Obsessed with thoughts of her wherever he was, Gandhi wrote a few days later, “Resist not evil” has a much deeper meaning than appears on the surface. He immediately insisted that Esther must have a “separate Kitchen” for herself. I shall pray that you may be healthier in mind, body and spirit,” Bapu wrote to console Dear Child Esther, “with deep love.”… Gandhi was “glad you opened out heart” about his “difficult” wife. “You were with me the whole of yesterday and during the night. Kasturba treated his “Dear child” so harshly in her kitchen that Ester soon broke down. Gandhi trying your nerves, you must avoid the close association I am suggesting to you.” It did not work, of course. And she can be petty… You will therefore have to summon to your aid all your Christian charity to be able to return largeness against pettiness… To pity the person who slights you… And so, my dear Esther, if you find Mrs. But he warned his “Dear Child” that “Ba has not an even temper. Devout Christian missionary Esther fell in love with Mahatma Gandhi’s spiritual commitment to selfless service and left her Danish mission the day he agreed to permit his “Dear Child” to join his Sabarmati Ashram.Īcutely aware of how jealous Kasturba was of several of his adorning disciples, Gandhi tried at first to disarm his wife of such feelings by asking Esther “to help Ba in the Kitchen”. At fifty and on the eve of his greatest nationwide success in 1920, Gandhi experienced an intensely personal passion for young, golden-haired, blue-eyed Danish beauty, Esther Faering. The complexity of Gandhi’s life requires careful attention to both his public and personal trials. It is shocking and revealing what Gandhi says about his wife and how he reacts when Kasturba resents his fascination with his foreign friends.Ĭommenting on this episode, Stanley Wolpert says: It is not clear what exactly the trouble between Kasturba and Esther was, but she complained to Gandhi about Kasturba’s behaviour.Īlso read: When Mahatma Gandhi washed Kasturba’s soiled petticoat Gandhi had asked them to assist Kasturba in the kitchen. She was irritated by the presence of these foreign women in the ashram. She could do nothing except resent her undignified rejection by her husband. Kasturba shared her anxiety with many well-wishers. Gandhi’s open courtship of Sarladevi was well known in the ashram and a lot of people were feeling concerned about Mahatma’s conduct. It was a trying and distressing period for Kasturba. They were at the ashram while Gandhi was in Punjab and later on visiting different places all over India in the company of Sarladevi. Gandhi had ‘Indianized’ them as much as possible and made them members of his family. For them, Gandhi was the incarnation of God in man, an ideal human being, the most spiritual and so the most powerful in the world. Instant chemistry had also developed between them and Gandhi. They were the Dutch missionary Esther Faering and her teacher friend Anne Marie Peterson. But during Gandhi’s stay at Lahore, where he was courting Sarladevi, there were also two foreign women in the ashram in Kasturba’s charge. Kasturba was sick of women who had started hovering around her husband and marginalized her, throwing her into the background.
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