Sunderland, The Reverend Dr. Jabez T.

[Dr. Sunderland (1842-1936), a Unitarian, first visited India in 1895-96 and later spent several years in the country. After return to the United States, he was an active advocate of freedom for India. He worked with Lala Lajpat Rai, the Indian nationalist leader, when he was in exile in America. He was President of the India Information Bureau of America and later of the India Society of America, and editor of Young India, New York. He was the author of many books and pamphlets, including India, America and World Brotherhood (1924), and India in Bondage, Her Right to Freedom and a Place among Nations (1928). He wrote in the introduction to the latter: "For more than forty years I have been a constant student of India's great religions, her extensive literature, her philosophies, her remarkable art, her long history, and above all, her pressing and vital present-day social and political problems..."
He wrote to Gandhiji on April 11, 1927, that he was writing a book on India's case for freedom and self-rule, setting forth the Indian political situation as Indians see and feel it, and requested a few words from him to commend the book.159 Gandhiji replied on 11 May that if he was well enough, he would be glad to look through an advance copy of the book and write a few words. When the manuscript was completed, Dr. Sunderland sent it to Ramananda Chatterjee, editor of Modern Review, Calcutta, for the publication of an Indian edition, and requested him to send a copy to Gandhiji.¹⁶⁰
The book soon went into a second edition and was then proscribed by the Indian Government in June 1928. Ramananda Chatterjee was arrested, charged with sedition and fined. Gandhiji strongly condemned the action.¹⁶¹
For a brief biography of Dr. Sunderland, please see Modern Review, Calcutta, October 1936.]

 Letter, August 10, 1929¹⁶²

Sabarmati,
August 10, 1929

Dear friend,
You will please excuse me for my not having written to you earlier about your book. The fact is my time is so mapped out that outside my daily routine there is hardly a minute left. And but for the prosecution of Ramanand Babu I would probably not have been able to read your book even now. Having studied it I can bear testimony to your great industry and greater love for India. I flatter myself with the belief that I have an unusual capacity for discriminating between solid writing and venomous. Though your love for India has prompted you to say harsh things of British Rule and British method, I have detected in your work no venom. The prosecution in regard to your book only confirms your indictment of the system.
Wishing you many years of active service of humanity,

Yours sincerely,

 Letter, July 3, 1933¹⁶³

[Dr. Sunderland wrote to Gandhiji on June 24, 1933, recommending a message to the World Fellowship of Faiths for their conference in Chicago.¹⁶⁴]

Dear friend,
I have your affectionate letter of the 24th June. What message can I send through the pen if I am not sending any through the life I am living? Let me for the present try to live the life as it may please God. When He wants me to send a written message He will tell me. 

Yours sincerely,
M. K. Gandhi