Evesham Probus Club Meetings in 2026
PROBUS TALK 8.1.2026
Our speaker on 8th January was Galen Bartholomew who made a welcome return visit and had an audience of 39 which equalled the Club’s record. His subject was Mohandas K. Gandhi who was internationally famous but perhaps the details of his life were less well-known. Always known as Mahatma (the enlightened one), a title he hated, Churchill called him a seditious Middle Temple lawyer.
Born in 1869 he died in 1948. His life was divided between India, London and South Africa. His philosophy started with his experiments with truth in order to obtain Moksha, the state of bliss or enlightenment in Hinduism. His goals were to find a spiritual inner truth, regardless of religion. The caste system in India had four categories, below which were the Untouchables. Gandhi believed all men were brothers and to demonstrate this he lived for a time with the Untouchables. He was supporter of Indian independence but preached the doctrine of Satyagraha, non-violent resistance, using civil disobedience, non-cooperation, strikes and boycotts to achieve change. He was a practical idealist who undertook nursing. In pursuance of his ideals he practised vegetarianism. His philosophy was that truth is the substance of morality.
Galen then outlined the history of British involvement in India. It started in 1600 when Elizabeth I granted a charter to the East India Co. to trade there. The company grew into a massive undertaking, making agreements with various princely states and running its own army, completely outside the control of the British government. This all came to an end after the Indian Mutiny, 1857-9, which led to 2392 British deaths and that of at least 100,000 Indians. In 1858 the Congress Party of India was founded, India’s first political party, which initiated the movement for independence which was taken up by Gandhi and Nehru. It happened in 1947 when the country was partitioned which will be covered in Part 2 of the talk next week. At this time there were 600-700 states within India ruled by princes which were not part of British India, many of which had alliances with Britain.
Gandhi was a very shy youth. He was a great walker and fluent in several Indian languages. He supported authority and as a husband he made the decisions at home. His father ran a princely state and the family home was host to people of many religions. Although he was a vegetarian he adopted meat-eating for a year because he noticed all the English were much taller than Indians! His elder brother undertook legal work and Mohandas decided to move to London to train as a barrister, resolving to abstain from wine, women and meat, although he took elocution, violin and dancing lessons and, in contrast to later life, he adopted formal Western dress. He spent three years at Inner Temple, 1888-1891(not Middle Temple as stated by Churchill). He became Secretary of the Vegetarian Society but was too shy to read his reports. He visited the Paris Exposition in 1889. He was called to the Bar in 1891 and practised in the High Court until 1893 when he obtained a one year contract in South Africa, after failing to succeed with his legal practice in India because he was unable to cross-examine witnesses. He stayed in South Africa until 1914 and made friends with Raychandbai, a Jain philosopher who, with Ruskin and Carlyle, made him realise his vocation in life. It was “the forging” of Gandhi. His time in South Africa changed his life and when he returned to India permanently, it changed that country as well.
Gandhi’s experience of racial prejudice in South Africa and his way of dealing with it changed the world in terms of civil rights and freedom. While travelling to Pretoria he travelled first class on the train which was restricted to white people. He was thrown off together with his luggage, an incident which was featured in Richard Attenborough’s award-winning film ‘Gandhi’ of 1982. Part of the journey was by coach when he was beaten up by whites when he refused to sit on the floor. On another occasion he was accepted in a hotel only if he ate in his room. Indians in the country were resented by whites as they were well off. They were mostly Tamils and were indentured and subject to a charge. In 1896 a Natal Indian Congress was formed to improve the Indians’ lot but adhering to the principles of non-violence and human dignity. Gandhi setup a legal business and took up the case of a beaten up indentured labourer.
Returning to India he travelled widely and concluded that British rule was largely beneficial to India. Back in South Africa he published a pamphlet about Indian conditions and was nearly lynched. He founded a weekly newspaper which lasted until the 1960s. In 1897 Indians had to be registered. In 1899 the Boer war started and Gandhi formed an Indian ambulance corps of 1100 men. Back in India he formed a legal practice in Bombay. On returning to South Africa with his family, he met the Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain who was visiting to promote conciliation after the Boer War, but he was not receptive to Gandhi’s efforts to improve Indian conditions nor to make it easier for Indians to move from Natal to Transvaal. Despite this, in1906 Gandhi again organised an ambulance corps, this time to serve in the Zulu rebellion
In 1910 Gandhi formed an ashram, a spiritual retreat with communal living comprising about 100 acres, and all the family had to work, taking turns to do all the tasks, including cleaning the latrines. The registration of Indians required the taking of fingerprints and carrying identity cards and, at a meeting in a theatre, it was agreed to ignore the law and hold a non-violent protest. Smuts promised to repeal the legislation but in fact implemented it. Gandhi obtained a cauldron and burnt about 2000 certificates which made good PR. He was imprisoned for two months (he spent 10% of his life in prison.) In 1906 the situation became tense and Gandhi met Smuts again about repealing the legislation, but he didn’t. In addition another law was introduced that all marriages had to be according to Christian rites. In Johannesburg many Indians were whipped and some were shot. 50,000 went on strike and thousands were imprisoned. The Viceroy of India complained to the South African government about the situation and Smuts agreed to repeal the legislation. Gandhi then left for India prompting Smuts to say in 1914 “a saint has left our shores, I hope never to return”.
Gandhi then adopted Indian dress permanently. His four sons all suffered imprisonment for a time but supported his cause, as did his long-suffering wife.
Galen will continue with Part 2 of his talk on 15th January.
Alan Smith
