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Gandhi in Britain in 1931
Follow-ups to the item in programme 1
Gandhi in Lancashire and Sussex Making History received information about other sightings of Mahatma Gandhi while he was here in Britain. He visited the UK and stayed for 12 weeks in 1931 attending the Round Table Conference. A listener who went to school in Lancashire also asked us about Gandhi's visit to Darwen near Blackburn.
As part of its encouragement of civil disobedience and non co-operation with Britain, the All India Congress Party led a boycott of British goods, especially cotton textiles, and encouraged everyone in India to use homespun and woven cloth. Lancashire's mass-produced textiles had destroyed the hand-loom industry in India. Britain even restricted imports of cotton goods from India. Gandhi therefore took the time to see what conditions were like for Lancashire cotton workers. As ever, Gandhi was in sympathy with the working people, though not so with the mill-owners.
Diane Rushton, Senior Community History Librarian at Blackburn Library,Ìýexplained that Gandhi was invited to Lancashire by the Society of Friends in the area. Despite the fears that he might experience some hostility, Gandhi got a warm reaction. People crowded to see him and he was shown round cotton mills and talked to representatives from cotton towns. He saw what was happening and sympathised with the problem. However, he felt that the plight of the Indian cotton workers was far worse than that of the Lancashire cotton workers. Even so, he was beginning to move towards an idea of partnership with the Lancashire workers rather than independence from them.
Another listener said that he thought Gandhi had visited Bognor. Ron Iden of the West Sussex Record Office confirmed that Gandhi had gone to West Sussex in October 1931 principally to visit the Bishop of Chichester, George Bell, who, in the 1930s, bitterly attacked Nazism and during the war caused strife within the Anglican Church when he urged Churchill to stop the blanket bombing of cities. While in Chichester, Gandhi also visited C.P. Scott - the great editor of the Guardian. Scott's sister lived a few miles away at Bognor and Gandhi met them there for lunch. Ron Iden says there is a photograph of Gandhi leaving The Lawns, the house in Campbell Road where Scott's sister lived.
Gandhi at the 1931 Round Table Conference in London
From the memoirs of the Reverend David Francis (meeting Gandhi near Kingsley Hall)
(Courtesy of his daughter, Hope Potter)
It was arranged that I should meet Gandhi on one of his morning walks. It was a damp and muggy November morning, still dark, before dawn. At that time Gandhi was, of course, a very heavy responsibility to the British Government. Had anything "happened" to him, while in this country, the repercussions in India - and in fact throughout the world - would have been too horrific to contemplate. He was constantly - though, as far as possible, unobtrusively - guarded. As our little group, with Gandhi (clad just in his usual dhoti and sandals) in our midst, took our strange early-morning walk, some of the measures taken for his security became obvious. As we came to each road-crossing, we could see groups of plain-clothes policemen keeping pace with us, and guarding the little man who - now splattered a bit with East End mud - walked in our midst.
My turn came, for a brief talk with Gandhi. Most of all, before my time was up, I wanted to ask one key question. "If a young man (like me) was about to go to India, and asked you for advice, what guidance would you offer to him?" As we walked that wet pavement Gandhi paused, so long that I wondered if he had heard me. But then, quietly and thoughtfully, he spoke. "Go out, not just to teach, but to learn."
Website
Further information
Cotton Town
Project Manager: Andy Kirman
Blackburn Central Library, Town Hall Street, Blackburn, Lancashire BB2 1AG
Email: Cottontown@blackburn.gov.uk
Tel: 01254 587951/587957
Fax: 01254 690539
Website:
West Sussex Record Office
Sherburne House, 3 Orchard Street, Chichester PO19 1RN
Correspondence address: County Hall, Chichester PO19 1RN
Email: records.office@westsussex.gov.uk
Tel: 01243 753600
Fax: 01243 533959
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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
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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