The Spirit's Pilgrimage. by Madeleine SladeReview by: Joan V. BondurantThe Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 20, No. 3 (May, 1961), pp. 407-408Published by: Association for Asian StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2050860 .

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BOOK REVIEWS 407

fundamental importance of svadharma, the necessity for the renunciation of the fruits of action, and the complementarity of the yogas of knowledge, devotion, and selfless action. He even manages to give the scripture a clear con- tinuity from chapter to chapter which, to the Western reader, it does not usually appear to possess. But the value of the book for the scholar in the field of Indian studies does not lie in any original analyses or new interpreta- tions of the text; its primary value is likely to remain its clear revelation of the mind of the man who has to a considerable degree in- herited the significance that Gandhi so long held for the Indian people. Anyone, however, who is interested in the moral and spiritual wisdom to be found in the Gita will appreciate Bhave's talks without reference to their schol- arly values.

DAVID WHITE Macalester College

The Spirit's Pilgrimage. By MADELEINE SLADE.

New York: Coward-McCann, I960. 3I8.

When Madeleine Slade, daughter of an Eng- lish admiral, reached India in 1925 to "join the archrevolutionary of the British Empire" (p. 64), she found herself not on the outer edge of Gandhi's activities, "but right in the intimate heart of his daily life" (p. 69). Perhaps of all that has been written about Gandhi and the nationalist movement in India, the most prom- ising sources are personal narratives written by those who helped to create the events which are now history. This story of Mira, as Madeleine was called in India, is one of many such riches to be found in a growing treasurehouse of Indian memoirs. It may be read by the layman as the moving story of a strong, sensitive, com- passionate woman; it should be read by the scholar of modern India for the insights it brings to an understanding of developments which are difficult for the Westerner to grasp. For here we have opened up to us a "miniature cross-section of the everyday world [of India], on which. Bapu [Gandhi] was experimenting

." (p. 70) The value of the memoirs of those who were

close to Gandhi is the greater because Gandhi elicited from others what he was himself well practiced in: a continuing, searching analysis of action, of emotion, of thought. "This is how

I would grow if I were you," he wrote to Mira,

But you should grow along your own lines. You will, therefore, reject all I have said in this, that does not appeal to your heart or head. You must retain your individuality at all cost. Resist me when you must. For I may judge you wrongly in spite of all my love for you. I do not want you to impute infallibility to me (p. 93).

As Mira conducts the reader through her tu- multuous life of experiment and revolution one catches glimpses of the personal and political lives of those who struggled along with Gandhi -and against him-towards independence. The personalities of Mahadev Desai, of Sarojini Naidu, of Kasturba (Gandhi's wife), of Pya- relal, of Abdul Gaffar Khan, of Jawaharlal Nehru-these and others come to life as they enter and exit through many intimate scenes. Among those in opposition, Dr. Ambedkar is described as the "faithful ally" of the British government (p. 153), and Subhas Chandra Bose as a "cultured intellectual" (p. 2IO). Lloyd George's "vitality, energy and quick intelli- gence" impressed Mira, and we learn that he told her in London "I had always known [Gandhi] was a saint, but I had never realized till I met him that he was a statesman" (p. 185).

One glimpses also something of what it meant to live in British Indian jails; and one can feel the strength it must surely have re- quired to endure the anxiety of repeated un- certainties-about the course of events when one was cut off from the world, about the pos- sibility of arrest when one was participating in the struggle, about the dangers to Gandhi's health and life of another and yet another fast. The reader is taken along with Mira as she participated in demonstrations, as she was en- trusted with the mission to carry Gandhi's original draft of the "Quit India" resolution to Allahabad, as she undertook the task of pre- paring the masses in Orissa for nonviolent non- cooperation to the expected Japanese invasion. Above all, Gandhi wrote to her in Orissa, the people must never "yield willing submission to the Japanese" (p. 233).

One is left to speculate upon what might have happened if Mira had fulfilled a wish ex- pressed in 1938 to go to Czechoslovakia "to throw in my lot with the people in an effort to

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408 JOURNAL OF ASIAN STUDIES

create nonviolent and fearless resistance against Hitler's next move, whatever it might be." Gandhi had then replied, "I thought you would be feeling the call. You should certainly go if it can be arranged" (p. 2I2). Instead, Mira went to the Northwest Frontier where there was an urgent need for someone to assist Abdul Gaffar Khan in the nonviolent action undertaken in the Indian frontier province.

Through Mira's moving account of her own experience, one is enabled to understand some- thing of the manner in which Gandhi effected change in others. The greatness of the man lay in that rare combination of superior intelligence and masterful compassion with which he ap- proached human problems. We see him "setting about his task of healing" the agonizing griev- ances of displaced Moslems, Hindus, and Sikhs during the terrible riots accompanying parti- tion. He faced "angry, distracted, and desperate people . . . stilled their rage and encouraged them to put before him their endless troubles and hardships" (p. 287). We see him here not only as a great leader who set himself the task of fashioning constructive means for wresting independence from an imperial power, but also as a man who would take the time and concern personally to nurse back to health a friend weakened and broken by disease.

Mira continues to work, high in the Hima- layas, for the people with whom she chose to become a part. We can picture her now, minis- tering to all those who have the remarkable good fortune to come her way. Her tender con- cern extends to all men-and to the many ani- mal friends with whom she likewise shares her warm and vital spirit. As Vincent Sheean has written in a foreword to this book, "the Odys- sey of Miss Madeleine Slade will not be for- gotten, . . . so long as mankind can still keep the chronicle."

JOAN V. BOnDURANT University of California, Berkeley

Common Sense About India. By K. M. PANIK- KAR. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1960. I74. $2.95.

The increasing appreciation of India's posi- tion and role in world affairs is indicated by the growing literature of a popular genre both in the East and in the West. During the last twelve years India has been busy with a gigantic

experiment in building a parliamentary demo- cratic state in a country beset with accumulated economic and social problems going back through the past several centuries. India's past is far from dead and obtrudes in almost every manifestation of her social and cultural life. The history of the Indian nation during the last twelve years is, hence, an account of the country attempting either to come to terms with that past or transform it in such a way as to derive from it inspiration for the future.

Sardar K. M. Panikkar's Common Sense About India is an attempt to explain the last twelve eventful years in India with objectivity and in a manner intelligible to the average reader. The book is in eleven sections of which the first explains the historical background. Five sections are devoted to a description of the territorial integration, the work of preparing and implementing a democratic constitution, social and economic changes, and the advance of science and technology. Two sections ex- amine India's relations with Pakistan and the world, and the last two sections are an analysis of some recent trends making either for prog- ress or reaction and the conclusions emerging from these. The material presented is as com- prehensive as could be within the compass of a slender volume of its nature, and the manner of presentation is skilled and lucid. The author has certainly succeeded in writing a short in- troductory work on modern India characterised by authenticity and objectivity. A few points, however, must be noted. The first real invasion of India is placed in II96 and attributed to Mo- hammed Ghori (Mu'izzud-din Muhammad bin Sam); it should really be placed four years earlier when was fought the second battle of Tarain resulting in the virtual destruction of the power of the Chahamanas (p. I8). The characterization of the government of India as a federation may also be argued (p. 43). In some places the author seems to underestimate the role of the Socialist parties and overestimate that of the Communist party (pp. 56-57) in Indian politics; it is not correct to say that the Communists emerged better organized and more self-confident after the war. There also seems to be some hesitation in adequately evalu- ating the roles of personalities like the late Sar- dar Vallabhbhai Patel and Dr. B. R. Ambedkar when the author discusses subjects like party

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