JOIN USReviewing a variety of books for half a century has cushioned me against a range of shocks. But I must confess that having read the title of K C Brahmachary’s book and settled down to gaze at the eight portraits on the cover, I was alarmed by the familiar face. Sonia Gandhi, with her tresses elegantly spread, was gazing out. Trembling, I rushed to the chapter on “Sonia Gandhi (Maino Sonia)” and found that our author had blissfully got the odd foreigner, happily living, into this basket of dead eminences. Sonia has certainly made history by getting elected as “president of the century-old Congress Party within three months of primary membership”, says Brahmachary in his cat-on-the-wall essayand quotes Ashish Nandi: “Yes, she has an agendum, like the scuttling of the Bofors probe or fostering her daughter in politics. But these are seen by her partymen as being minor agenda.”
The remaining 31 essays are all about unquestionably distinguished personalities. A good number of them were associated with the Ramakrishna Movement. Their inextinguishable faith in Swami Vivekananda brought Sara Bull, Sister Christine, J J Goodwin, Josephine Macleod, Captain Sevier and Charlotte Sevier to work for building the Belur Math and the Advaita Ashrama. When in their own country, they spread the message of Vedanta far and wide. Swami Vivekananda imposed total trust in them and gave them an honest picture of India. Yes, India suffers from poverty, slavery, illiteracy, untouchability, dogma and bigotry. Yet the Swami wanted them to come and work, as he exhorted Sister Nivedita: “Let me tell you frankly that I am now convinced that you have a great future in the work for India. What was wanted was not a man but a woman, a real lioness, to work for the Indians, women, especially.”
Like Swami Vivekananda, Mahayogi Sri Aurobindo was another centre of attraction for foreigners who wanted to serve India. Mirra Richard (The Mother) created the great edifice of Sri Aurobindo Ashram and launched the universal city of Auroville near Chennai. Mahatma Gandhi became the magnet for C F Andrews and Madeleine Slade (Mira Behn). Among others who worked for India were doctors like Haffkine, educationists like Tan Yun Shan, Jack Gibson and David Hare, anthropologists (Stella Kramrisch), well-meaning missionaries (James Long, William Carey) and the heroes who strove to preserve Indian culture like Max Muller, Ananda Coomaraswami and Sir William Jones. Jim Corbett and Allan Octavian Hume (who helped found the Congress Party) are unforgettable. A person like Samuel Stokes even went to jail as he took part in the Civil Disobedience Movement launched by Gandhi to protest against the Rowlatt Act.
Inspite of some quaint grammatical twirling, Brahmachary makes appreciative presentations throughout, avoiding stuffy laboriousness. The book may be rightly called a bouquet of inspiration for the student community.
A work of this kind naturally reminds one of the missing names since the foreigners who distinguished themselves in serving India are a legion. One may mention, among others, F W Bain (Deccan College, Poona), Ronald Nixon (the celebrated Krishnaprem), Paul Brunton (biographer of Ramana Maharishi) and Ida Scudder, the founder of Vellore Hospital. But then, we may happily rest assured that the enthusiastic author is not going to stop with Foreigners Who Loved and Served India. So we shall await a companion volume.