The Danish Peace Academy
GANDHI AND NORDIC COUNTRIES
Collected by E. S. Reddy - EReddy@aol.com and Holger TerpLetter, April 1, 1919
Secunderabad,
April 1, 1919
My dear child,
My hand is still too shaky for steady and continuous writing. But I feel I must make the attempt to give you something in my own hand. I was so sorry I did not see you at the station.59 I felt keenly for you and poor Mahadev. Both of you are sensitive, almost cast in the same mould. I was shuddering as I looked through the window when the train steamed out. I felt that he would run so madly to catch the train that he might drop down from sheer exhaustion. I was glad to see him at Bezwada.
I hope you wrote to the Collector as you had agreed you would. Please let me know whether he said anything in reply.
Please tell the girls60 I am going to make daily use of the blanket sheet they have sent me. But I expect them soon to be able to weave hand-spun cotton and spin it themselves. The music of the spinning-wheel is superior to any I know; for it is the music that finally clothes the naked. Even when the machines will be rusting from disuse (for man will some day be sick unto death of the maddening speed of the machines), posterity will still require clothing and hand-spun yarn will be the fashion. I am asking Maganlal61 to send you some hand-spun yarn.
Our train was late and we missed the connection here. So we have an idle day. This enables me to write to you.
I wish you could introduce Hindi in your school. You may consult the Superintendent about it. Have you read my plea for Hindi?62
With deep love,
Yours,
Bapu
Source: The Diary of Mahadev Desai; Collected Works, Volume 15, pages 170-71
59 In Madras. Gandhi was in Madras on March 29-30, and went from there to Bezwada.
60 in the Danish Mission Boarding School, where Miss Faering was working
61 Maganlal Gandhi (1883-1928); second son of Khushalchand, cousin of Mahatma Gandhi. He was for some time manager of the Phoenix Settlement near Durban in South Africa. He was manager of Satyagraha Ashram, Sabarmati, from 1915 until his death in 1928.
62 Gandhi was advocating the adoption of Hindi as the national language of India and the propagation of Hindi in non-Hindi speaking areas.
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