Indian-Nordic Encounters 1917-2006 - Det danske Fredsakademi

again during the Round Table Conference on Indian constitutional reform at the end of 1931,
Caroline Bokken Lasson set up a Friends of India Society also in Norway and on October 6,
1932 Hørup organised an International Conference for India in Geneva. At the conference an
International Committee for India was established with Hørup as honorary secretary. She soon
moved to Geneva and became the organisational force behind the international solidarity
movement for India.
A second conference was organised in March 1933, mostly with people based in Geneva and
a third International conference on September 19, 1933. The speakers included Bhulabai
Desai and Subhas Chandra Bose, leaders of the Indian national Congress and Mrs Hamid Ali
with delegates from many European countries attending.
The committee published the magazine the “Indian Press”, the first international magazine to
support the Indian cause abroad with Hørup as a main contributor. There were problems
though with the interest in India for international solidarity causing the magazine to close
down 1935. The last number of the “Indian Press” quoted the Modern Review (Calcutta): “It
was a mistake on the part of the Congress to have given up foreign work… It is true; we must
win freedom mainly by our efforts. But the sympathy and at least the moral support of foreign
nations are valuable” (August 1935). Ellen Hørup then wrote, “Because of the decision taken
by the National Congress of India, we have decided to suspend the publication of our
magazine for the time being. We will take it up again as soon as the Indian organizations
themselves recognise the necessity of a propaganda campaign in foreign countries”.
Hørup was one of the few contemporary Scandinavian friends of Gandhi who dared to voice
criticism of Gandhi:
“Gandhi enters the great and admirable fight for the untouchables. He fasts for
their right to get into the temples for which he is subject to attempted
assassinations, and he gets the entire priesthood on his back. Gandhi has
declared that there is no such thing as an untouchable in the holy writings, and
even if there was, it would conflict with all humanity and therefore could not be
divine truth. Everybody enthusiastically follows him on his Harijan-tour. But the
untouchable is a by-product of the caste system, and Gandhi fights for the
untouchable but wishes to keep the caste system.”
In a speech to Indiens Venner in Copenhagen 1936 she explained her position. Gandhi was to
her ”the apostle who would bring, not only to India but to the entire world, the gospel of the
future – the abolishment of violence from mankind.” But she said also that she had her
differences with Gandhi concerning many issues as regarding rights of women, birth control,
class struggle, industrialisation and other matters that also were expressed by many
contemporary Indian radicals.
In 1937 Friends of India society in Norway nominated Gandhi for a Nobel peace prize and
Hørup gave full support. She wrote to a number of influential persons and organisations and
received positive replies but the imitative did not succeed in spite of wide-spread support.
In India Anne Marie Petersen continued her efforts. As a member of the Rural Reconstruction
Workers Association, Petersen was in 1939 invited to speak at the conference for the rural
reconstruction workers at Kengeri. She was the only woman at the conference. Mrs. Petersen
spoke of the need for educating women teachers and suggested that her school in Porto Novo
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