Asha Sharma is the Author of a magnificently written biography on an American involved in Indian Freedom movement along wih Gandhi ji. His name is Samuel Stokes or Satyanad Stokes and she is his Grand daughter!  It was a privilege and honor to talk to Asha Sharma regarding her grand father and his numerous works that impacted India at various(economic, social and political)levels. The biography is “ An American in Gandhi’s India”and is avialble on amazon.com.

ASOI: Asha ji, It’s a great honor to meet you. Its fascinating to go over the book. Now before I ask you any questions pertinent to your grandfather, I would like for you to describe the general life of people in the hills way back when your grandfather visited Simla. I want my readers to get a picture of the situation, environment and the life led by a common man inorder to understand Samuel stokes better.

Asha Sharma: My grandfather arrived in the Simla hills more than 100 years ago, March 1904 to be precise, and was instantly taken in both by the beauty of the hills as well as the simplicity of the hill people but at the same time he was struck by their poverty. Life in the hills was very hard. Land holdings were small and unproductive, the small hill cows gave no more than a liter or two of milk which was barely enough for the needs of a family. Consequently people had no cash income for additional food, clothes or other necessities. They subsisted on simple dal and rice, had tea with salt because they could not buy sugar, wore patched clothes and often went without shoes.

There were hardly any educational facilities. Children either did not go to school or walked long distances to reach one. It was the same for medical help.

ASOI: I understand, Samuel stokes actually was from a very distinguished family of Quaker heritage. Could you tell us something about his distinguished family and their accomplishments?

Asha Sharma: Yes, he did come from a distinguished family of Quaker heritage. Starting from Thomas Stokes, the progenitor of the family in America who was a signatory to the Concessions and Agreements of the Proprietors , Freeholders and Inhabitants of the Province of West New Jersey, each generation had a name to reckon with. Among other prominent ancestors were Samuel Evans Stokes I who was a member of the Colonial Assembly in 1758. His house Harmony Hall, after which Stokes named his own home in the Himalayas, is a historic landmark in Moorestown today; Dr John Hinchman Stokes was among the first to adopt Jenner’s discovery of vaccination and to convince others of its effectiveness he placed his infant daughter along with a small-pox patient. My grand-father’s father, Samuel Evans Stokes Sr. was a pioneer of elevators in America. He invented and patented several safety devices. He was the one who designed the complicated window openings at the top of Washington Monument.

ASOI: Your Grandfather left all the luxuries and comforts of his home and came to India as a missionary to work in the leper homes in Simla Hills. Did he describe any of his experiences of those times? Were his family apprehensive and was he pressured to leave and come back to Philadelphia?

Asha Sharma: Fortunately we have a fairly good account of his early experiences in India from his letters. The details of his work often made his family apprehensive. For example within a month of his arrival in Subathu he informed his mother that he was assigned surgical work. He neither had any experience or qualifications to do such work but the doctors trusted him. His mother was naturally concerned about his safety especially as the disease was then incurable and was also believed to be highly contagious. In letter after letter, she pleaded with him to be careful and urged him to always wear surgical gloves!

He lived a very perilous life in those early years for he not only worked in the Leper home but also in a small-pox camp, in plague-stricken villages and in a devastating earthquake. Though his parents were often alarmed for his safety they did not once pressurize him to leave India and come back home. They knew that he would follow his heart and there was no way he could be persuaded to give up the life he had chosen.

ASOI: Simla Apples are famous all over India. Few people outside Simla know that it was Samuel Stokes who actually propagated and popularized apple growing as a crop, in the Simla Hills. Which in turn helped in creating a economic revolution and growth, in Himanchal. Why and how did get the idea to introduce this wonderful fruit to India?

Asha Sharma: As I just mentioned my grandfather was struck by the extreme poverty of the local people and wanted to help them in whatever way he could. Once he settled in the area finding a solution to the people’s poverty became a top priority for him. The answer to his search came in the form of apples. Some British variety of apples were already growing in the region but these were not good in taste and were not popular so he knew he would have to find a new strain of apples which would be commercially viable.

During a visit to Philadelphia after his marriage he saw how prosperous the progressive American apples growers were and wondered if the same kind of prosperity could be brought to the Simla hills through apples. I would say that the apple revolution was started with the first saplings he brought back with him from America and planted around his house in 1916.

In the following years he imported and experimented with over 33 varieties of apples to determine which would be most suitable for the area. Finally he selected the Golden delicious apples which had already proved to be a success in America. He first planted the trees on his own land and only when he was fully satisfied with the results did he encourage others to do the same. But persuading farmers to switch to apples was not easy because of the long gestation period of apple trees, and though he distributed free saplings and offered to help the farmers to grow and nurture them, their response was very discouraging. But he persisted in his efforts and slowly the people began to get convinced. Once the apple trees started bearing fruit, there was no turning back and all the farmers became enthusiastic about growing apples.

The rest is history – the thriving economy of Himachal is closely linked to horticulture and largely apples. What is very interesting is that even today most of the apples grown in the State are the progeny of the apples which Stokes propagated way back in the 1920’s. No wonder he continues to remains a legendary figure in the area. I might mention that part of the credit for this miracle also goes to Stokes’ mother Florence Spencer Stokes who worked tirelessly studying the apple industry in America and selecting and dispatching apple saplings to her son in India.

ASOI: He came to India to teach but in turn he stayed back to learn. He got married to your grandmother, changed his name to Satyanad Stokes, and settled in India. Why do you think he did what he did?

Asha Sharma: As you know “Came to teach and stayed to Learn,’ is the title of one of the chapters in the book which describes his spiritual journey. Though he was a karam-yogi, whom one would perhaps call an activist today, who spent the greater part of his life fighting for justice and rights of the common man he was also a seeker of truth . In that sense his life was also a spiritual journey in which he was willing to take the best of what he found along the way. Thus when he discovered that there was a lot to learn from the ancient Hindu scriptures he began to study these in earnest even though he was a committed Christian at the time. He even learnt Sanskrit so that he could read some of the texts in their original form. What is amazing is that there was no conflict in his mind about religion for he found much in common between Vedanta and his own Quaker beliefs.

His marriage to my grandmother was the result of his desire to identify with the local people and be one with them. This had been his desire ever since he had arrived in India and he made every effort to achieve it. It was his desire to be one with the people that led him to give up his western style of living, wear Indian clothes, eat Indian food, speak the local language, marry an Indian girl, bring up his children as Indians and eventually become a part of the majority Hindu community taking the name Satyanand or ‘One whose joy is in truth.’

You can see this in the way he named his children. My grandmother was from a Pahari Christian family. Her name was Agnes. He himself was Samuel Evans but he gave his children Indian names, the boys were named Prem Chand, Pritam Chand, Tara Chand  and Lal Chand and the daughters were named Champavati, Satyavati and Savitri.

ASOI: He was actively involved with freedom movement of India. If I remember, was he the only American involved in our freedom struggle? How and when did he start actively getting involved with the movement?

Asha Sharma: Yes, he was actively involved in India’s freedom struggle and was the only American to go to jail for the cause. In the beginning he was only involved with social issues – most important of which was fighting for the abolition of ‘begar’ or impressed labor in the hills. It was the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of April 13, 1919 in Amritsar in which an unarmed gathering of people were fired upon, killing hundreds and the subsequent inhuman treatment of Punjab by the British administration that drew him to the freedom movement. This was the time when Rabindranath Tagore too gave up his knighthood as a protest against the atrocities in Punjab.

The incident convinced Stokes that the British could never rule benevolently in India and must leave the country. He now joined the nationalists and worked closely with Mahatma Gandhi, Lala lajpat Rai, Moti Lal Nehru and C R Das, all of whom became his close friends. He was very active during the first non-co-operation movement touring the country with Mahatma Gandhi and Lala lajpat Rai, giving speeches, organizing meetings and writing articles.

He was arrested on December 8, 1921. Like other nationalists, he refused to defend himself and stoically accepted a six-month prison sentence. He identified himself so much with Indians and India’s cause that he refused to be treated as a privileged European prisoner, insisting that he was an Indian and should be treated as other Indians. This won him a lot of admiration from individuals and the Indian press.

ASOI: He was instigating many changes around him prior to getting actively involved in the freedom movement. What were some of the direct contributions towards the freedom struggle?

Asha Sharma: Stokes became directly involved in the freedom struggle from the time he took up cudgels against the government on the issue of “begar” even going to the extent of criticizing the Governor General for using “begar” labor for his tour in the hills. His scathing articles on “Begar”, the Rowlatt Bills and the Jallianwala firing made him a force to reckon with and a suspect in the eyes of the administration. Though he was an American his fierce denouncement of imperialism and absolute identification with Indians had a deep impact. The Indians knew he was all for them and treated him as one of their own.

His unequivocal support of Gandhi through these years was valuable to the cause. As we know many nationalist leaders did not agree with Gandhi’s non-cooperation movement. Stokes too did not always agree with Gandhi but he believed in him and knew that he was the only one who could lead India to independence and so he gave his whole-hearted support to him and urged others to do the same. In the months before he was jailed he wrote several articles urging the people to give their unqualified support to Gandhi. The thrust of all his public speeches was the same.

I would say that his direct contribution towards the national struggle was the same as that of other national leaders of the times. No wonder his picture hangs in a prominent place in the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi along with photographs of other national leaders. His being a foreigner and an American was significant too.

ASOI: He was also a very prolific writer. What were his writings and how did it help you to write his biography?

Asha Sharma: Yes, he was a prolific writer. He wrote letters, articles, pamphlets and books. While his published books and articles provided me with a lot of factual material it was his letters and his unpublished works written primarily for his family that gave me a greater insight into his personality and also provided me with many personal details which have been woven in the book and have enriched it.

The book is replete with graphic details many of them garnered from family letters. I think that is why people relate to the story easily and many are moved by it. There are people, Indians and Americans who have told me that after reading the book they feel as if they knew my grandfather and can visualize his village and the life he lived. This is wonderful considering that we are talking of things that happened decades ago!

ASOI: Why did you feel that it was important to write a biography on him? What was the experience for you when you touched his memories and went through his life?

Asha Sharma: While apples are the most well-known contribution of my grand-father all other facets of his remarkable life were almost forgotten. But I grew up hearing stories about him from my mother who was his oldest daughter. My mother often regretted that his life and work was being slowly forgotten. So writing his life story was crucial for me.

The biography has definitely helped in the recognition of his work in the hills and his role in India’s freedom struggle. It was really gratifying for me to hear Prime Minster Vajpayee speak about Stokes’ contributions to India in a speech in Washington during his State visit to the US and also mentioning the biography in this context.

I was struck with awe as I went through his life. It was hard to imagine that he could do what he did. To me the most touching episode of his life was his experience in the small-pox camp in Lahore where he took care of a young patient and his description of the last moments of the boy’s life: “About half an hour before the end he seemed to regain all his faculties. He called me to him and told me to put my head down close to his ear. I did so and he tried to put his torn hands about my neck. For a moment I resisted, feeling that to put my face right over his own and breathe his breath and have his gangrenous arms about my bare neck would be wrong. But I think God put it into my heart that it was all right; at any rate I felt that I should let him do it, so when again I found his hands closing around my neck I put my face down by his and let him clasp me to him for as long as he desired.” This is from a letter he wrote to his mother on in December 1907. He was only 25 years old and it is hard for me to imagine what his mother must have felt.

ASOI: Can you recollect any of your memories about him or any interesting anecdotes that you might have heard from your grand mother, mother or from his side of the family?

Asha Sharma: I have no memories of my grandfather though I wish I did but I was too young when he died. However I was able to get a lot of interesting, anecdotal information about him from my mother, family members and from his friends and contemporaries.

For example everyone thought that my grandfather was a very rich man but he wasn’t despite the money he was getting from America which he mostly spent in supporting schools. He lived very simply, spending the minimum on himself and his family and keeping the most stringent accounts. Whatever were his savings at the end of the year he would give away in charity and this was ‘gupt-dan,’ – nobody knew how much he gave and to whom.

He was thoughtful of others’ feelings and situations, particularly when it concerned the disadvantaged sections of society. For example, he would not encourage or even allow his daughters to wear fancy clothes or any jewelery because the village girls could not afford to wear them. “How would they feel seeing you dressed up in such finery,” he would tell his daughters.

ASOI: Where can we buy his Biography “ An American in Gandhi’s India” from?

Asha Sharma: One could buy it from Indiana University Press which published the book and also on Amazon.com The book was on the best-sellers list of Borders in Sunnyvale and should be available there and other book stores including Kepler’s in Menlo Park.

Asha Ji, Thank you so much for sharing such an inspiring and wonderful story. Through you we were able to learn and understand this great Karma Yogi, Samuel Stokes- As aptly detailed in your book : “An American in Gandhi’s India”