REBELS AGAINST THE RAJ
Western fighters for the freedom of India
By Ramachandra Guha
“A foreigner only deserves to be welcomed when he mixes with the natives as sugar does with milk,” said Mohandas Gandhi, as quoted in this insightful book by the eminent Indian historian Ramachandra Guha. Guha tells the story of seven westerners, who each left Europe or the United States to aid India’s struggle for independence against the British Raj.
Guha calls them ‘rebels’ and likens them to the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War, but this misleads the reader, as there were no soldiers waiting for these travelers to India. Subhas Chandra Bose, who raised an army to violently challenge the Raj, is barely mentioned here. Guha’s chosen subjects in “Rebels Against the Raj” were previously inspired by Gandhi’s nonviolent satyagraha protests.
The result is a chaplain’s egg, with some biographical portraits proving to be more captivating than others. The rebels who witnessed the drama of the independence struggle tell more compelling stories than those who ran ashrams in post-independence India and posthumously honored Gandhi’s message.
One of the more compelling stories is that of social reformer Annie Besant, who saw a common cause between India’s struggle for independence and Ireland’s arduous struggle with the British Empire. “If she had chosen to become an Indian, she would have been an Indian all the time,” Guha writes. She was older than Gandhi, which makes her interactions with the emerging Mahatma particularly fascinating.
Another romantic soul among Guha’s cast of characters is Samuel Stokes, a Philadelphia Quaker who identified with Gandhi’s cause, settled in India, changed his name to Satyanand Stokes and converted to Hinduism. In a lengthy letter written before the outbreak of World War II, Stokes challenged Gandhi’s view of nonviolence by giving Indians reasons to side with Britain against Germany and Japan. “Britain and her allies represent the previous wave of imperialism as opposed to the new one that threatens the world,” Stokes told Gandhi. Unlike the British, he said, the Nazis “have shown themselves capable of the utmost ruthlessness”. When Gandhi replied two months later, in June 1939, he explained his philosophical differences with Stokes, but, Guha writes, “did not respond to what may have been the taller question raised by Stokes – the fundamental difference between German imperialism and British imperialism.”
One rebel who may be known to a wider audience is Madeleine Slade, known as Mira. She came from Britain, was treated like a daughter by Gandhi and became his pupil during the independence struggle. Many decades later, at nearly 90 years old, she was consulted by Richard Attenborough while he was researching his Gandhi biopic, and in the film she played a key role alongside Gandhi.
More obscure was British communist Philip Spratt, who arrived in India in 1927, helped found the Communist Party of India, and was imprisoned by the British authorities. Many readers may find Spratt’s early conspiracy activities interesting, but his later life as a writer on socialism in India is somewhat less convincing.
Guha’s earlier works have distinguished him as an outstanding chronicler of India’s modern history. His latest book offers new perspectives on the independence struggle that will appeal to those seeking more obscure eyewitness accounts. And since the book’s main characters were born outside India, ‘Rebels Against the Raj’ may strike a chord with contemporary outsiders who are themselves seduced by India’s history and culture.
But the book also has a broader message: Guha is baffled by India’s current turn toward Hindu majoritarian nationalism. He writes: “Hindus, it is now said, are destined to be the Vishwa Guru of the world, teachers to the rest of mankind. They apparently have nothing to learn from or take back from the world.” For Guha, this is a total misconception: it ignores how much the outside world has given to modern India.