Sara S
10-10-2011, 05:36 AM
from delancyplace.com:
In today's excerpt - in the centuries leading up to 1900, Britain built an empire
of countries around the globe to increase its wealth, in part by granting monopolies
to its own citizens and the expense of the citizens of the colony. Chief among these
British colonies was India, and chief among those trying to cast off the colonial
yoke was Mohandas Gandhi. One of his first broad efforts in this regard was leading
a boycott of the British monopoly of India's salt. To Winston Churchill, this made
Gandhi an enemy:
"Mohandas Gandhi walked to the ocean with his followers. He had decided to resist
the British imperial salt monopoly. [For this], he and sixty thousand followers
were imprisoned. In Peshawar, near India's Northwest Frontier [and now part of Pakistan],
British troops fired on a crowd of Muslim salt protesters, killing some of them.
Air raids 'cleaned up' the Peshawar region afterward, according to The New York
Times. ...
"The Associated Press sent in a story from Peshawar. It was August 17, 1930. 'Chastened
by a daily rain of bombs from British planes, raiding Afridi tribesmen were reported
today in full retreat to the hills of the northwest frontier,' the story said. 'Punishment
inflicted on the villages by raiding airplanes was said by officals to have had
a salutary effect. The disaffected sections are expected to sue for peace in a short
time.' The Times of London, in an editorial, blamed the deaths of Afridi tribesmen
on Gandhi's propagandists....
"Gandhi had replaced [the communist Vladimir] Lenin as [Winston] Churchill's arch-nemesis.
'The truth is,' Churchill wrote, 'Gandhi-ism and all it stands for will, sooner
or later, have to be grappled with and finally crushed. It is no use trying to satisfy
a tiger by feeding him with cat's-meat.' It was December 11, 1930. A month later,
Gandhi was released from jail. He wrote a letter to the viceroy, Lord Irwin. 'Dear
Friend,' he said. 'I have received suggestions from friends whose advice I value
that I should seek an interview with you.'
"Irwin invited him to the palace. The two men met and talked. They met again and
talked - and again. Winston Churchill was disgusted, The British government must,
he said in a speech, dissociate itself from this 'weak, wrong-headed' rapprochement:
'It is alarming and also nauseating to see Mr Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple
lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well known in the East, striding half naked
up the steps of the viceregal palace, while he is still organising and conducting
a defiant campaign of civil disobedience, to parley on equal terms with the representative
of the King-Emperor. Such a spectacle can only increase the unrest in India.' I
was February 23, 1931.
"Mohandas Gandhi [traveled to] England. It was September 12, 1931. He chose to stay
at Kingsley House, a home for the poor in London's East End. He made a live broadcast
to the United States on CBS radio. 'I personally would wait, if need be for ages,
rather than seek to attain the freedom of my country through bloody means,' he said.
... Gandhi talked to the king and queen, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Master
of Balliol, George Bernard Shaw, Lord Lothian, textile workers in Lancashire, and
leading Quakers. He wanted to talk to Winston Churchill, but Churchill declined
to meet him."
Author: Nicholson Baker
Title: Human Smoke
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date: Copyright 2008 by Nicholson Baker
Pages: 19-20, 22-23, 28
From HUMANSMOKE by Nicholson Baker. Copyright © 2008 by Nicholson Baker. Reprinted
by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc, NYFrom HUMANSMOKE by Nicholson Baker. Copyright
© 2008 by Nicholson Baker. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc, NY
Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization
by Nicholson Baker by Simon & Schuster
Hardcover ~ Release Date: 2008-03-11
In today's excerpt - in the centuries leading up to 1900, Britain built an empire
of countries around the globe to increase its wealth, in part by granting monopolies
to its own citizens and the expense of the citizens of the colony. Chief among these
British colonies was India, and chief among those trying to cast off the colonial
yoke was Mohandas Gandhi. One of his first broad efforts in this regard was leading
a boycott of the British monopoly of India's salt. To Winston Churchill, this made
Gandhi an enemy:
"Mohandas Gandhi walked to the ocean with his followers. He had decided to resist
the British imperial salt monopoly. [For this], he and sixty thousand followers
were imprisoned. In Peshawar, near India's Northwest Frontier [and now part of Pakistan],
British troops fired on a crowd of Muslim salt protesters, killing some of them.
Air raids 'cleaned up' the Peshawar region afterward, according to The New York
Times. ...
"The Associated Press sent in a story from Peshawar. It was August 17, 1930. 'Chastened
by a daily rain of bombs from British planes, raiding Afridi tribesmen were reported
today in full retreat to the hills of the northwest frontier,' the story said. 'Punishment
inflicted on the villages by raiding airplanes was said by officals to have had
a salutary effect. The disaffected sections are expected to sue for peace in a short
time.' The Times of London, in an editorial, blamed the deaths of Afridi tribesmen
on Gandhi's propagandists....
"Gandhi had replaced [the communist Vladimir] Lenin as [Winston] Churchill's arch-nemesis.
'The truth is,' Churchill wrote, 'Gandhi-ism and all it stands for will, sooner
or later, have to be grappled with and finally crushed. It is no use trying to satisfy
a tiger by feeding him with cat's-meat.' It was December 11, 1930. A month later,
Gandhi was released from jail. He wrote a letter to the viceroy, Lord Irwin. 'Dear
Friend,' he said. 'I have received suggestions from friends whose advice I value
that I should seek an interview with you.'
"Irwin invited him to the palace. The two men met and talked. They met again and
talked - and again. Winston Churchill was disgusted, The British government must,
he said in a speech, dissociate itself from this 'weak, wrong-headed' rapprochement:
'It is alarming and also nauseating to see Mr Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple
lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well known in the East, striding half naked
up the steps of the viceregal palace, while he is still organising and conducting
a defiant campaign of civil disobedience, to parley on equal terms with the representative
of the King-Emperor. Such a spectacle can only increase the unrest in India.' I
was February 23, 1931.
"Mohandas Gandhi [traveled to] England. It was September 12, 1931. He chose to stay
at Kingsley House, a home for the poor in London's East End. He made a live broadcast
to the United States on CBS radio. 'I personally would wait, if need be for ages,
rather than seek to attain the freedom of my country through bloody means,' he said.
... Gandhi talked to the king and queen, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Master
of Balliol, George Bernard Shaw, Lord Lothian, textile workers in Lancashire, and
leading Quakers. He wanted to talk to Winston Churchill, but Churchill declined
to meet him."
Author: Nicholson Baker
Title: Human Smoke
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date: Copyright 2008 by Nicholson Baker
Pages: 19-20, 22-23, 28
From HUMANSMOKE by Nicholson Baker. Copyright © 2008 by Nicholson Baker. Reprinted
by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc, NYFrom HUMANSMOKE by Nicholson Baker. Copyright
© 2008 by Nicholson Baker. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc, NY
Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization
by Nicholson Baker by Simon & Schuster
Hardcover ~ Release Date: 2008-03-11