The Danish Peace Academy
GANDHI AND NORDIC COUNTRIES
Collected by E. S. Reddy - EReddy@aol.com and Holger TerpLetter, April 8, 1918
On the train,
April 8, 1918
Dear Esther,
I seem to have been cruelly neglectful in my correspondence with you. I could not be satisfied with giving only a line to you. I wanted to give you a long love-letter. I have not the quiet for framing such a letter. And I dare not wait any longer.
I do not know how I can describe my activities not one of which is of my own seeking. They have all come to me with a persistence I dare not oppose. What is a soldier to do if he is hemmed in on all sides ? Is he to concentrate his effort on dealing with one attack only and to court extinction by ignoring the other attacks that are being simultaneously delivered? Obviously safety lies in dealing with all in the best way he can. Such is almost my position. Distress pleads before me from all sides. I dare not refuse help where I know the remedy.
The Ahmedabad strike provided the richest lessons of life. The power of love was never so effectively demonstrated to me as it was during the lock-out. The existence of God was realized by the mass of men before me as soon as the fast was declared. Your telegram was the most-touching and the truest of all. Those four days were to me days of peace, blessing and spiritual uplifting. There never was the slightest desire to eat during those days.47
The Kaira affair you must have understood from my letter to the Press.48 I wrote one on the fast too.49 If you have not seen the letters, please let me know.
I hope you are keeping well. In liver complaints nothing answers so well as fasting.
Please address your letters to Ahmedabad or rather Sabarmati.50
With love,
Yours,
Bapu
Source:My Dear Child, pages 26-27; Collected Works, Volume 14, pages 316-17
47 Workers in Ahmedabad textile mills struck work demanding an increase in wages and were locked out. Gandhi, who had participated in discussions between mill owners and workers, guided the workers during the strike. On March 15, 1918, when the strikers seemed to be weakening, he announced to the workers: “Unless the strikers rally and continue the strike till a settlement is reached, or till they leave the mills altogether, I will not touch any food.” He broke the fast on April 18 when a settlement was reached.
48 "Statement to the Press on the Kheda Situation," March 28, 1918. Collected Works, Volume 14, pages 288-92.
49 "Letter to the Press," March 27, 1918. Collected Works, Volume 14, pages 283-86.
50 Gandhi moved his ashram from Kochrab to a site on the banks of river Sabarmati, near Ahmedabad, in 1917.
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