3 - Soundings in Kindred Struggles : The Egyptian Voice in Gandhi
Corresponding Author(s) : Anil Nauriya
Identity, Culture and Politics,
Vol. 12 No. 2 (2011): Identity, Culture and Politics: An Afro - Asian dialogue
Abstract
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) was favourably impressed by the political movement in Egypt in the early years of the twentieth century while he was still in South Africa. He was particularly impressed by Egypt’s nationalist leader Mustafa Kamil Pasha whose death occurred more than a hundred years ago in February 1908 in Cairo. Many aspects of the policy adopted by Mustafa Kamil Pasha’s Nationalist Party were appreciated by Gandhi at a time when he was contemplating civil resistance against the South African regimes. In subsequent years, Gandhi would remain a keen observer of Egyptian political developments; just as he admired Zaghloul Pasha, the great leader of the Wafd Party, Egyptian leaders too would take inspiration from Gandhi. Some of the specificities of the Egyptian movement which influenced Gandhi are explored in this lecture. An attempt is made also to examine the interface or symbiosis between Gandhi and Egypt. This has some contemporary resonance in the winds of change now sweeping across the North African region.
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- The year 2011 marks the 75th death anniversary of Munshi Premchand (1880-1936), legendary literary figure of 20th Century India. This article is a slightly expanded and revised version of the written text of the Fourth Munshi Premchand Memorial lecture delivered by me under the auspices of Jamia’s Premchand Archives & Literary Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi on March 22, 2011. References to Gandhi’s writings and to his Collected Works have ordinarily been given within the main text while other references are given in notes to the text. Mr E S Reddy was kind enough to read earlier drafts and made valuable suggestions from which I have benefited.
- For an account of the events surrounding the occupation, see Jawaharlal Nehru, ‘Britain Seizes and Holds on to Egypt’, a piece written as a letter from prison to his daughter on March 11, 1933, and included in J. Nehru, Glimpses of World History, Asia Publishing House, Bombay, 1962, pp. 603-610, first published in 1934. Yet another early Indian account of these events and their far-reaching consequences is in Syed Mahmud, The Khilafat and England, published by Mohemad Imtyaz, Sidaqat Ashram, Patna, (1921), pp. 66-70. Gandhi would refer to the latter work in an article in Young India on September 1, 1921.
- Evelyn Baring, First Earl of Cromer (1841-1917); British Comptroller-General in Egypt, 1883-1907. He had earlier served as Private Secretary to Northbrook, Viceroy of India (1872-76).
- Historically, the names of Mustafa Kamil Pasha and Muhammad Farid (1868-1919) are associated with the founding of the Nationalist Party of Egypt. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (1888-1958), who became a leading figure in the Indian National Congress and of the Indian freedom movement in its Gandhian phase, records visiting Cairo in 1908, apparently sometime after Kamil Pasha’s death, and coming into contact with “the followers of Mustafa Kamil Pasha”. (Maulana Azad, India Wins Freedom, Orient Longman, New Delhi, 1959, pp. 5-6). The spelling of Mustafa Kamil’s name varies in the literature. Some variations are : Kamal, Kemal and Kamel. Kamil is now encountered most frequently; but this spelling does not seem to have been as prevalent in his own lifetime. For purposes of this lecture we have used Kamil but have retained other spellings wherever they occur in a quoted reference.
- In our time this party has been characterised thus: “Created by men of the intelligentia’s first generation, the first Nationalist Party was by no means the party of the Egyptian bourgeoisie… At critical moments the party became the nation – whose potential it symbolised”. [Samir Amin, The Arab Nation, (Tr. by Michael Pallis), Zed Press, London, 1978, pp. 35-36]
- Uttam Sinha of the National Gandhi Museum, Rajghat, New Delhi kindly provided me with an English translation of Mustafa Kamil Pasha’s October 22, 1907 speech from the Gujarati version published in Indian Opinion, June 27, July 4, and July 11, 1908.
- This is also referred to as the Dinshawai or Dinshaway incident. The event had long-term implications that may be compared with the subsequent Jallianwala Bagh massacre (1919) in Amritsar, India and the shootings at Sharpeville (1960) and Soweto (1976) in South Africa. Of the Egyptian incident, one scholar writes : “Within a few days it became clear that the incident provided the impetus which had up to then been lacking in the nationalist and pan-Islamic Press. Ali Yusuf wrote twenty-three articles … and hardly a poet kept silent.” ( Jamal Mohammed Ahmed, The Intellectual Origins of Egyptian Nationalism, Oxford University Press, London, 1960, pp. 62-63) “I saw the heart of Egypt throb”, wrote Qasim Amin, a contemporary of Mustafa Kamil, on the executions that followed Denshawai ( Ibid., p. 79). In England, the Denshawai repression was contemporaneously criticised by George Bernard Shaw. An English army officer in India noted that “accounts of it also reached India and Burma. In Ireland, Denshawai was used with effect, and of course the demand for Home Rule was stimulated”. ( Must England Lose India ? : The Nemesis of Empire, Arthur Osburn, Alfred A. Knopf, publisher, London, 1930 pp 66-67). One scholar writes that “ There can be no doubt that Cromer intended the Dinshaway trial to serve as an object lesson to the Egyptian population of the way Great Britain dealt with serious offences against its rule”. [Robert L. Tignor, Lord Cromer : Practitioner and Philosopher of Imperialism, The Journal of British Studies, Vol 2, No 2 (May 1963), pp. 142-159 at p. 155] In a passing reference, Wavell who served in the region, admits that in the “disastrous Denshawai incident”, there had been “undue severity” which “had left a serious stain on the British reputation in Egypt”. (Field Marshal Viscount Wavell, Allenby : Soldier and Statesman, George C Harrap & Co Ltd, London, 1946, p 314).
- See Bernard Shaw, Collected Plays with Their Prefaces, Volume II, The Bodley Head, London, 1971 (based on the standard edition, 1931), pp. 805-892.
- Ibid., p. 861
- Paul Dunbar has been described as the first African-American “seriously to take up the career of man of letters”. (See Charles Larson, The Novels of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Phylon, 1968, Vol 29, No 3, p.257) Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was recognised at an early age as “a musical genius”. (See Adelaide M. Cromwell, An African Victorian Feminist : The Life and Times of Adelaide Smith Casely Hayford 1868-1960, Howard University Press, Washington, D.C., 1992, p. 60)
- The article, published in Comrade, Delhi, on September 26, 1914, was in response to an eponymous editorial in the London Times of August 29, 1914. The editors of the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi refer to action taken against Mohamed Ali and Shaukat Ali in October 1914 for publishing an article entitled “Evacuate Egypt”.
- There appears to have been some confusion about the copy of the work related to Kamil Pasha, Life of Mustafa Kamal Pasha, that was reprinted in India for purposes of civil disobedience in 1919. It was apparently not the one that had been published from Gandhi’s press in South Africa and banned in India. Gandhi noted : “I find that it is not a reprint of one of the prohibited books, but it was reprinted in mistake for a copy of Mustafa Kamel Pasha’s speech which is a book included in the list of prohibited literature”. (Letter to F C Griffith, May 14, 1919, CW, Vol 15, p. 308).
- B R Nanda, The Nehrus, George Allen & Unwin, London, 1965, p. 163, relying on files of the British Indian Government.
- Idem
References
The year 2011 marks the 75th death anniversary of Munshi Premchand (1880-1936), legendary literary figure of 20th Century India. This article is a slightly expanded and revised version of the written text of the Fourth Munshi Premchand Memorial lecture delivered by me under the auspices of Jamia’s Premchand Archives & Literary Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi on March 22, 2011. References to Gandhi’s writings and to his Collected Works have ordinarily been given within the main text while other references are given in notes to the text. Mr E S Reddy was kind enough to read earlier drafts and made valuable suggestions from which I have benefited.
For an account of the events surrounding the occupation, see Jawaharlal Nehru, ‘Britain Seizes and Holds on to Egypt’, a piece written as a letter from prison to his daughter on March 11, 1933, and included in J. Nehru, Glimpses of World History, Asia Publishing House, Bombay, 1962, pp. 603-610, first published in 1934. Yet another early Indian account of these events and their far-reaching consequences is in Syed Mahmud, The Khilafat and England, published by Mohemad Imtyaz, Sidaqat Ashram, Patna, (1921), pp. 66-70. Gandhi would refer to the latter work in an article in Young India on September 1, 1921.
Evelyn Baring, First Earl of Cromer (1841-1917); British Comptroller-General in Egypt, 1883-1907. He had earlier served as Private Secretary to Northbrook, Viceroy of India (1872-76).
Historically, the names of Mustafa Kamil Pasha and Muhammad Farid (1868-1919) are associated with the founding of the Nationalist Party of Egypt. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (1888-1958), who became a leading figure in the Indian National Congress and of the Indian freedom movement in its Gandhian phase, records visiting Cairo in 1908, apparently sometime after Kamil Pasha’s death, and coming into contact with “the followers of Mustafa Kamil Pasha”. (Maulana Azad, India Wins Freedom, Orient Longman, New Delhi, 1959, pp. 5-6). The spelling of Mustafa Kamil’s name varies in the literature. Some variations are : Kamal, Kemal and Kamel. Kamil is now encountered most frequently; but this spelling does not seem to have been as prevalent in his own lifetime. For purposes of this lecture we have used Kamil but have retained other spellings wherever they occur in a quoted reference.
In our time this party has been characterised thus: “Created by men of the intelligentia’s first generation, the first Nationalist Party was by no means the party of the Egyptian bourgeoisie… At critical moments the party became the nation – whose potential it symbolised”. [Samir Amin, The Arab Nation, (Tr. by Michael Pallis), Zed Press, London, 1978, pp. 35-36]
Uttam Sinha of the National Gandhi Museum, Rajghat, New Delhi kindly provided me with an English translation of Mustafa Kamil Pasha’s October 22, 1907 speech from the Gujarati version published in Indian Opinion, June 27, July 4, and July 11, 1908.
This is also referred to as the Dinshawai or Dinshaway incident. The event had long-term implications that may be compared with the subsequent Jallianwala Bagh massacre (1919) in Amritsar, India and the shootings at Sharpeville (1960) and Soweto (1976) in South Africa. Of the Egyptian incident, one scholar writes : “Within a few days it became clear that the incident provided the impetus which had up to then been lacking in the nationalist and pan-Islamic Press. Ali Yusuf wrote twenty-three articles … and hardly a poet kept silent.” ( Jamal Mohammed Ahmed, The Intellectual Origins of Egyptian Nationalism, Oxford University Press, London, 1960, pp. 62-63) “I saw the heart of Egypt throb”, wrote Qasim Amin, a contemporary of Mustafa Kamil, on the executions that followed Denshawai ( Ibid., p. 79). In England, the Denshawai repression was contemporaneously criticised by George Bernard Shaw. An English army officer in India noted that “accounts of it also reached India and Burma. In Ireland, Denshawai was used with effect, and of course the demand for Home Rule was stimulated”. ( Must England Lose India ? : The Nemesis of Empire, Arthur Osburn, Alfred A. Knopf, publisher, London, 1930 pp 66-67). One scholar writes that “ There can be no doubt that Cromer intended the Dinshaway trial to serve as an object lesson to the Egyptian population of the way Great Britain dealt with serious offences against its rule”. [Robert L. Tignor, Lord Cromer : Practitioner and Philosopher of Imperialism, The Journal of British Studies, Vol 2, No 2 (May 1963), pp. 142-159 at p. 155] In a passing reference, Wavell who served in the region, admits that in the “disastrous Denshawai incident”, there had been “undue severity” which “had left a serious stain on the British reputation in Egypt”. (Field Marshal Viscount Wavell, Allenby : Soldier and Statesman, George C Harrap & Co Ltd, London, 1946, p 314).
See Bernard Shaw, Collected Plays with Their Prefaces, Volume II, The Bodley Head, London, 1971 (based on the standard edition, 1931), pp. 805-892.
Ibid., p. 861
Paul Dunbar has been described as the first African-American “seriously to take up the career of man of letters”. (See Charles Larson, The Novels of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Phylon, 1968, Vol 29, No 3, p.257) Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was recognised at an early age as “a musical genius”. (See Adelaide M. Cromwell, An African Victorian Feminist : The Life and Times of Adelaide Smith Casely Hayford 1868-1960, Howard University Press, Washington, D.C., 1992, p. 60)
The article, published in Comrade, Delhi, on September 26, 1914, was in response to an eponymous editorial in the London Times of August 29, 1914. The editors of the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi refer to action taken against Mohamed Ali and Shaukat Ali in October 1914 for publishing an article entitled “Evacuate Egypt”.
There appears to have been some confusion about the copy of the work related to Kamil Pasha, Life of Mustafa Kamal Pasha, that was reprinted in India for purposes of civil disobedience in 1919. It was apparently not the one that had been published from Gandhi’s press in South Africa and banned in India. Gandhi noted : “I find that it is not a reprint of one of the prohibited books, but it was reprinted in mistake for a copy of Mustafa Kamel Pasha’s speech which is a book included in the list of prohibited literature”. (Letter to F C Griffith, May 14, 1919, CW, Vol 15, p. 308).
B R Nanda, The Nehrus, George Allen & Unwin, London, 1965, p. 163, relying on files of the British Indian Government.
Idem