The Danish Peace Academy
GANDHI AND NORDIC COUNTRIES
Collected by E. S. Reddy - EReddy@aol.com and Holger TerpLetter, May 26, 1917
Bettiah,
May 26, 1917
My dear Esther,
Your letter is so good that I am taking the liberty of sending it to the Polaks22 to read and then forward it to Ahmedabad. I hope you don’t mind my having taken the liberty.
Those who do not grow indigo, also want to make illegal gains. Hence they force the raiyats23 on their land to labour for them at a trifling wage or none at all at times and make them pay extras apart from rents. Yes, the condition is no better than that of slaves. The further papers I have sent you will throw more light on the question. I must say that the planters are not alone to blame. The planters happen to be English. Indian landlords are not better and some of them are much worse. It is undoubtedly the ignorance on this point of public men that has permitted the wrong to continue so long. Governments rarely move except under pressure.
For you no doubt Tamil24 takes precedence of every other language. But it will be most helpful if you could master the Devanagari script.25 It is easy and it is the most perfect alphabet in the world in that each letter represents only one sound and almost all the sounds are represented by it.
Yours,
Bapu
Source:My Dear Child, pages 10-11; Collected Works, Volume 13, pages 418-19
[Gandhi sent Miss Faering's letter to Mrs. Millie Graham Polak and wrote:
"I do hope that Kotagiri is near enough for Cecilia to meet Miss Faering. She is a most kind-hearted girl. Do write to her if you feel inclined. Miss Esther Faering, Spring Cottage, Kotagiri."]
22 H.S.L. Polak and Mrs. Millie Graham Polak were close associates of Gandhi in South Africa. They were in India in 1917.
23 peasants
24 Tamil is the language of the region in south India where Miss Faering was working.
25 The Sanskrit script used in Hindi and other languages.
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