What Mahatma Gandhi taught the Indian business community in Sri Lanka

In November 1927, when Mahatma Gandhi visited the prestigious Dharmaraja College in the old Lankan hill capital of Kandy, he was pleased to see the Buddhist institution had a Parsi principal. “The presence of Parsis always makes Gandhiji feel completely at home, and when once he starts talking to them he finds it difficult to stop,” Gandhi’s personal secretary Mahadev Desai wrote in his book With Gandhiji in Ceylon.

The Mahatma was on a three-week trip to Sri Lanka, then called Ceylon, to collect money for the khadi fund, which helped entrepreneurs and others buy charkas, or spinning wheels, to make khadi clothes. Accompanying him on the trip were his wife Kasturba, Desai, his other secretary Pyarelal Nayyar, Congress leader C Rajagopalachari and Rajagopalachari’s daughter Lakshmi.

During his visit, Gandhi gave talks in schools and colleges, municipality offices, religious institutions and public places. Everywhere, he made it a point to have interactions with members of Indian business communities, such as the Parsis, Reddiars and Chettiars.

To most of them, his message was similar: assimilate, be just and be charitable.

Although irked that many Sinhalese Buddhists ate meat and fish and considered it “civilised” to drink alcohol, Gandhi developed a great deal of affection for the community.

In return Ceylon showed him...

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