The Danish Peace Academy

GANDHI AND NORDIC COUNTRIES

Letter, [February 1,] 1920

Lahore,

Sunday [Morning, February 1,]1920

My dear child,

You have been a bad child to keep me without a line for so many days. I do however hear about you from others. You are at a marriage party. I have felt a little disturbed. What is it all about? How could you have fared in the midst of strangers? It was wrong if you went as a matter of duty. For no duty lay on you to attend such parties. If you went for the sake of a change I don’t know that you had a desirable change. Where was the party? What were the people? Did they know English? What was your food there? Where did you have to sleep? Who suggested your going? It seems all so strange to me. I do not want you to make experiments in the dark. It is early Sunday morning and I am filled with anxiety about you. I know it is stupid to be anxious. God is above us all to protect and guide His own. But you give me the privilege of calling you my child. ‘Rock of ages, cleft for me; let me hide myself in Thee.’

With deep love,

Yours,

Bapu

Source: My dear child, pages 54-55; Collected Works, Volume 17, page 3

[Gandhi wrote to Narahari Parikh around February 1: “Esther has made a big mistake in leaving. I have repeatedly written to her and Maganlal. If she, of her own accord, shows my letters, you will find all of them worth reading.” (SN11886)]

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