We make it a point to clean their latrines and
their mud-thatched huts. The villagers are illiterate; they cannot
be educated except by example!" She laughed gaily.
I looked in admiration at this highborn Englishwoman whose true
Christian humility enables her to do the scavengering work usually
performed only by "untouchables."
"I came to India in 1925," she told me. "In this land I feel that
I have 'come back home.' Now I would never be willing to return to
my old life and old interests."
We discussed America for awhile. "I am always pleased and amazed,"
she said, "to see the deep interest in spiritual subjects exhibited
by the many Americans who visit India." {FN44-4}
Mirabai's hands were soon busy at the CHARKA (spinning wheel),
omnipresent in all the ashram rooms and, indeed, due to the Mahatma,
omnipresent throughout rural India.
Gandhi has sound economic and cultural reasons for encouraging the
revival of cottage industries, but he does not counsel a fanatical
repudiation of all modern progress. Machinery, trains, automobiles,
the telegraph have played important parts in his own colossal life!
Fifty years of public service, in prison and out, wrestling daily
with practical details and harsh realities in the political world,
have only increased his balance, open-mindedness, sanity, and
humorous appreciation of the quaint human spectacle.
Our trio enjoyed a six o'clock supper as guests of Babasaheb Deshmukh.
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