HIGGINBOTTOM, SAM (AND MRS. HIGGINBOTTOM)

[Mr. Higginbottom (1874-1958) was an American Presbyterian missionary in India from 1903 to 1945. He established the Allahabad Agricultural Institute in 1918. He and his wife, Jane, developed the Naini Leper Asylum in Allahabad as a model colony. He was also President of the Allahabad Christian College for many years. He was the author of Gospel and the Plow (1921), What Does Jesus Expect of the Church (1941) and Sam Higginbottom, farmer: an Autobiography (1949). Gandhiji first met him at the lecture series held on the occasion of the laying of the foundation stone of the Benares Hindu University in February 1916 and was impressed by his lecture. They became friends and soon entered into correspondence about the means to deal with poverty in India. Although they disagreed as to whether agriculture or village industries should be given priority, they were both deeply interested in the problem of poverty. Gandhiji visited the Agricultural Institute and the leper home on November 15, 1929. Dr. Higginbottom, in turn, visited Gandhiji's Ashram and inspected the soil in its fields. Gandhiji sought his advice on several occasions. Mr. Higginbottom was a member of the Board of Advisers of the All India Village Industries Association, set up by Gandhiji in 1934.32]

 Letter, January 4, 191733

Ahmedabad,
January 4, 1917

Dear Mr. Higginbottom,
I have just returned to find the book so kindly sent by you. I thank you for it. Can you now pay the promised visit to the Ashram? If you can come, will you address a public meeting?

I am,
Yours sincerely,
M. K. Gandhi

 Letter, January 16, 191734

Ahmedabad,
January 16, 1917

Dear Mr. Higginbottom,
You will see from the enclosed what fate befell my poor post card. Since writing the post-card, I have read the book. It was a perfect treat for me. It has enabled me almost to take a definite step in matters educational. You will hear about it probably very soon and perhaps give me the benefit of your advice.
Hoping you will be able at an early date to visit the Ashram,

I am,
Yours truly,
M. K. Gandhi

[Mr. Higginbottom wrote to Gandhiji on January 21, 1917, that he would visit the Ashram and stay there for a day.35]

 Letter, March 2, 192536

As at Sabarmati,
March 2, 1925

Dear friend,
I have your letter for which many thanks. I shall certainly call at your farm when I come to Allahabad. At the present moment I must not especially pay a visit there. I have not a day to spare. Have you seen my condensation of your evidence in Y.I.?37 Did you receive my note from the Yeravda prison?

Yours sincerely,
M. K. Gandhi

 Letter, December 17, 192638

As at the Ashram,
Sabarmati
December 17, 1926

Dear friend,
I have your letter. It is evident that thoughts produce effects, perhaps, more powerful than the spoken word; for, if you have thought so much of me, for which many thanks, I have thought none the less of you and I have spoken to so many about you and your acts.
I do not think there is any chance of my passing through Allahabad in the near future and I have in front of me a prolonged tour. But I am likely to be at the Ashram at the end of February when, if you could come over and pass a day or two, we could have a quiet time together and you could see the Ashram activities and also give us the benefit of your valuable advice in the agricultural work we are doing. Yours sincerely,

M. K. Gandhi
Sam Higginbottom, Esq.
Allahabad Agricultural Institute
Allahabad

 Telegram, February 18, 192739

[Mr. Higginbottom wrote on February 11, 1927, asking for a date when he could have a few hours of quiet talk with Gandhiji.
"The reason I am asking for an interview is that I would like to discuss with you some of the rural problems and see if we can find any solution for them. It does not seem right to me that so many people in India should be so miserably, wretchedly poor and remain so. I believe that God has placed good men and women in the world and that they prove they are good by helping the helpless and the poor and the needy. I am not interested in discussing religious questions as such, believing as I do that the most religious life is the one that does most for God and for humanity in setting the captive free from the chains with which custom and despotism have bound him."40]

AHMEDNAGAR,
FEBRUARY 18, 1927

TO
ALAGIN NAINI
YOUR LETTER. COULD YOU COME SABARMATI NINTH TENTH TWELFTH OR THIRTEENTH MARCH STAYING WITH ME AT LEAST TWENTYFOUR HOURS.

GANDHI

[Mr. Higginbottom wrote to Gandhiji on 21 January that he would arrive at the Ashram on 11 March. He sent two telegrams and wrote a letter in March, asking for a new date, as he could not visit the Ashram on 11 March because of illness.41]

 Letter, March 14, 192742

Dear friend,
I had your wires to which I sent a reply at Lyallpur. I then received another wire today. I am helpless. I must keep an appointment which involves thousands of poor men and women. I could have intercepted you on the way but I thought that you should see the Ashram before seeing me. Pray make yourself at home at the Ashram and examine everything critically and have a heart-to-heart chat with my co- workers. You can then meet me near Bardoli at the Conference I am taking in on the 16th43 or at Bardoli itself on the 17th. You can reach it via Surat. Mr. Banker will telegraph your wishes and I shall arrange or a friend to meet you at Surat and he will bring you to me wherever I may be on the Tapti Valley Railway. I am sorry for all the trouble you are being put to. But my programme is so rigid that I dare not interfere with it.
I hope you are strong and fit and that you will have no inconvenience at the Ashram.

Yours sincerely,
M.K. Gandhi

[Mr. Higginbottom wrote in his autobiography that he had visited Gandhiji in his ashram in March 1927 and saw "the beginning of his cottage industry, gardens and trenching of night soil, which he had taken over from us."44]

 Letter, May 29, 192745

[Gandhiji fell ill at the end of March and went to Nandi Hills, near Bangalore, for rest on the advice of doctors.]

Kumara Park,
Bangalore,
May 29, 1927

Dear friend,
A correspondent in Mysore has sent me the following which is being distributed fairly liberally. Before I say anything about the writing, will you kindly tell me whether you are correctly reported and whether the extracts reproduced do you full justice?
I had your letter of kind enquiry for which I thank you. I am making steady progress. I am likely to be in these parts yet for a while. It will therefore be better to send your answer directly to the address noted at the top.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Sam Higginbottom
Agricultural Institute
Allahabad

[Mr. Higginbottom replied on 4 June that his article, in which he had attributed Indian poverty to three causes, had been mutilated by the New York editor.46]

 Letter, June 11, 192747

Kumara Park, Bangalore,
June 11, 1927

Dear friend,
I thank you for your prompt reply.In the circumstances mentioned by you, I will not make any use of the publication referred to in my previous letter.
Whilst I agree with you that all religious doctrine has an economic aspect and that economic law is as much God's law as religious law, I profoundly differ from your application of the doctrine. It can easily be shown that transmigration has nothing to do with poverty. The present system of caste has certainly something to do with it. The treatment of women again can be shown to have no connection with poverty. But if you can spare the time, I would certainly value an article or two from your pen giving your views about cattle and their treatment and your argument in proof of your belief that the three things mentioned by you are "in combination, the primary and fundamental causes of India's poverty." If you think that there is room for correcting your opinion about the fundamental causes of India's poverty we may discuss the causes through private correspondence. I know you to be a well-wisher of the country and a searcher after truth. I know also that you have great capacity for serving India. I am therefore most anxious to take all the advantage I can of your love of the country and your great knowledge in the interest of a cause which is common to us both. I am therefore anxious that so far as it is possible, there should be agreement between us about the fundamental cause of the great and growing poverty of India.

Yours sincerely,

 Letter, March 28, 192848

The Ashram,
Sabarmati
March 28, 1928

Dear friend,
When I had the pleasure of being shown over your farm on the banks of the Jumna, I remember having seen a contrivance whereby you heated your water by the sun heat. Will you please tell me whether it was merely the tank put on your building and exposed to the full sun or whether you concentrated by some mechanical contrivance the rays of the sun on to the tank?

Yours sincerely,

Sam Higginbottom, Esq.
Agricultural Institute
Allahabad

Letter to Mrs. Higginbottom, April 7, 192849

The Ashram,
Sabarmati,
April 7, 1928

Dear friend,
It was good of you so promptly to reply to the enquiry addressed to your husband. Please send my regards when you write to him.
Nothing is yet certain about my proposed visit to Europe. But even if I go to Europe I hardly think I shall be able to combine both Europe and America during the few months alone which I can allow myself.

Yours sincerely,

[Mr. Higginbottom received Gandhiji's letter in the United States and replied on May 2, 1928:
"I bought for a few rupees some second-hand iron pipe coil from an ice factory, placed them on the roof where the sun could shine on them, painted them black to absorb the heat. The pipes are connected to two iron tanks or water barrels: one gets the cold water and one stores the hot water."50]

 Letter, September 2, 192951

[A student of Mr. Higginbottom wrote to Gandhiji on August 16, 1929, that Mr. Higginbottom had said that though Gandhiji deprecated untouchability, he had turned away a Harijan girl who was a member of his household instead of improving her. He asked Gandhiji if that was true.52 
 Gandhiji sent the student's letter to Mr. Higginbottom and gave the facts about the "sweet and naughty" Harijan girl, Lakshmi, who lived as his own daughter but often went to her natural parents, Dudabhai and Danibehn, former inmates of the Ashram. Mr. Higginbottom apologised to Gandhiji, as he had done to the class, for the misstatement. He said:
"Your kind letter has showed me where my mistake was. One of your colleagues mentioned to me the fact that the girl having been naughty had been sent away. He did not explain what you do, that she was in the habit of going and returning to her natural parents.
"I note you say there is no corporal punishment or compulsion at the Ashram. I wish I could see it that way, but all my experience is that for the sake of the child some restraining discipline is necessary."
Then he quoted the Bible, twelfth chapter of Hebrews, that the Lord chastens whom he loves.53]

Sabarmati,
September 2, 1929

Dear friend,
Your frank and free letter does my soul good. But I had expected nothing less from you. My rule always is never to criticise even strangers about anything said or done by them without first verifying facts through them whenever they are within reach.
As for the girl she is the most difficult problem we have. The attention of our best men and women is given to her. We are trying the method of no corporal punishment regarding her, though the temptation is often great. But we have not lost hope. I have personally tested the method for over 20 years with growing confidence. Of course it does not apply to infants though even in their case, punishment is rare. 
Don't you think the quotation from Hebrews is irrelevant? May we copy God Who is infallible in His judgements and Who creates if He also destroys?

Yours, etc.,

 Letter, March 21, 193454

[A large area of Bihar was devastated by an earthquake on January 15, 1934, and thousands of people were killed. Gandhiji toured the province in March to promote relief. He was accompanied by Rajendra Prasad, the Congress leader in Bihar. While in the area, he received a letter from Mr. Higginbottom offering the assistance of his Institute in relief operations. Mr. Higginbottom visited the area after receiving this reply from Gandhiji. Twenty students from the Institute and several teachers volunteered to work in relief projects in the summer.]

Patna,
March 21, 1934

Dear friend,
Your letter has given me great joy. I take you at your word. Come, see the afflicted area and tell us:
(1) how best and cheaply we can clear our choked wells;
(2) how we can house the homeless;
(3) how drain water-logged areas;
(4) how remove the sand which covers our fair fields.
These are but samples of the work in front of us. Of course the Government and the people are working in unison. But you know my regard for your expert knowledge. Even if you do not show us anything new, I personally will have the satisfaction of knowing that you have seen the area. If you come please let the Central Relief Office, Patna, know in time. Someone will meet you at the station and arrange a tour programme of five days after your reaching here. 
I leave tomorrow morning with Rajendrababu to visit balance of the area yet unseen by me. But you may come independently of me. You will cross me at some point.
I return to Patna on 4th proximo evening and leave for Purnea and thence for Assam on 7th proximo.
My regards to you and Mrs. Higginbottom.

Yours sincerely,
M. K. Gandhi

Prof. Sam Higginbottom
Agricultural Institute
Allahabad

 Letter, November 11, 193455

[This letter concerns the All India Village Industries Association which was formed on December 15, 1934.]

November 11, 1934

Dear friend,
I do appreciate your letter of the 8th instant just received. Do please send me all your suggestions. You would have seen the brief statement I had issued. Nevertheless I send you a copy for ready reference. It represents an outline of my mind's working. I do not propose to tour in connection with the work, at least not at the present moment. I am holding informal discussions with friends interested in the project, and I have Prof. [J.C.] Kumarappa with me just now. I would love to meet you in the course of the month after a preliminary exchange of views by correspondence. That will enable us to save our time at the time of discussion.
I am sure you realise one fundamental fact. What applies to America and England does not necessarily apply to India. India has in her teeming millions so many superfluous days that she does not need to free the energy of her sons for superior or more remunerative work through highly developed machinery. In her 350 million children she has so many living ready-made machines, and if she can utilise their labour, half of which is running to waste, the double starvation of the body and the mind will cease. That is the problem that faced me when I returned to India in 1915, and has haunted me ever since.

Yours sincerely,

Prof. Sam Higginbottom
Allahabad Christian College
Agricultural Institute,
Allahabad

 Letter, November 26, 193656

Segaon, Wardha,
November 26, 1936

Dear friend,
Just as it was a farm manager's turn to pass a few months at your institute and pick up such knowledge as he could, it is now Shri Mirabai Slade's57 desire to have her turn, if you will let her come. Our village work whets the appetite for knowledge required for the service. Mirabai is a lover of cattle as also farming. She has a natural aptitude for such work. She is anxious to come as quickly as she can if you can take her. Of course she will pay the necessary charges. The question of housing her may be a difficulty. If she has a room in a professor's house, she will be satisfied.

Yours sincerely,
M. K. Gandhi

Letter, November 15, 194158

Dear Professor,
I am in need. I want a good, sound man who can guide Seth Jamnalal [Bajaj] in the matter of cows and dairying. He must be an expert. Sethji has taken up cow-protection as his life's mission. He has need of an adviser to guide him. I have advised him to correspond with you in such matters and assured him that you will give him guidance.
I need, too, one who can be director of an agricultural and dairying institute. He can get a good salary. If you have one in view, will you please put me in touch with him?

Yours sincerely,
M. K. Gandhi

Prof. Sam Higginbottom
Agricultural Institute
Naini, Allahabad

Letter, February 17, 194259

[Jamnalal Bajaj, a businessman and disciple of Gandhiji, died in Wardha on February 11, 1942. He had been the leader of the Goseva Sangh (Cow Protection Society).]

February 17, 1942

I thank you for your letter of sympathy. I know that the Sangh can rely upon your full cooperation. I have a meeting at Wardha on the 20th instant to consider the ways and means of continuing Sheth Jamnalal's work.

Letter to Mrs. Higginbottom, October 23, 194460

Dear sister,
I have your very kind letter. I have very few English-knowing girls. I would like you to be able to give me a fairly full course to village-minded Hindi- knowing girls for village maternity work. Must it take four years? I confess I am in the dark and so are my medical friends, not having worked in the villages. You won't think in terms of America. How can the village midwife be trained in the first principles?
My loving regards to both of you.

Yours sincerely,
M. K. Gandhi

Mrs. Sam Higginbottom
Home-Making Dept.
Allahabad Agriculture Institute
Allahabad

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