Without Chesterton Would You Have Heard of Gandhi?

“In his Illustrated London News column of 2 October 1909, Chesterton addressed the question of Indian nationalism. “The test of a democracy is not whether the people vote,’ he argued, ‘but whether the people rule. The essence of a democracy is that the national tone and spirit of the typical citizen is apparent and striking in the actions of the state.’ And he thought that the principal weakness’ of Indian nationalists seeking independence was that their nationalism was not very Indian and not very national’. There is a difference between a conquered people demanding its own institutions and the same people demanding the institutions  of the conqueror. The article was read by Gandhi, who was in London at the time to press for ‘freer rights of residence, travel and trade  to members of the Indian diaspora in South Africa’, where he was then living He referred to the article in a dispatch he sent to the paper he had founded in Durban, Indian Opinion. This article for some reason did not appear until January of the following year. In the meantime Gandhi had responded to Chesterton’s criticism by completing in ten days, on board the ship that carried him back to South Africa, ‘an extended defence of the virtues of ancient Indian civilisation’. Written in Gandhi’s mother tongue, it was published under the title Hind Swaraj, and also in English under the title Indian Home Rule, in Durban in 1910. Apart from Gandhi’s two-volume autobiography and collections of articles and speeches, it was the only book qua book that Gandhi ever published.” From Fr Ian Ker's Biography, 'GK Chesterton', page 249 

I just noticed that this GKC article, that had such an impact on Gandhi was published on Gandhi's Birthday. See tomorrow's post. Chesterton and Gandhi badges here; https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/stuartmcc1927/m.html