A Pilgrimage of Friendship
Howard Thurman and Sue Bailey Thurman in India
A Pilgrimage of Friendship: Howard Thurman Meets Rabindranath Tagore, Kshiti Mohan Sen and Mahatma Gandhi
Howard Thurman was an African American author, philosopher, theologian, educator and civil rights leader. He served as dean of Rankin Chapel at Howard University from 1932 to 1944 and as dean of Marsh Chapel at Boston University from 1953 to 1965. In 1944 he co-founded with Alfred Fisk the first major interracial, interdenominational church in the United States.
In 1935 and into 1936, Howard Thurman undertook what is known as a “Pilgrimage of Friendship” tour in India. It was at the end of this tour that he would meet Mahatma Gandhi in Bardoli, a small town in India’s western state of Gujarat. He also met with Rabindranath Tagore at Shantiniketan and Kshiti Mohan Sen. Howard Thurman also encouraged his colleague Benjamin Mays to visit Gandhiji when he was to make a trip to India later that year. Although the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. never had the opportunity to meet Mahatma Gandhi, his mentors during his early years certainly impressed upon the young man the value of Gandhiji’s experiments with truth and ahimsa. While a student at Morehouse College, King was introduced to the work of Mahatma Gandhi by then college President Benjamin Mays. After the death of Mahatma Gandhi, Mordecai Johnson, visited India in 1949 and upon his return he preached a sermon at Fellowship House in Philadelphia that deeply influenced Martin Luther King, Jr. It is said that King was so inspired, he immediately went out and bought six books on Gandhi. King continued to be enlightened by Gandhi’s life and message when he was a doctoral student at Boston University by another man who had a deep influence him, Howard Thurman.
Howard Thurman and Sue Bailey Thurman along with Edward Caroll and Phenola Carroll were invited to lead the Negro Delegation to Ceylon, India and Burma in 1935-1936. The main impetus for the Negro Delegation came from Reverend Augustine Ralla Ram, the executive secretary of the Student Christian Movement of India, Burma and Ceylon. We learn from authors, Quinton Dixie and Peter Eisenstadt in their book “Visions of a Better World” that Ralla Ram was a friend and associate of Mahatma Gandhi, and when he visited Spelman College, presumably with Thurman in attendance, he told his audience that “Gandhi’s outlook and plans for action are identical in tone and purpose with those set forth by Christ—so certainly alike that many think of him as the living spirit of Christianity.” When Ralla Ram returned to India the initial planning for the Negro Delegation commenced. By 1933 there were already murmurs in American Student Christian Movement publications of plans afoot to sponsor a Negro delegation to India.
Initially, Howard Thurman was reluctant to lead this delegation but he soon changed his mind and he carried out a rather extensive preparation for the journey. He wrote to fellow delegate Grace Towns Hamilton in October 1934:
“I am suggesting that as preparation for the work we will have to do there, that we spend most of the winter reading and studying in the following general fields; a detailed analysis of American culture, including the detailed history of two minorities, the American Negro and the American Indian; an analysis of the life and career of Jesus, historically considered, giving particular attention to the role of Christian minorities through the ages; a study of comparative religions, paying definite attention to Islam and Hinduism; an analysis of current, major social philosophies in our time, and their significance in the light of Christian ethics; a study of imperialism, both from the orthodox and the Marxian point of view, and finally, an examination of the major factors in Indian history.”
(from the Howard Thurman Papers Project of Boston University)
Along with his reading and study, Howard Thurman undertook a great many personal interviews to prepare him for his journey in which he would offer a series of lectures and sermons throughout South Asia. This included meetings with two of Gandhi’s associates who were in the US on speaking tours at the time: Muriel Lester and Madeleine Slade (Mirabehn).
The first stop of the delegation was in Colombo. After two weeks in Ceylon, visiting all the major cities, the delegation made its way to what is today known as Tiruchirapalli). They remained in south India for about a month and by December 20 took a Christmas break from their busy tour in Darjeeling. Dixie and Eisenstadt tell us that “Thurman, always zealous for peak experiences of natural sublimity, got up very early one morning, hiked in the darkness for several hours and watched the sunrise on the foothills of Kangchenjunga, the third tallest mountain in the world. Suddenly the clouds parted, and for only a minute the peak of Mount Everest was visible in the distance. Thurman would write of this experience forty years later:
“It remains for me a transcendent moment of sheer glory and beatitude, when time, space and circumstance evaporated and when my naked spirit looked into the depths of what is forbidden for anyone to see. I would never, never be the same.”
(Howard Thurman Autobiography)
They then spent a week in Rangoon, Burma before heading on to Calcutta and other cities in North India. The main task for the delegates was to talk: sermons, lectures, and public addressees before large and small gatherings. They led an exhausting journey across India. Their lectures included topics such as: “American Negro Achievements”, “Education of the Negro in America” “Youth and Peace” and a particular favorite sermon of Thurman’s: “The Tragedy of Dull-Mindedness”, along with lectures and presentations of the work of contemporary black poets. Sue Bailey Thurman spoke on “Negro Women” and “Women’s Organizations” as well as “Internationalism though Music” and “Internationalism in the Beloved Community.” Dixie and Eisenstadt explain in their book, “Visions of a Better World” that of the talks Thurman prepared especially for India was a lecture he called “The Faith of the American Negro”.
Speaking was certainly the main responsibility for this distinguished delegation but equally important was listening. A few conversations left indelible impressions on Howard Thurman, particularly those with Rabindranath Tagore, Kshiti Mohan Sen and Mahatma Gandhi.
Apparently, Howard Thurman had admired Tagore since his time at Rochester Theological Seminary. He viewed him as a kindred soul, a spiritual searcher, a person bridging two worlds. The delegation spent two days at Shantiniketan, January 16 and 17, 1936. The delegation had two meetings with Tagore, first with students under a banyan tree and then with him in his house. Sue Bailey Thurman described the meeting with Tagore. She said: “He was a being of such rare beauty, so elegant of form and face—so redolent of the world’s great seers who reflect the glory of the lighted mind.” And Howard Thurman said of Tagore: “It was as if we were there and being initiated into the secret working of a great mind and a giant spirit.”
Thurman apparently had difficulty with Kshiti Mohan Sen’s name but he never forgot their meeting. They spent the morning sitting on the floor talking about Christianity and Hinduism. At first they had a spirited debate over differences but later Thurman described their discussion as:
“The most primary, naked fusing of total religious experience with another human being of which I have ever been capable. It was as if we had stepped out of social, political, cultural frames of reference, and allowed two human beings to unite on a ground of reality that was unmarked by separateness and differences. This was a watershed experience of my life. We had become a part of each other even as we remained essentially individual. I was able to stand secure in my place and enter into his place without diminishing myself or threatening him.”
(from his autobiography)
The scholar and writer, Kshiti Mohan Sen dedicated his “Medieval Mystics of India” to “all those who have felt the Supreme Spirit in rare moments of self-realization and who seek life’s fulfillment in a love the transcends limitations of creeds, customs and race.” From this we can understand how his meeting with Howard Thurman so moved him.
Dixie and Eisenstadt write that “Sen’s Hinduism, finding its exemplars in humble weavers and cotton carders and in contemporary representatives of the mystical life of the Bauls of Bengal, had much in common with Thurman’s religion of an outcast, downtrodden, and politically marginal Jesus. They explained that although Thurman would always call himself a Christian, this would increasingly be more of a starting point than a destination, as he would wander, increasingly widely, in a search to realize the unity of God by transcending artificial cultural barriers. His meeting with Kshiti Mohan Sen was an important step in this journey.
Now we come to the most impactful encounter Thurman had in India, both for himself and for generations to come… it was the meeting the Negro Delegation had in late February 1936 with Mahatma Gandhi. From nearly the beginning of his involvement with the Negro Delegation, Thurman had thoughts of meeting Gandhi and a number of people went to great efforts to arrange it. By the 1920s Gandhi was hailed in the black press as a “messiah” and “saint” and in 1921 the “Chicago Defender” called him “the greatest man in the world today.”
Dixie and Eisenstadt write how Muriel Lester, a prominent leader in the Fellowship of Reconciliation and Director of Kingsley Hall in London was so excited to hear about the Negro Delegation that she insisted Thurman travel from DC to California at her expense to meet with her for a few hours. She promised to get in touch with Gandhi, whom she hosted in London in 1931 during the Round Table Conference.
In early 1935 Thurman convinced Madeleine Slade, also known as Mirabehn, to visit Howard during a short American speaking tour. A daughter of a British admiral, she had joined Gandhi’s ashram and Thurman wanted to know why she had given up so much to follow Gandhi. He also thought it was important that Mirabehn get to meet with black Americans and convey to Gandhi the substance of the meeting. Mirabehn told Thurman that he should definitely meet with Gandhi while in India and that she promised to speak to Gandhiji about it.
On September 9, 1935, Thurman wrote to Gandhi:
“For years I have read about you and there are many things I should like to talk through with you and covet the privilege very, very much.”
When Thurman arrived in Colombo, a postcard from Gandhi awaited him dated October 6, 1935.
“Dear Friend, I thank you for your letter of 9th September, just received. I shall be delighted to have you and your three friends whenever you can come before the end of this year. After that my movement will be uncertain though you will be welcome at this place whenever you come. Reverend Ralla Ram will be able to tell you how simply we live here. If therefore we cannot provide western amenities of life, we will be making up for the deficiency by the natural warmth of our affection. Muriel Lester had prepared me to receive you here.”
Although there were delays in the delegation’s attempts to meet with Gandhi due to his falling ill and then later illness among the members of the delegation. It finally was arranged. While in Bombay, Gandhi’s next letter arrived in February 1936, inviting the delegation to meet him at Bardoli. After a three hour train trip on February 21 they arrived at Navsari Station, where they were met by Mahadev Desai, Gandhi’s personal secretary. Desai recorded the conversation of their meeting, later publishing it in the newspaper “Harijan.”
Gandhi had so much he wanted to discus with the delegation that he was afraid there wouldn’t be enough time. The group went into a tent and were invited to sit on the floor. Thurman later recounted in his autobiography that:
“To my amazement the first thing Gandhi did was to reach under his shawl and take out an old watch saying, ‘I apologize, but we must talk by the watch, because we have much to talk about and you have only three hours before you have to leave to take your train back to Bombay.”
As Gandhi began the conversation with questions of all sorts, Thurman reflected that:
“Never in my life have I been a part of that kind of examination: with persistent, pragmatic questions about American Negros, about the course of slavery, and how we had survived it.”
Gandhi asked him about “voting rights, lynching, discrimination, public school education, the churches and how they functioned. His questions covered what Thurman described as “the entire sweep of our experience in American society.” Dixie and Eisenstadt write that “Thurman gave Gandhi a brief overview of black history since Emancipation and talked about Booker T. Washington, and WEB Du Bois. He also explained the consequences of segregation in education and other areas of life, and spoke of the history of Howard University, making a point of mentioning to Gandhi that Howard University’s president was among his greatest supporters.”
Gandhi asked Thurman if the “prejudice against color was growing or dying out,” and Thurman gave a measured response, saying it was difficult to say:
“In one place things look much improved, whilst in another the outlook is still dark.”
Somewhat surprisingly, Thurman thought the greatest progress had been made in the South, where among many Southern white students “there is a disposition to improve upon the attitude of their forebears” and there was some small amelioration in general racial climate. However, he argued, the migrants to the North were dealing with the brunt of the Depression as well as the anger from whites worried about losing their jobs. “The economic question is acute everywhere, and in many of the industrial centers in the Mid West the prejudice against the Negro shows itself in its ugliest form.”
The conversation continued into many subject areas including religion….and Mahadev Desai wrote that “the whole discussion led to many a question and cross question during which the guests had an occasion to see that Gandhi’s principle of equal respect for all religions was no theoretical formula but a practical creed.” The conversation then turned, in the words of Desai, “to the main thing that had drawn the distinguished members to Gandhiji,” his philosophy of ahimsa (or nonviolence) and satyagraha (soul force). Thurman asked of Gandhiji:
“Is non-violence from your point of view a form of direct action?”
And Gandhiji replied: “It is not one form, it is the only form. Nonviolence does not exist without an active expression of it, and indeed, one cannot be passively nonviolent.”
Gandhi insisted that nonviolence is a force which is “more positive than electricity and subtler and more pervasive than ether.” And he expanded thus:
“We are surrounded in life by strife and bloodshed, life living upon life. But some seer, who ages ago penetrated the center of truth said: It was not through strife and violence, but through nonviolence that man can fulfill his destiny and his duty to his fellow creatures… At the center of non-violence is a force which is self-acting. Ahimsa, he told the visiting Christian delegation, meant love in the Pauline sense, yet something more…ahimsa expresses a force superior to all forces put together. One person who can express Ahimsa in life exercises a force superior to all the forces of brutality.”
Thurman’s question of whether it was possible for a single human to embody ahimsa provoked the following with Gandhi saying: “It is possible. Perhaps your question is more universal than you mean. Isn’t it possible, you mean to ask, for one single Indian for instance to resist the exploitation of 300 million Indians? Or do you mean the onslaught of the whole world against a single individual personally?
Thurman: Yes, that is one half of the question. I wanted to know if one man can hold the whole of violence at bay?
And Gandhi responded: “If he cannot, you must take it that he is not a true representative of Ahimsa.” Then Thurman asked Gandhi how to train individuals or communities in this difficult art.
Gandhi replied:
“There is no royal road, except through living the creed in your own life which itself must be a living sermon. Of course, the expressions in one’s own life presupposes great study, and tremendous perseverance…If for the mastering of the physical sciences you have to devote a whole life-time, how many lifetimes may be needed for mastering the greatest spiritual force that mankind has known? But why worry even it it means several lifetimes. For this is the only permanent thing in life, if this is the only thing that counts, then whatever effort you bestow on mastering it is well spent. Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven and everything else shall be added to you.” Gandhiji said: “The Kingdom of Heaven is Ahimsa.” He said: “I am a very poor specimen of the practice of nonviolence and my answer may not convince you. But I am striving very hard, and even if I do not succeed fully in this life, my faith will not diminish.”
Neither Gandhi nor the members of the delegation wanted the conversation to end. Sue Bailey Thurman requested that Gandhiji come to America…” To this invitation he responded: “How I wish I could come,” he told the delegation but he felt he couldn’t do so before he gave what he called “a demonstration here of all that I have been saying. I must make good the message here before I bring it to you. I do not say that I am defeated, but I still have to perfect myself. You may be sure that the moment I feel the call within me I shall not hesitate.”
Thurman said: “Much of the peculiar background of our own life in America is our own interpretation of the Christian religion. When one goes through the pages of the hundreds of Negro spirituals, striking things are brought to my mind which remind me of all you have told us today.”
Before they left Gandhiji, they sang the song “Were You There When They Crucified my Lord?” which it is said that Gandhi had thought provided the “root experience of the entire human race under the spread of the healing wings of suffering.” They also sang “We Are Climbing up Jacob’s Ladder.”
At the end of a long silence that followed the singing, Gandhi offered his final comments: “It may be through the Negroes that the unadulterated message of nonviolence will be delivered to the world.”