William Winstanley Pearson: the Natal Experience

William Winstanley Pearson: The Natal Experience

by Anil Nauriya

HE year 2014 marks 100 years described him as “the best loved since the arrival in Natal of Englishman in India”.2 This article is Ttwo Englishmen, Charles Freer primarily on Willie Pearson and his Andrews (1871-1940) and William connection, a century ago, with Natal. (“Willie”) Winstanley Pearson (1881- Willie Pearson’s father, Dr 1923), from India to assist in the Samuel Pearson, was a well-known concluding stages of the Gandhi- Congregationalist Minister in England, led Indian struggle in South Africa. while his mother, Mrs Bertha Pearson, Andrews is the better known of the belonged to a famous Quaker family two and there are biographies on him.1 of London. Willie had studied at Pearson was a decade younger than Cambridge and Oxford, majoring in Andrews and also pre-deceased him by the natural sciences and producing a nearly two decades. Andrews’ published thesis on the teleological aspects of corpus is vast. His work involved him evolution. Having joined the London in discussions with, among others, high Missionary Society (LMS), he had imperial functionaries in South Africa, come out to India in 1907, inter alia, to India and England. There are few such teach botany at an LMS Institution in high imperial interactions in Pearson’s Calcutta. By 1909 he had also prepared life which otherwise had a focus similar an edition of Mazzini’s Duties of Man. to Andrews’. Not surprisingly, Pearson Accompanied with a preface and is much lesser known although on biographical introduction by Pearson, his death the Manchester Guardian this was published from Calcutta. For

Gokhale (1866-1915) who had become anxious with Gandhi having been arrested and this having been followed by the harassment and unexpected arrest on 25 November 1913 of an English associate of Gandhi, Albert West (b. c1880), who was then Acting Editor of the Indian leader’s journal, Indian Opinion.4 West was charged with “harbouring indentured people”.5 Gandhi, who had been arrested earlier in November, would recall: Mr West was in charge of the English section of Indian Opinion and of the cable correspondence with Gokhale. At a time like the present, when the situation assumed a new aspect every moment, correspondence by post was out of the question. Cablegrams had to be dispatched, no shorter in length than letters, and the delicate

Gandhi (centre) with C.F. Andrews (left) and W.W. Pearson (right), 1914 (photograph courtesy of the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library, Dell) various reasons, including ill-health, Pearson returned to England in 1911. But he was soon back in India with teaching assignments in Delhi and would later find his way also to the Indian poet-laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s educational institution, Shantiniketan at Bolpur, near Calcutta.

To Natal and Back The trip to South Africa materialised rather unexpectedly for Willie Pearson towards the end of 1913. By the time C.F. Andrews and Pearson reached Durban by ship, on 2 January 1914, M.K. Gandhi (1869-1948) and many other passive resisters had been released Rev. C.F. Andrews and W.W. Pearson 3 from prison. Andrews was sent by (photograph courtesy of Indian the Indian statesman Gopal Krishna Opinion, 1914)

responsibility regarding them was against the ill-treatment of Indians shouldered by Mr West.6 in South Africa”.8 Not surprisingly, That was the reason why therefore, it was actually Susil Kumar Rudra, the eminent Indian Christian [a]s soon as the news of the arrest Principal of St Stephen’s College in of West was cabled to Gokhale, he Delhi, who suggested that Pearson initiated the policy of sending out accompany Andrews on the tour; the able men from India …. No sooner, therefore, did he hear of West’s arrest, two then visited the Nobel laureate than he inquired of Andrews by wire Rabindranath Tagore to secure his if he was ready to proceed to South blessings before setting out for South Africa at once …. His beloved friend Africa.9 A farewell meeting was held for Pearson also got ready to go the same the two and Tagore wrote: “Along with moment, and the two friends left India Mr Gandhi and others, you are fighting for South Africa by the first available for our cause.”10 The Nobel Prize for 7 steamer. Tagore had also come in late 1913, According to Gandhi’s journal, making the poet’s work, and Gitanjali before leaving for South Africa, Pearson in particular, widely known. Andrews had already been “the spokesman and Pearson sailed from Calcutta via for the European community at the Madras. great Delhi demonstration, addressed Although in his multifarious pursuits recently by the Hon. Mr Gokhale, Pearson seldom suffered from a lack

Pearson and Rabindranath at Santinikatan (photograph courtesy of Modern Review, 1923)

Natalia 44 (2014) Copyright © Natal Society Foundation 2014 William Winstanley Pearson: The Natal Experience of self-belief, he tended, especially in a mass meeting of 3 000 Indians on periods of solitude or on long voyages, the Indian Football Ground in Durban to indulge an exaggerated sense of his at which Andrews, Pearson, Albert own vulnerabilities. From the ship he West, H. Kallenbach (1871-1945), and wrote to Tagore: “The very thought that H.S.L. Polak (1882-1959) were present I go to South Africa as a messenger … along with Gandhi. The terms of the will strengthen me and help me to herd agreement reached with Jan Smuts in the broken threads of my life’s purposes the negotiations at Pretoria, to which in that service of love.”11 In spite of this Andrews had also contributed, were self-deprecating tendency, Pearson’s explained. Before explaining the terms cheery temperament ensured that his of the agreement, Gandhi referred to the company was sought after, especially letter that Andrews had received from on long journeys during which he England preparing him for the death of would tend to liven things up, at least his mother.19 Andrews would leave for for others.12 England later in February. During the sea voyage, there was also Pearson spent the bulk of his time indirect criticism of functionaries of the in South Africa studying the labour church: Pearson wrote, “ Our time with conditions in the sugarcane plantations the Bishop of Madras was very helpful. in Natal.20 He was at the Phoenix He is taking such a firm, uncompromis- Settlement itself for no more than ing stand on the South African question two or three weeks. He studied the …. He seems to me very unlike most working of Magistrates’ Courts and of Bishops!”13 the Office of the Protector of Indian On their arrival in Durban, Andrews Immigrants. In the period that Pearson and Pearson explained their plans.14 spent at Phoenix, writes one inmate Pearson referred to the Quaker back- of the settlement, Pearson “became ground of his family and to their belief one with the children”.21 Prabhudas in spiritual force which he shared.15 Gandhi, who was at Phoenix at the Andrews expected to stay for at least time, writes: six weeks, Pearson for a month. During While Mr Andrews spent his time this period they would, among other discussing political problems with things, “endeavour to see the condi- Gandhiji, Mr Pearson studied the life tions under which Indians work on the of the people. He walked for most of estates, coal mines and factories” and the day around Phoenix and saw how they would also be taken to the districts Indian indentured labourers lived. He where Indians worked “independently also visited Africans’ homes and found 22 as gardeners and small farmers, as ar- out what their problems were. tisans and traders”.16 Visits to the Cape At the end of January 1914, Pearson Colony and the Transvaal were also gave evidence before the Inquiry Com- scheduled. On 18 January Pearson at- mission that had been set up in South tended a reception given by G.M. Moo- Africa to go into Indian grievances daley of Umgeni where he could meet which had culminated in the famous farmers of the district.17 Pearson then 1913 agitation and strike led by Gan- visited the farmers of Sea Cow Lake dhi and his colleagues such as Thambi before returning to Gandhi’s Phoenix Naidoo (1875-1933).23 In his evidence Settlement.18 On 25 January there was before the Commission, Pearson sought

children of St. Oswald’s School under their headmaster, Mr Ephraim.” 27 The headmaster, Abdial Massieka Ephraim, had actively supported the struggle and the school’s hall had been the venue of a meeting of Newcastle Indians on 13 October 1913.28 At the place of the reception, where Pearson and Kallenbach were escorted, were present, among many others, Messrs Vawda, Joshie, Ballaram, and Dwarkasingh, Mrs S. Ephraim and Mrs D. Lazarus.29 Dossen Lazarus presided. The women had been active. Lazarus’s sister-in-law, Miss Thomas, and his wife, Mrs D.M. Lazarus, whose home Pencil sketch of W.W. Pearson by in Newcastle at 37 Murchison Street Abanindranath Tagore had become the virtual headquarters (photograph courtesy of Visva- of the struggle in the area, had been Bharati Quarterly, May 1939) greatly praised by Gandhi for their the removal of the £3 tax which, he contribution.30 told the panel, was levied unfairly and Pearson’s report on his visit to South lacked justification.24 Africa deals substantially with the Pearson visited the coal-mining question of indentured labour in Natal. area around Newcastle in February.25 It is a sophisticated work containing At Newcastle, which had been the insights that are all the more remarkable nerve-centre of the miners’ strike, the for the fact that Pearson spent no more local Passive Resistance Committee than two months in the country.31 In his organised a reception in honour of report Pearson drew attention to several Andrews and Pearson. The former defects of the indenture system, the had proceeded directly to Cape Town law and the administrative machinery. on account of his indisposition. In the A couple of these may be mentioned event, Pearson attended the reception here. Of the Office of “Protector of along with Kallenbach.26 The report of Indian Immigrants”, Pearson remarked: this occasion is important especially “He seems to interpret the principles of because it highlights the involvement of British justice in a way that assumes all Newcastle’s St Oswald’s School in the Indians to be guilty until they are proved struggle. The school appeared to have to be innocent, and all the employers of provided the passive resisters with a Indians innocent until they are proved to support system and some meetings had be guilty.”32 If the indentured labourer in fact been held in the school premises. has complaints against the employer On the occasion of the reception for and manages to pass the barrier of Pearson, too, Indian Opinion reported: the interpreters, and thus reach the “Some 150 of the residents assembled Protector himself, he has this initial at the station to meet the guests and prejudice to overcome, and then, if there were also gathered here the he manages to convince his official

guardian that there is justification for A short time after my arrival in his complaint, he is ordered to go back Durban, I was walking behind the to his employer pending inquiry and, hearse of an old Indian labourer who if he refuses, he is handed over to the died in gaol as a passive resister, at police for being absent without leave the age of 70. As we passed through from his employer. This means that he the streets of Durban during luncheon is brought before the Magistrate, who hour, I was struck with the way in is bound by law either heavily to fine which hundreds of Europeans showed the culprit or to send the unfortunate their respect for the dead body by man to gaol for seven days with or removing their hats as the hearse without hard labour for a first offence, passed. It seemed to me strange that fourteen days with hard labour for a this old man who, as a labourer, had second offence, and up to thirty days for 40 years served this country, had with hard labour for any subsequent to wait for death to claim his body offence.33 before he could win the respect of the Christian public.36 Under the curious provisions of the law (Section 101 of the Law No 25 of While in South Africa, Pearson made 1891), absence would be punishable known his support for the promotion of even if the complaint was justified and racial equality and the fostering of so- successful: cial and political protest in that country. Phoenix was situated in the midst of a When all or a large number of the Indian immigrants employed upon Zulu area. On one occasion Raojibhai any estate or property shall absent M. Patel, who was also at Phoenix, ac- themselves from their employment companied Willie Pearson to meet the without leave for the purpose or on African educationist and leader John the pretence of making any complaint Langalibalele Dube (1871-1946), against their employer, such Indians whose Ohlange Institute in Inanda was or any number of them shall be situated close to the Phoenix settle- liable to be brought before any court ment. In January 1912 Dube had been and, on conviction, to be punished chosen as the first President of the Af- by fine not exceeding £2 Sterling or by imprisonment for any period rican National Congress (then known not exceeding two months, with as the South African Native National or without hard labour, whether Congress). Gandhi was well acquainted such complaint shall or shall not with Dube.37 He had referred apprecia- be adjudged to be groundless or tively to Dube as early as in 1905.38 frivolous and notwithstanding that In November 1912 Gandhi had taken such complaint may be successful.34 Gopal Krishna Gokhale, then on a tour [Italics Pearson’s] of South Africa, to Dube’s institution For the condition of indentured la- where the visiting leader was given a bour, Pearson placed the primary blame rousing reception.39 The significance of on the Colonial Government of India.35 Dube in African history may be gauged He appealed for mutual understand- by the fact that when democracy and ing between the communities. Having freedom were restored to South Africa attended, along with other passive in the 1990s, Nelson Mandela chose resisters, the funeral of Hurbat Singh, to cast his vote in Ohlange, Inanda, an Indian worker who had died in jail, expressly recalling the memory and Pearson recorded his impressions: legacy of John Dube.

One may obtain a sense of Willie and Mozambique as regards the Indians Pearson’s extraordinary character and and concluded that “[t]here is amongst commitment to racial equality from the the Portuguese very little insularity or fact that on his visit to John Dube, he colour prejudice”.45 Pearson did notice, asked whether the Africans were ready however, that the “Goanese element to emulate the kind of passive resis- being largely Roman Catholic and con- tance struggles launched by Indians. sisting of Portuguese subjects helps to John Dube’s reply to Willie Pearson, as form a connecting link between British recorded by Raojibhai Patel, indicated Indians and Portuguese.” Along with his admiration for the Indian struggle under growing association with Indian nation- Gandhi’s leadership and the endurance alist tendencies, Pearson’s experiences shown by even the unlettered among in South Africa and Mozambique had the Indians; he was doubtful, how- enabled him to cross many lines and ever, whether the struggle could be several borders. emulated by Africans without bringing forth severe retaliation from the ruling Pearson’s later life 40 dispensation. Soon after returning to India, Pearson Pearson left for India on 27 Febru- joined the staff at Tagore’s Shantini- 41 ary. On his return journey, he spent 10 ketan not very far from Calcutta. His days in Mozambique. He has provided later life was not uneventful.46 In 1915 us with a rare account of Indians living he accompanied C.F. Andrews on a trip 42 in Mozambique at the time. Keenly to Fiji to study the indentured labour observant, he makes tell-tale compari- problem there. Apart from teaching at sons between the treatment of Indians Shantiniketan, Pearson accompanied in South Africa and the treatment they Tagore on his trips to Japan and the receive in Portuguese-administered United States. Later, in 1917, he wrote Mozambique. As a Britisher, he found it For India, a little book published from “humiliating” that “the treatment which Japan in which he advocated Indian British Indians receive at the hands of independence. The book was proscribed the Portuguese is so much better than by the British Colonial regime in 1917. that which they receive in British Colo- Pearson was arrested in April 1918 in 43 nies”. He was pleasantly surprised to China while he was on a visit there and find a Portuguese boy strike up a con- sent back to England. He was placed versation with Pearson’s Indian friends under restrictions in England. Though when they were travelling together on he was allowed to return to India in the railway, an experience which “was 1921, he remained under police surveil- such a complete contrast to the behav- lance. Later he again returned home to iour of most European boys in South England apparently to recoup his health. 44 Africa towards Indians”. The Portu- While on a visit to Italy in 1923 Willie guese, Pearson went on to record in the Pearson fell out of a fast-moving train article, “seem to mix freely even with on 18 September and died a week later the natives of the country, especially in on 25 September. He was cremated in the interior”. He analysed the reason Pistoia where his ashes are still interred. for the contrast between South Africa

Endnotes Gandhi’s feet. See C.F. Andrews, Andrews’ 1 See, for example, Benarsidas Chaturvedi Papers: Bunch of Letters to Rabindranath and Marjorie Sykes, Charles Freer Andrews, Tagore and M.K. Gandhi, Deenabandhu [first published, 1949], Indian Reprint, New Andrews Centenary Committee, (n.d.), pp. Delhi, Publications Division, Government of 8-10. India, 1982 and Hugh Tinker, The Ordeal of 15 Indian Opinion, 7 January 1914. In a letter Love: C F Andrews and India, Delhi: Oxford to Rabindranath Tagore on 2 March 1914, University Press,1979. Andrews wrote: “It interested me much also 2 “A Great Englishman”, Manchester Guardian, to hear Willie say in one of his speeches, 30 November 1923. that he could understand the Indian situation 3 Gandhi recalled in 1924: “It was when almost in S. Africa because his family had been all the leaders were arrested that Mr Gokhale quakers …. That was significant!”. See C.F. … sent Mr Andrews and Mr Pearson. Whilst Andrews, Andrews’ Papers: Bunch of Letters their help was invaluable, it was not necessary to Rabindranath Tagore and M.K. Gandhi, to keep the sacrificial fire going. They Deenabandhu Andrews Centenary Committee, were useful for conducting negotiations”. op. cit., p. 25 . “Interview to The Hindu”, 15 April 1924, 16 Indian Opinion, 7 January 1914. The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, 17 Indian Opinion, 28 January 1914. Ahmedabad, Navajivan Trust, 1958-1994, 18 Idem. [CW], Vol 23, p. 441 . 19 “Durban Supports Mr Gandhi”, Indian 4 See Pranati Mukhopadhyay, “Africa and Opinion, 28 January 1914. Andrews’ mother C.F. Andrews” in Somendranath Bose (ed.), had in fact died earlier in January soon after Deenabandhu Andrews Centenary Volume, his arrival in Durban from India. 1972, Calcutta, Deenabandhu Andrews 20 Benarsidas Chaturvedi and Marjorie Sykes, Centenary Committee, 1972, pp. 152-171 at Charles Freer Andrews, op. cit., p. 106. pp. 154-5. 21 Prabhudas Gandhi, My Chilhood With Gandhi, 5 Indian Opinion, 26 November 1913. Ahmedabad, Navajivan Publishing House, 6 M.K. Gandhi (Valji Govindji Desai, Tr.), 1957, p. 178. Satyagraha in South Africa, Ahmedabad, 22 Idem. Navajivan Publishing House, (first published, 23 These events and Gandhi’s role in them have 1928), second edition, 1950, p. 290. been written about by Pearson in “A Character 7 Ibid., p. 291. Study of M.K. Gandhi” an essay included 8 Indian Opinion, 7 January 1914. in W.W. Pearson, The Dawn of a New Age 9 Probhat Kumar Mukherji (Sisir Kumar Ghosh, and other Essays, Madras, S.Ganesan, 1922, Tr.), Life of Tagore, New Delhi, Indian Book pp. 55-73. For Thambi Naidoo see also E.S. Company, 1975, p.118. Reddy, Thambi Naidoo and his family, New 10 Idem. Delhi, National Gandhi Museum and Library, 11 Pearson to Rabindranath Tagore, 14 December 2014 . 1913, Pearson Papers, Rabindra Bhavan, 24 Indian Opinion, 4 February 1914. Shantiniketan. 25 Indian Opinion, 4 & 18 February 1914. 12 Among attributes that Pearson valued highly 26 “Mr Pearson at Newcastle”, Indian Opinion, are those expressed in R.L. Stevenson’s 18 February 1914. prayer which he cites in a letter to Tagore: 27 Idem. “Give us courage, gaiety and a quiet mind”; 28 Yusuf H. Seedat, Gandhi in Newcastle, Part he would, he writes, like to begin each day Two and Three, mimeograph, September 1980, with it: Pearson to Rabindranath Tagore, 6 p. 9 and p. 15. The mimeograph is available May 1913, Pearson Papers, Rabindra Bhavan, at the Fort Amiel Museum, Newcastle, Shantiniketan. KwaZulu-Natal. 13 Pearson to Rabindranath Tagore, 14 December 29 “Mr Pearson at Newcastle”, Indian Opinion, 1913, Pearson Papers, Rabindra Bhavan, 18 February 1914. Shantiniketan. 30 M.K. Gandhi, “The Last Satyagraha 14 There is a vivid description of their arrival Campaign: My Experience”, Indian Opinion, in Andrews’ letter of 6 January 1914 to Golden Number, 1914; CW, Vol 12, p. 512. Rabindranath Tagore and the reaction that 31 W.W. Pearson, “Report on my visit to South followed in the Natal Press when Andrews, Africa”, Modern Review, Vol XV, No 6, June in an Indian gesture of respect, had touched 1914, pp. 629-42.

32 Ibid., p. 632. 42 W.W. Pearson, “British Indians in Portuguese 33 Ibid., p. 633. East Africa”, Modern Review, July 1914, 34 Ibid., p. 636. pp. 45-46. See also report of Pearson’s letter 35 “Mr Pearson’s Impressions”, Indian Opinion, from Beira, Mozambique to Rustomjee in 4 March 1914. South Africa, Indian Opinion, 22 April 1914. 36 Idem. 43 Ibid., p. 45. 37 See my article, “Gandhi and Some 44 Idem. Contemporary African leaders from KwaZulu- 45 Interestingly, another keen observer recorded Natal”, Natalia, No 42, December 2012, pp. a similar lack of racial feeling in mainland 45-64. France of the 1920s: See K.M. Panikkar, An 38 Indian Opinion, 2 September 1905, Collected Autobiography, Madras, Oxford University Works of Mahatma Gandhi, [CW], Vol 5, p. Press, 1977, p. 61. Panikkar wrote: “Only in 55. Paris do we find a complete absence of colour 39 Ilanga Lase Natal, 15 November 1912. bar. Everyone knows that the British look 40 E.S. Reddy, Gandhiji’s Vision of a Free down on coloured people. The reverse was South Africa, New Delhi, Sanchar Publishing true of Paris.” Both the Portuguese attitudes House, 1995, pp. 23-6. Raojibhai M. Patel noticed by Pearson and the French noticed by was an inmate of the Phoenix settlement who Panikkar would, however, come under strain accompanied Pearson to his meeting with in subsequent decades. Dube. Patel wrote his account of this meeting 46 See Anil Nauriya, English Anti-Imperialism in Gujarati in a work published in India in and the Varied Lights of Willie Pearson, 1939 under the title Gandhijini Sadhana. NMML Occasional Paper: History and 41 Indian Opinion, 4 March 1914. Society Series, New Delhi, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, 2014.