Sue Cook presents the series that examines listeners' historical queries, exploring avenues of research and uncovering mysteries.
Gandhi and ChaplinÌýÌý
Listener's query
"Could a schoolboy have met Gandhi and Chaplin on a street corner in the East End in 1931?"
Brief summary
A listener wrote to Making History with a tale from a former teaching colleague. This old colleague had claimed he was caned at school in the East End of London in the 1930s for arriving late after lunch. His excuse was that he had been stopped on a street corner by Charlie Chaplin and Mahatma Ghandi. However, the boy’s story is convincing.
Gandhi came to London once in the 1930s – in 1931 to be precise. This was the only time he left India between 1914 and his assassination in 1948, though he had taken a law degree in London as a young man. These were times of huge and seemingly intractable problems over the future of India. Gandhi had demanded dominion status for India within a year, threatening a campaign of non-violent civil disobedience for complete independence. With Ramsay MacDonald coming to power in Britain, there seemed to be a slight change of mood about the long-term future of India. Lord Irwin, who later became Lord Halifax, made a truce with Gandhi, the civil disobedience was called off and Gandhi agreed to come to London for what was the Second Round Table Conference - Gandhi had been in jail during the first Conference.
Gandhi arrived in Britain in September 1931. The conference was disappointing, however, concentrating less on any transfer of power from Britain – which was Gandhi's aim - than on the role to be played by the differing factions and minorities within India.
Whatever the success of the conference, Gandhi made important contacts in Britain and made a big impression on certain sections of the British public. He chose to live not in a plush London hotel but in the East End - as he described it, 'among the poor'. He stayed at Kingsley Hall, a simple community settlement set up by the Christian pacifist sisters Muriel and Doris Lester, not far from the Bow Road. Kingsley Hall is still there in Powis Road, running as a community centre and as a base for the Gandhi Foundation.
Gandhi must have cut an imposing figure: an ascetic, dressed in a loincloth, a rough blanket over his shoulder, wearing sandals or walking in bare feet and living a Spartan life in a tiny space, a cell measuring just a few feet square. There he slept on a mat on the floor or even outside on the balcony. He always left the door open and visitors froze. The room is kept as it was when he stayed there for 12 weeks in 1931. He felt at one with the London poor and spoke about his bond with them at the conference.
Charlie Chaplin was also in London at the time. After becoming a silent movie star in Hollywood, Chaplin returned to London, first briefly in 1921 and then again ten years later – in 1931. He was in London primarily for the British premiere of City Lights. Increasingly he was becoming politically minded and wanted to share his thoughts with 'great people'. He met George Bernard Shaw, Ramsay MacDonald, H.G. Wells and Churchill, and he wanted to meet Gandhi.
The only opportunity was while Gandhi was visiting a doctor friend not far from Kingsley Hall in the East End. Crowds had gathered to follow Gandhi and more crowds were there to see Chaplin. It was only a brief meeting - but they made the front pages of the newspapers.
Experts consulted
David Baker of Kingsley Hall
Local historian Stephen Pewsey
Further reading
Louis Fischer, Life of Mahatma Gandhi (HarperCollins, 1997)
Andrew Roberts, The Holy Fox: Biography of Lord Halifax (Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1997)
Lawrence James, Raj: the Making and Unmaking of British India (Little Brown, 1997)
Stanley Wolpert, Gandhi’s Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi (Oxford University Press, 2001)
Stanley Wolpert, A New History of India (Oxford University Press, 2000)
Barbara Metcalf and Thomas Metcalf, A Concise History of India (Cambridge University Press, 2001)
John McCabe, Charlie Chaplin (Robson Books, 1992)
Vanessa has presentedÌýscience and current affairs programmes for ±«Óãtv, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Discovery and has presented for ±«Óãtv Radio 4 & Five Live and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday, Scotsman and Sunday Herald.Ìý
Contact Making History
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Vanessa has presentedÌýscience and current affairs programmes for ±«Óãtv, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Discovery and has presented for ±«Óãtv Radio 4 & Five Live and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday, Scotsman and Sunday Herald.Ìý