E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi – His Life & Timestalking and playing with child Passengers. Like so many steamship passengersthe world °ver, he was the Captain's guest on the bridge, where he lookedthrough the sextant and steered the ship for a minute.Gandhi arrived in London on September 12, and remained in England untilDecember 5. He stayed in an East End Settlement House called Kingsley Hall asguest of Muriel Lester who had visited him in 1926. Kingsley Hall is five milesfrom the centre of the city and from St. James' Palace where the Round TableConference sat.Friends told him that he would save many hours for work and sleep if he livedin an hotel, but he did not want to spend the money. Nor would he availhimself of the hospitality of Indians and Englishmen who had big houses nearerthe heart of London. He would come home to Kingsley Hall every evening, oftenvery late, because, he said, he enjoyed living among his own kind, the poorpeople. To spare interviewers the necessity of coming all the way to the EastEnd, however, he agreed, under pressure, to keep a little office at 88Knightsbridge. (The building was destroyed in the second World War).In the mornings, he walked through the slum streets around Kingsley Hall, andwomen and men going to work would smile and greet him and some would joinhim for conversation; he visited several in their homes. Children ran up andheld his hand. 'Uncle Gandhi', they called him. One mischievous youngsteryelled, 'Hey. Gandhi, where's your trousers?' The Mahatma laughed heartily.Questioned by a reporter about his dress, Gandhi said, "You people wear plusfours,mine are minus fours.' Gandhi was wonderful newspaper copy, andjournalists covered every move he made. The dailies and weeklies in Europeand America eagerly sought special features about him. George Slocombe wrotea story about Gandhi's generosity and as an illustration said that when thePrince of Wales visited India the Mahatma prostrated himself before him. Thenext time Gandhi saw Slocomb, he smiled and said, Well, Mr- Slocombe, thisdoes not even do credit to your imagination- I would bend the knee before thepoorest untouchable m India for having participated in crushing him forcenturies,www.mkgandhi.org Page 317