Stokes: An American In Gandhi’s India

by Asha Sharma

Satyanand Stokes was the first and only American to serve a prison sentence for India’s cause. He changed the lives of the hill people of Himachal Pradesh by introducing them to apple cultivation that has changed their fortunes.

When Samuel Evans Stokes arrived in Simla in 1904 at the age of 21, Simla was not the town we know today. It was the capital of the British Raj with all its pomp and glory – the awesome Viceregal Lodge where British elite met with royalty, of glamorous balls, of family picnics, gymkhanas and horse-back riding, of the prim and proper missionaries in their spotless attire. This affluence and glamour of Simla town was evident in the surrounding hill areas where the British traveled or lived. Most of the petty kings of the Hill States were no different in their opulence and style of living.

On the other side were the hill people, so poor that the men could not provide two daily meals for their wives and children, who drank tea with salt because they could not afford to buy sugar, whose patched clothes could not keep the cold away nor worn-out shoes protect their feet; their land-holdings so small and unproductive that they could not pay the annual land-revenue and in exchange opted to work as impressed laborers for the administration.

Sam was shocked to see this disparity between the British and the Indian people. Son of a prominent family of Pennsylvania who were pioneers of elevators in America., he had left behind the comfort and luxury of his home to work in a leper home in Subathu in the western Himalayas and had instantly fallen in love with the beauty of the countryside and charmed by the simplicity of its people.

In Subathu, he not only nursed lepers but also tried to come closer to Indians with whom he felt an instant affinity. He treated them as equals, wanted to befriend them, visit them in their homes and know about their life and culture. Yet he knew that this could not be possible in colonial British India – where Europeans and Indians could never be on equal terms at any level. It was this unfair treatment of the locals that struck the deepest cord in the heart of the young man who had been greatly influenced by the thinking of his Quaker forefathers and their belief in the equality of all people and their fair and equal treatment of native Americans in his home country.

It was this desire to be one with the people of India that led him to give up his western style of living, to start wearing Indian clothes, eat Indian food and speak the local language. For the first few years he worked in leper homes, in plague stricken villages, in small-pox camps and in the devast ating Kangra earth-quake. He adopted a number of Indian children, some were orphans, others children of leper patients.

There were several turning points in Stokes’ life. Each was carefully thought out and then discussed publicly. Thus when he decided to leave the Brotherhood of the Imitation of Jesus which he founded and which had drawn a lot of attention in India as well as in England, (the Brotherhood was the inspiration for the Christian Ashram movement in India a few years later) he explained the reasons for it in detail to the Secretary of the Christian Missionary Society with which the Brotherhood was affiliated and with his friend and mentor J.O.F Murray, Master of Selwyn College, Cambridge and then published the entire correspondence.

Likewise the reasons for his deciding to marry an Indian girl from the hills were discussed with his friends, including F J Western of the Cambridge Brotherhood, Delhi and with C F Andrews and then published and circulated among his missionary friends and peers. The marriage in 1912 was so much out of the accepted norms of the times that the local European priest refused to solemnize the marriage, which then had to be performed by an Indian priest. This was despite the fact that Stokes’ own American family fully supported his marriage.

Later in life when he converted to Hinduism, a step which seemed unwise to his many Christian friends, he not only wrote many private letters explaining the reasons for his taking this step but also published a written statement in the national press giving the reasons that led him to this decision and which, he explained, had more to do with family considerations and social necessity than a change in religion.

Once he settled in Kotgarh he focused his attention on eliminating social injustices and improving the economic condition of the hill people. Stokes’ first battle was against begaar or impressed labour which forced villagers to work for touring officials or for the petty Rajas, either free or for a paltry sum of money. The practice demeaned the villagers and affected their livelihood for they were often required to work during the crucial sowing or harvesting seasons. Witnessing this inequity Stokes decided to champion the cause of the villagers. In an unprecedented move he organized the people to resist begaar– to refuse it completely but peacefully. This Satyagraha against begaar drew the attention of Mahatma Gandhi who praised Stokes and urged the people “to continue with their struggle under the leadership of Stokes.” Begaar was finally abolished in the Punjab hill states through his efforts.

The 1919 Jalliianwala massacre and the ill-treatment of the people of Punjab by the British in its aftermath drew Stokes into the freedom struggle. The episode convinced him that the British could never rule benevolently and must leave India. He joined Mahatma Gandhi’s Non- Cooperation Movement and was a member of the All India Congress Committee. In December 1920 he was a delegate to the All India Congress held at Nagpur. When Gandhi started the Swadeshi movement Stokes burnt all his foreign clothes in a big bonfire in Bombay lit by none other than Gandhi himself. Thereafter he and his family only wore Khadi.

In mid-1921 he toured the United Provinces with Mahatma Gandhi and the Punjab with Lala Lajpat Rai organizing meetings and giving speeches.  He wrote prolifically for the national cause. His activities were widely covered in the press and his articles published in leading newspapers.

With his open stance against the colonial Government it was no surprise that when the first major political arrests were made towards the end of 1921, Stokes too became “a guest of the British Empire.” He spent six months in Lahore Central Jail refusing special treatment as a European and insisting that he be treated as his Indian compatriots were. He was the first and only American to serve a prison sentence for India’s cause.

After a few years of intense involvement in the freedom struggle Stokes decided to devote his time to the development of the hills. He had been deeply moved by the poverty in the area. “If I can find anything which will yield the farmers here a larger crop per acre, I shall be doing the people a real service,” he wrote in 1913. He ultimately found the answer in apples which are relatively easier to grow and could withstand the long and slow transportation through the hills to reach the markets in the plains.

Some British varieties of apples were already growing in the area but they were sour in taste and not popular and Stokes knew that he would have to find a new strain of apples to make them a commercially viable proposition. He experimented with over thirty-three varieties of American and European apples before he came to the conclusion that the American Red Delicious variety was the most suited to the Himalayan region. Once this was established he
concentrated on propagation and commercial cultivation of the fruit.

He imported saplings from America, planting them in his own land as well as distributing them to his neighbours. To many he gave free of cost and even helped to plant them. At first the poor villagers were reluctant to use their limited land to growing apple trees but Stokes persisted, encouraging them to first plant them on the embankments. Once the trees started bearing fruit and bringing returns there was no turning back and almost all the villagers of the Ilaqa and surrounding areas began to plant apple orchards. The American Red Delicious variety formed the bed-rock of these orchards and continues to be so even today.

What is of equal significance is the manner in which Stokes gradually developed the apple industry in the remote villages of the Himalayas introducing a unique work culture which distinguishes it from other areas in the country. Concerned about the educational needs of the villagers he opened the famous Tara School near his home where children of the surrounding villages could study. His children studied at the same school. But unable to afford free education to all he came up with the unique idea of encouraging students to work on his newly planted orchards. In lieu of school fees the boys and girls, including his own children were required to work in the orchard for one hour every day. “The children will run the orchards and the orchards will run the school,” he declared.

The plan was successful and the children worked on the land enthusiastically – digging, raking, carrying loads, pruning and finally picking and packing the apples. The skills and techniques they learnt were of immense value to them in developing their own orchards in later life. They also learnt to work with their hands imbibing the American concept of dignity of labour which till then was alien among the locals but which continues to be practiced in the hills even today.

Apples brought undreamt of prosperity to the people. Farmers who once could not make ends meet now live with dignity and can afford to feed, clothe, house and educate their children. Apples have also brought an amazing equality among the people as Shamanand, Stokes’ cook for several years pointed out succintly, “He gave livelihood to the rich and the poor alike, for us he is still alive, for there is a rain of currency notes in our land.”

When Stokes was arrested Mahatma Gandhi wrote in Young India, “Stokes has made India his home in a manner in which perhaps no other American or Englishman has.” A befitting tribute indeed to a man whose untiring efforts made a difference to the lives of so many people.

California based Asha Sharma is the author of ‘An American in Gandhi’s India’ the biography of Satyanand Stokes.