Movement in the 1930s

For the country and for the three friends, there was a mounting struggle in the 1930s. The struggles were particularly over the Provisional Settlement, Indian terrorist activities, and the absence of a Hindu–Muslim agreement. Those problems held Gandhi back from attending the Round Table Conference in London. He went finally in September 1931. Speaking at the Federal Structure Committee, he presented India’s demand for complete independence. Andrews was in Britain preparing for Gandhi’s visit by writing about Gandhi’s life, ideas, and work for the general uninitiated public. He was also interviewing Lord Irwin, Lord Sankey, Sir Samuel Hoare, and Ramsay MacDonald.

Santiniketan and Phoenix Schools

After meeting Tagore in 1912, Andrews was seriously considering moving to Santiniketan to help with Tagore’s school there. He came to visit the Santiniketan school for the first time in March 1913 and then again in July. Tagore was still in England but his elder brother Dwijendranath, who was everybody’s Barodada (elder brother), lived in Santiniketan. He and Andrews were greatly drawn to one another as the joyous letters Andrews wrote from his visits to the school convey. Andrews moved to Santiniketan in 1914 on leaving missionary service altogether. Another former missionary William Pearson was also teaching at Santiniketan. In November 1914 Gandhi’s boys from the Phoenix School also came to Santiniketan after leaving South Africa. On 12 November 1914 Pearson wrote to Gandhi: ‘Your big family arrived here last Saturday from the Gurukul all very well and happy.’

Non-cooperation

The letters in this chapter speak of the differences among the three friends over non-cooperation. Tagore was determined to preserve the sanctity of his educational institution by keeping Santiniketan out of a political movement. However, that was not how all in the Santiniketan community felt about non-cooperation. For instance, Tagore’s elder brother, the sage-like philosopher Dwijendranath Tagore, who lived in Santiniketan, was upset over his younger brother’s decision. Some teachers also were keen to join the movement. Andrews himself supported the village work that one of the senior teachers led with the students who had come to the Santiniketan institution on leaving their government schools and colleges in response to Gandhi’s call.

Simla, Britain, India

As early as 1915, Andrews wrote that ‘Simla is the meeting place for all the wrongs and injustices and tyrannies of all the millions of all India.’ Gandhi wrote in Navajivan on 26 October 1919: ‘The gulf between the rulers and the ruled has been widened’, concluding that ‘the hope of India lies in Satyagraha’. The Rowlatt Bills and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre had catapulted Gandhi’s movement to an all-India political struggle. The Hunter Committee Report, published in May 1920, and its endorsement by the government, created a swell of discontent. Andrews wrote to Gandhi: ‘We are living as it were on the edge of a volcano and the crust on which we are standing is very thin.’

World War I

The World War was announced while Gandhi was on a boat crossing the English Channel. His mind was instantly made up about assisting the empire by raising an Ambulance Corps to nurse the wounded soldiers. To Gandhi, his decision was a matter of duty. The future of his country was also on his mind. He thus wrote to the Viceroy: ‘I recognize that, in the hour of its danger, we must give—as we have decided to give—ungrudging and unequivocal support to the Empire, of which we aspire, in the near future, to be partners in the same sense as the Dominions overseas.’ Tagore and Andrews were both unhappy and worried over Gandhi’s decision of recruiting Indians for the War.

Gandhi’s Work, Gandhi’s Message, Andrews, Tagore

The letters in this chapter focus on Gandhi’s ideals along with discussions on how an ‘inner voice’ directed his work. That Gandhi was guided first and foremost by God’s will is best expressed in his words when he wrote to Andrews on 7 April 1932: ‘There are many other things I have done and am still doing against my will, because I count my will as nothing before God’s will when I see it clearly before me. I will make myself as certain as it is humanly possible to be, that, the will that appears to me to be God’s is really His, and not the Devil’s. But when I am clear about it, I rejoice in obeying that will, rather than mine, although I have no human companion to endorse it.’

Their Friendship, Their Struggles

The letters of Andrews, Gandhi, and Tagore are a fine record of how their friendship survived the various tribulations they suffered in body, mind, and spirit. Throughout the political struggle their letters were always personal and emotional but at the same time addressed their concerns for ‘change’. They bring us close to their moments of action. Their correspondence began shortly after they met one another. On 30 August [1912] Andrews wrote how overjoyed he was with Tagore’s first letter. He wrote, ‘I cannot tell you what a joy it was to me to get your letter with its concluding words of love and affection’.

Tagore’s Works, Tagore’s Message, Andrews, Gandhi

Andrews admired Tagore’s writings and studied them with scholarly care as he was conversant with the Bengali language. Speaking of his poetry in an early letter, Andrews wrote to Tagore: ‘I find in them the nearness of God’s Presence and that is all-sufficing; for all our questionings and difficulties are resolved in that; and calmness comes back when that is attained.’ Gandhi and Tagore became close from 1915 after Gandhi came to Santiniketan for the first time on his return from South Africa and England. As their letters show, there was profound agreement between them despite some serious differences. Tagore saw Gandhi’s greatness above all other considerations. And Gandhi sought Tagore’s counsel for his political decisions and Tagore’s blessings for his fasts every time.

The South African Indian Problem in the 1920s and 1930s

A revival of satyagraha seemed imminent in South Africa even after five to ten years of the Smuts–Gandhi Agreement of 1914. Gandhi, of course, had forewarned that grievances remained even after the signing of the agreement which would have to be redressed in ‘no distant future’. In 1919 the Transvaal British Indian Association published an account of the situation titled ‘Ill-treatment of Indians in South Africa’, which was carried in the Indian dailies. A countrywide conference of Indians resolved in August 1919 to ask for full civil rights and to resort to civil resistance until those rights were granted.

Movement in the 1920s

The arrests of the nationalist leaders and other repressive measures intended to suppress the Non-cooperation and Civil Disobedience Movements made the political situation bitter and tense. The internment of the Ali Brothers added to the sore of the Treaty of Sevres. At the annual meeting of the Indian National Congress at Nagpur in 1920 a resolution was moved, which defined the goal of the Congress as ‘the attainment of Swarajya’. Gandhi toured the country for months at the time to engage with the country’s populace and to educate the public about the absolute necessity of preserving an atmosphere of non-violence in the country.