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A HISTORY OF BRITAIN by Andrew Chater
Transcript from the online video resource
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GANDHI IN LONDON (1931)
So far I‟ve managed to tell the story
of the British Empire without once
visiting London – despite the fact
that London was hub of the Empire,
the very centre of imperial power.
Around the world, nationalism was
on the rise – but the job of running
the Empire continued.
This was the old colonial office,
home to an army of civil servants
beetling around, making decisions
that affected the destinies of over
400 million people worldwide.
And I want to describe a conference organized by the Colonial Office in 1931, the so-called
„Round Table Conference‟, called to discuss the future of India. India, like Ireland, had witnessed a
bubbling of nationalist feeling in the early decades of the 20th century. And this conference was
called to bring together not just British civil servants and colonial officials, but Indian princes (the
so called Maharajas), Indian lawyers, nationalist leaders.
You can imagine the scene here in Whitehall as the delegates arrived – the parade of tunics and
turbans. In the days before widespread immigration into this country, this was head-turning stuff.
But there was one man in particular who stood out – a man who would play a profound role
drawing the Empire to a close. And he came here dressed not as you might expect a statesman to
dress, but in the clothes of an Indian peasant – in a loincloth, in sandals, in a flimsy cotton shawl,
oblivious to the damp and the cold
of the London autumn. And his
name was Mohandas Gandhi.
This is him. Mohandas, known as
“Mahatma” Gandhi – it means
“Great Soul”. It‟s curious to think his
statue‟s here, in this London
Square, when he was, for so many
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years effectively our enemy: a thorn in the side of the British Government.
And yet right from the start – however painful it was to hear what he had to say – he taught us
something about ourselves.
He held up British civilization on the one hand, and Indian civilization on the other, a civilization
thousands of years older than our own. And he invited us to take a long hard look at our culture –
shallow, snobbish, materialistic, cruel, spiritually empty. And he said: what right have you got to
civilize us? Maybe we should be civilizing you.
From about 1917, Gandhi had become the spiritual leader of the Indian Nationalist movement.
And he urged his followers to use not swords or guns but what he called “satyagraha”, the power
of the soul. Protesters faced rifle fire unarmed; they lay in the path of charging cavalry; struck on
one cheek, they offered the other. Through example, through restraint, through superior moral
character, they shamed the British Raj.
Gandhi was invited to London in
1931 – and like all the delegates to
the Round Table Conference, he
was offered a suite in a swanky
London hotel. But of course swank
was hardly Gandhi‟s style. This was
a man who, back home in India,
mixed with the „untouchables‟ – the
poorest of India‟s poor. And so he
made his way not to the West End
of London, but to the East End. And
for three months he lived here, at
Kingsley Hall – it‟s now a
community centre.
The story of the months Gandhi spent here in the East End is so moving: it‟s the story of a
handshake extended across the continents between the poor of India and the poor of Britain.
Wherever he walked in these streets Gandhi was showered with affection. People recognised
Gandhi as one of their own.
Why is this important? Well for so long we Brits had presented ourselves as a kind of master race,
always the rulers, waited on hand and foot by Indian servants, African servants – that was the
façade the Empire presented the world. Here in the East End, Gandhi was able to show the world
Britain as it really was – a nation divided between rich and poor, just as India was divided between
rich and poor.
And did the ordinary people who lived round here support this Empire, that supposedly ruled in
their name? Well, the cheers that followed Gandhi wherever he went answered that question.
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The Round Table Conference achieved little, at least on paper, and Gandhi returned to India
having won few concessions from the British Government. But here in London Gandhi had pricked
the nation‟s conscience, and he‟d brought us round to the justice of his cause.
It would take another 16 years for us Brits to pack our bags and leave India for good. But with all
the moral arguments on Gandhi‟s side, there could be, in the end, no other outcome.
My grandfather served with the
British Raj. He was an army officer
in India in the 1930s. He served
with the Royal Engineers; he built
bridges, many of which still survive.
And that‟s worth remembering, you
know. All the good the Brits did. Not
just infrastructure – bridges,
railways – but ways of doing things
that survive in India to this day. The
judiciary, the civil service, the
administration, the way the armed
forces are trained and run.
And Gandhi never denied the good we Brits had done. He was very gracious. But over here, in
Westminster, he could see all too clearly the one fruit of our civilization that we‟d denied India for
far too long: democracy. What Gandhi wanted, was the right we take for granted – the right to
choose, the right of any people to control their own destiny.
Even if that meant waving us Brits good-bye.
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