For Global Peace with Social Justice in a Sustainable Environment

Muriel Lester and Mahatma Gandhi

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Gandhian Scholar

Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No.- 09404955338, 09415777229

E-mail-dr.yadav.yogendra@gandhifoundation.net; dr.yogendragandhi@gmail.com

Muriel Lester and Mahatma Gandhi

Muriel Lester was one of the close associate of Mahatma Gandhi. He founded Kingsley hall in London East End, where Mahatma Gandhi was stayed during second round table conference. He had written books on Gandhi. That is Entertaining Gandhi and Gandhi world citizen. Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “I was able to finish reading your letter last night. I fear you will see more of the things you have described if you stay in India long enough. Religion is a complex problem, as complex as life itself. It is remarkable how much humbug can pass under its hallowed name. But what you have seen is a passing phase. The remote village life is in its way deeply spiritual, in my opinion more so than in the West. That is the permanent part of mass Hinduism. It will be finally judged by its influence on them. For ages the cult of violence has failed to produce any impression on them. History has no record of these villages having in a mass taken part in violence. Not therefore that they are totally non-violent. But they are comparatively so. However, all this is futile writing. What matters is how we live ourselves irrespective of what the whole world may do. The more I see of the world the more humbled I become and the more fully I learn to lean on God. I must not go beyond two pages.”1

Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “I get your letters regularly. You asked me how to answer the conundrums that your fellow passengers had put before you regarding India’s alleged indifference about total prohibition. As, in my travels, I had not your address, I could not write to you, but I wrote a leading article in Young India based upon your letter, which I hope you saw and which contained the answer you wanted. If you need anything more, you will please refer to me. I am glad you are being assisted by Tarini Sinha. I am looking forward to your letter giving me a description of your experiences at the India Office. I am quite sure that the steps you are taking to equip yourself for the task are the proper and necessary steps. They alone can give you the knowledge, experience and confidence required for the struggle that is in front of you. I have read your interview with The Observer. It was reproduced in one of the Indian dailies. I certainly agree with you that if you had not given that interview it would have been better. But, if the reporter has correctly reported you what does it matter even if it contains some erroneous deductions. It would be terrible if at every step we hesitate because of the possibility of erroneous judgement.”2

Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “I must dictate this letter as I must keep as much on my back as possible. I see you want me to give you the name of an Indian friend who could lay the foundation stone for your new hall. The only one I can think of and thoroughly recommend and whom I know personally very well is Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. His address is: Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Clinique Stephani, Montanas Sierre, and Switzerland. And you must write to him. Use this letter and draw him. He will come if you want him and you will be pleased to have him. He is one of the truest men I know in India. I am writing to him. I do not like your resolution at all. Here is the text that I would recommend. I know it will be difficult for you to pilot my text. But really that alone will answer if it is backed by corresponding action. The resolution you have given is very vague and will be accepted by the Government of India without any difficulty. For, they will say that they do not thwart any action which the Indian people by their accredited representatives may desire to carry through. They will say, ‘we have transferred this department to them. Let them adjust the finances as they like.’ Do you see what I mean? Our case is that the Government is not sincere, that the people have really no hand in the matter, and that the transfer of excise revenue to the elected representatives is itself proof of the Government’s insincerity. Education is a transferred subject and the financial assistance given to them is from the excise revenue. The Government has thus created a tie. If the accredited representatives shut up liquor shops, they must starve education or impose fresh taxation upon a people who are in no way able to bear the weight even of existing taxation. The remedy, therefore, is, if the position stated above is correct, for the Government to keep the excise department themselves and carry the prohibition policy through and recoup themselves for the loss of revenue by cutting down the military budget. They have as much right to raise revenue through liquor as they would have to raise revenue through legalized prostitution. If this is your position independently of me and if you can support the position by your own study of facts, figures and other literature, your resolution would run thus: In the opinion of this meeting it is wrong for the people of this country to be party to the maintenance of the liquor traffic in India and that therefore it was wrong on the part of the Government to have made the liquor revenue of India a ‘transferred’ (provincial) subject and consequently a principal source of revenue on which the spending departments of education and development have to depend, thereby rendering it practically impossible for the Ministers responsible for these departments to undertake a policy of prohibition. In the opinion of this meeting the Government of India should have retained the Liquor Revenue as a Central subject and carried out a policy of complete prohibition, the loss of revenue thus sustained being made up for, by retrenchment in the ever-growing and largely unnecessary military expenditure. This meeting therefore calls upon the Government to take the steps necessary to enforce the wish expressed in this resolution. You may lick the resolution into shape in any manner you like so long as you retain the substance of it unimpaired. I fear that you will find it difficult to carry through the resolution of this character. But really it is the only thing worth having. And if you find that there is no atmosphere yet in England for such a drastic resolution and I admit that it is drastic merely put your case before the educated public, and wait for the resolution. The resolution given to you by your friends gives a wrong lead and you know how difficult it is to undo the mischief done by a thing wrongly begun. I am getting better though I must still take extra-ordinary care to give myself as much rest as is possible both for body and mind.”3

Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “However you have now got it and you will let me know how you are faring with it. Thanks to the prayers of innumerable friends known and unknown to me, I seem to be getting better and stronger and hope to be fairly in harness next month. I am taking care of myself for I want you to succeed in your anti-drink campaign so that I can come there and reap the fruits of the work you are now doing. But the implications of your success are enormous. And if I had no faith in God and His utter goodness, I should despair of a comparatively unknown worker in the slums reaching the high and the mighty of the land and changing their hearts. May you have all the strength for so doing? I am glad you have written to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, and I do hope that he will be able to do the work.”4

Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “This will be presented to you by Mr. Rajendra Prasad, one of the best among my co-workers. You will show him all your activities and know all about me and the Ashram from him.”5 Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “I have replied to your cablegram. Nothing is yet certain. I am not clear in my own mind as to what I should do. I am now in correspondence with M. Romain Rolland. His final reply will help me to come to some decision. If the visit to Europe is decided upon and if I reach in time I would gladly perform the opening ceremony. But so far as I can see I can’t possibly reach in time. There seems to be no occasion to leave India before May if at all. I may therefore suggest your making other arrangements. As for staying with you, of course, I would love to do so if you can harbour me and my companions, because if I do come I shan’t be alone.”6

Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “I see that after all you belong to a rich country. I, belonging to a pauper country, think fifty times before sending cablegrams and each time say to myself one rupee means 64 hungry mouths fed per day after an hour’s work each. For one-sixty fourth of a rupee buys sufficient flour to give one meal to one of the starving millions. When therefore we meet, if we do, I am going to ask you to account for all the cables that you have been spending money on although you represent the poor people of Poplar. I can’t summon up sufficient courage to make up my mind whether to go to Europe or not to go. I am therefore waiting for an expected letter from Romain Rolland. The expected letter will compel me to make up my mind finally. I don’t know why I have difficulty in making up my mind about the European visit in spite of your glowing letter.”7 Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “I was delighted to have your description about the opening ceremony. I hope you will flourish more and more. Do keep me in touch with your movements. I should certainly be delighted to see Mrs. Winifred Dickenson when she comes. I don’t need to give you any information about the Ashram because you must glean everything about the Ashram from the pages of Young India.”8

Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “I see your work is daily prospering. May it be a complete blessing to all who come under its influence? Nothing is yet decided about my European visit this year. You shall know about the decision in due course.”9 Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “As there was nothing particular to write to you about I have been silent because there is not one moment to spare. But I am following your work from the letters you send me. I am asking the Young India Manager to put you on the complimentary list so that you may continue to get your Young India whether you send the subscription or not and henceforth if you really cannot afford it do not pinch yourself and send the subscription. You have a right to receive a free copy. You will see what I have done in connection with the viceregal letter. I do not know what will come out of it. Write to Mohanlal yourself asking him to send a complimentary copy to you.”10 Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “On the eve of what promises to be a life and death struggle I think of all my English friends known and unknown. You are not the least among them.”11 Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “I would rather stay at your settlement than anywhere else, for there I will be living among the same sort of people as those for whom I have spent my life.”12

Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “I know what a terrible shock it must have been to you to learn that after all I was not coming. If it is any consolation please know that it was no less a shock to me. I know with what affection you were making preparations to receive me in your home. I was looking forward to making the acquaintance of the neighbours of Kingsley Hall and come in intimate contact with their lives. But God has willed otherwise. I hardly think you need my assurance that I have neither been willful nor obstinate. On the contrary I exercised the greatest patience. But you will soon learn the tragic story. Whilst therefore I have been grieved to arrive at the decision not to go, deep down I have the feeling that it was the best thing and that the time was not ripe for me to go to London.”13 Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “After a month’s disuse it feels funny writing with the right sic hand. I hope you got my note posted at Port Said. I have now gone through your accounts. I observe that your current expenses are just now £1700 per year including repayment of loan installment. Your receipts are nothing like your expenses. But I know that God will help you in some way or other. One rule I have found absolutely necessary never to go into debt. It kills prayer. But I must not be dogmatic. I simply give my opinion as inmate as you have promised to regard me and as I began to regard myself when I came to you. You will always share your difficulties with me. I have read Mrs. Hobhouse’s leaflet with interest. You will please tell all the fellow-inmates that if I don’t write to them separately, it is because I have little time left at my disposal. I often think of them.”14

Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “All is over and the much advertised fast is a thing of the past. It was an experience well worth having, if only for the sake of the love it evoked from all parts of the world and the wave of reform that passed from one end of India to the other.”15 Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “I know you will always be wandering. That is part of your work and therefore it does not appear to me quite as horrible as you think it might. I hope your new child will not fare as badly as the preceding one. Of course those who have read your book do not mind having read it, but these are very few. Those who do not want to know anything about your having entertained a funny little man cannot be blamed for not wanting your book. There must be quite a few thousand people who would like to know the story of Kingsley Hall and Children’s House dedicated to the service of the neglected poor. Why were you sorry that John Morris was being removed to an old workhouse? Would he not get there the same kind treatment he had at the hospital? Where is the place situated? I suppose you will see him often enough, or, is the workhouse far away from you? When you see him you should take my love to him. I see you are in your 18th year and so is the Ashram at Sabarmati. Let us hope that both the institutions pass muster in God’s book. I am glad that Devi has lighter work.”16 Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “Just to ask you to be with me in spirit to sustain me during the forthcoming ordeal. This will be in your hands after I am more than half through. That does not matter when spirit speaks to spirit. Then it is a question of asking and receiving in the same breath.”17

Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “I take this up after a long letter to Agatha. Hence I must be brief now. I am getting on as well as might be after a fast of seven days. I would like you to give me your experiences of Russia if you can spare the time. I have never forgotten the commission you gave me about writing out my thoughts on non-violence for Rajkumari Amrit Kaur. But there has been no time left for me to do the work and I do not know whether I shall ever get the time for it. I can only promise to bear the commission in mind. You remember you were to go especially to Rome in order to unravel the mystery of that interview. You were to meet the Editor of that journal and find out from him what he actually had said and what he had to say to you. This thing may have no value now for the outside world. But it was for you and one who wants merely to serve Truth and nothing but it.”18 Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “You have been moving from place to place with such rapidity that I have not known where to send you my letters. Hence my silence. I believe that I have received all the letters you have written not more than four, not less than three. Of three I have a distinct recollection. I have forwarded your cheque to Thakkar Bapa for Harijan funds. I am dictating this letter in Delhi where I have come in order to pass a few days at the Harijan Home for which Shri Ghanshyamdas Birla has donated 20 acres of land costing Rs. 30,000. I am living on that piece of ground. I expect to return to Wardha on the 28th instant, at the latest. You see I have not yet gone to jail, and you can depend upon my not forcing the pace. My application for permission to go to the Frontier Province has been turned down. That, of course, is not the last word. Even if you do not hear from me, you have to continue to write.”19 Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “You have overtaken me. When young Kalelkar described his meeting you, finding you malaria-ridden and asking me to insist upon you’re treating yourself decently, I wanted to write at once. And lo and behold, your first letter came and now second with Dorothy’s. You are ever before my mind’s eye and often in our talks but pressing work here prevent my writing as often as I would to friends and co-workers living away from India. And how am I to insist on your taking care of yourself? If your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost and not a den of thieves, you must rest when the body needs it. ‘Be careful for nothing’s a wonderful admonition. If we would adopt it in daily life, we would not, in fearful hurry to achieve results, neglect our bodies and then be incapacitated for further work. You have no business to have malaria in England. God be with you. Well, I am at last in Segaon in the cottage Jamnalalji has built for me. I do not know what the future has in store for me. But for the moment my headquarters are in Segaon. The postal address must be Wardha. There is no post-office here. You cannot but a stamp here as you cannot but many things. I dare not write to Dorothy separately: There is no time.”20

Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “Though you do not expect to hear from me, I would just like to tell you that Agatha is here just now and walks from Jamnalalji’s to Segaon. The cool weather permits such adventures. Andrews was here for four days. Dr. Mott and B. Mathews have been to Segaon. The discussion centers round the untouchability question, i.e., the propriety of Christian Mission interfering with the internal reform movement which has received a tremendous lift by the action of the Travancore State opening all the temples to Harijans.”21Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “You are going through wonderful if also frightful experiences. Let us hope it is the darkness before dawn. But we must so work that the hope may be realized. We too are having our own experiences though of a different type from yours. I am working with might and maintain the direction through prayer and fasting. My energy is still very limited. Ba and Mahadev live as inspirations.”22 “Most of those you mention are in prison and beyond me even through letters. But of course such is the lot of satyagrahis. Of course Doris is a tower of strength to you. I can well picture her standing to her post in all weathers. I am fairly well.”23

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