal will go to Bombay in a few days and return to the Ashram after learning some details there about bee-keeping. It has been decided that he should finally return there. All the same, it will be good if you and Gangabehn keep up your efforts to attract him there. I suppose those two have gone out to Savali to see the work being done there. Chhotelal gained five pounds in Wardha. Vasumati’s weight, too, has gone up and is still increasing. She has gained nearly eight pounds at least. The causes for the increase in the weight of both are oil and mental peace. 4

Chi. Chhotelal, who has been asked to learn bread-making, had read the literature sent by you and, after observing an ordinary bakery, learnt the work, but it cannot be said that he has mastered the process. It would certainly help if he gets an opportunity of seeing a good bakery and watching the process followed there and the ingredients which are mixed. It would also be good if those ladies demonstrate once the method of making biscuits. Chhotelal will be going there hoping that he will get an opportunity to observe these things and in order to learn about bee-keeping from Vithaldas’s brother. Give him whatever help you can. Arrange for him to see a bakery, if you can. 5 I have sent Chhotelal to Ahmadabad today, as I sent away Pyarelal. Retaining both of them in my service encouraged them and me in indulgence and resulted in their services being not fully utilized. I have, therefore, sent Pyarelal to Wadhwan and other places and Chhotelal to Ahmadabad to stay in the Vidyapith and elsewhere and propagate the takli, the spinning-wheel, etc. Let me know which women ought to remain there. 6

Let neither joy nor grief affect you, for both are with the body born.” Considering all the circumstances, I feel that Chhotelal has not committed suicide but has run away somewhere. But who can say for certain what has happened? Do you expect to go over there in the car? What help can I give in the search for a man who is missing? I would definitely go there for the sake of anybody who was ill. If Chhotelal is found, then also I would go there to twist his ears. If, therefore, any discussion is called for, please come yourself. If none is needed, then you too should save your time. If Chhotelal is not found or no information about him is received by the time you get this letter, and then report at the police station. Inquire at Bhaiya’s place. I won’t be surprised if Chhotelal comes here. Make sure that his body is not in the well. There is no need for any special search. 7

The inmates of the Satyagraha Ashram of Sabarmati are today a scattered family, joined together only by their common vow of silent service. No one, perhaps, with the exception of the late Shri Maganlal Gandhi, personified so nearly this self-effacing ideal as Shri Chhotelal Jain whose death, through suicide, has just stunned me. I have not adequate language to describe his insatiable capacity for silent service. He dreaded publicity and loved to live and serve unknown. In fact it may be said of him that his right hand did not know what his left hand was doing. I do not remember his ever visiting his relations or being visited by them. He never even mentioned them to anyone. At the time of writing I do not even know their names or whereabouts. I have the good luck to have a band of co-workers who are to me as my hands and feet. Without their willing and loyal cooperation I should feel utterly helpless. Prominent among these was Chhotelal. He had a versatile and powerful intelligence which shirked no task however difficult. He was a born linguist. Rajputana being his home, Hindi was his mother tongue, but he knew Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Sanskrit and English as well. He knew the Urdu script. I have seldom seen anybody with such aptitude for quickly mastering a new language or a new task. He was one of the foundation members of the Sabarmati Ashram. He went through the whole range of Ashram activities with natural ease, and hardly touched anything that he did not adorn.

Thus he felt equally at home whether he was engaged in kitchen work, conservancy, spinning or weaving, accounts, or translation work, or correspondence. He had an equal share with the late Maganlal in the writing of Vanatshastra. The riskier a job the more it was welcomed by Chhotelal, and once he took it up, he knew no rest till he had seen it through. He threw himself, with the indefatigable energy which was his characteristic, into any task that he took up, and at the end of it he would still be fresh and ready for the next. The words weariness and fatigue were not in his dictionary. To render service only, never to receive any, was the passion of his life. When the All-India Village Industries Association was started at Wardha, it was Chhotelal who first learnt and then introduced the art of Ghani in Maganwadi. It was he who introduced the wooden hand-mill for rice-husking. Again, it was he who started bee-culture there. Today I feel disconsolate and crippled by his loss. And I am sure, if we could only know it, the same must be the feeling of the bees that he had gathered and was looking after with a mother’s care. I do not know who else will look after them with the loving care of Chhotelal. For, Chhotelal had literally become apiculture-mad. In the course of his quest he had contracted paratyphoid fever which had a fatal ending. He had been bed-ridden for hardly six or seven days, but the very thought of being a helpless charge upon others evidently ate into him, and on Tuesday night, the 31st of August, leaving everybody asleep, he put an end to his life by throwing himself into the Maganwadi well.

The corpse was recovered from the well today, Wednesday, at 4 p. m. and even as I pen these lines at Segaon, at 8 p. m., his body is being cremated at Wardha. I have not the heart to rebuke Chhotelal for his suicide. He was no coward. He was guilty of no unworthy deed. He could laugh at suffering. I cannot account for this self-immolation except on the supposition that he could no longer brook to be nursed. No doubt that is a sign of subtle pride. But there it was. He was not conscious of it. His name figured in the Delhi Conspiracy Case of 1915. He was acquitted. He had told me he did not desire acquittal. A casual reading of some of my writings gave a new turn to his life and outlook. He studied my activities in South Africa, and from a violent revolutionary became a votary of ahimsa. He shed his cult of violence as completely and naturally as a snake does its outworn skin, but he could never completely control the proneness to anger and pride that were deeply ingrained in his nature. Did he expiate with his life for these? By his death (he was 421) he has left me heavily in his debt. I had entertained high hopes of him. I could not tolerate any imperfection in him and so he had often to bear the brunt of my impatience as, perhaps, only one or two besides him have borne. But he never complained, never even winced. Had I any right to put him through this fire as I used to? I had hoped one day to discharge my debt towards him by offering him as a sacrifice at the altar of Hindu-Muslim unity, untouchability or cow-protection. To my mind these are some of the altars in the great yajna of the swaraj of my dream. And Chhotelal was in the front rank of the few who, to my knowledge, had the strength and capacity to claim this privilege. The country needs an army of silent warriors like him. The achievement of swaraj, which to me is synonymous with Ramaraj, is no joke. Let these few glimpses of Chhotelal’s life serve as an inspiration in our striving for India’s freedom. 8

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