Gandhi's American Ally

A son strives to understand his father an iconoclastic Methodist missionary to India during the '20s and '30s. Williams' father Fred arrived in India in 1921 as part of the Methodist ministry. He was from the start called to help meet people's mundane human needs down here on planet Earth writes Williams in an easeful searching voice. Fred understood the evangelical aspects of his mission-to convert as many Hindus to Christianity as he could-but this soon lost any meaning when it failed to address urgent everyday concerns. He was drawn to the philosophical political and cross-cultural issues that roiled India during these pre-independence days and Williams evokes them all with bite and immediacy. There on the plains of Bengal Fred partook in an experiment in rural education cutting like a torch through the Hindu caste system convincing his students to appreciate the dignity of labor-in that anything removing us from our work removes us from our lives-inhabiting elegant appropriate mud houses and making good use of the glories of a sanitation system. Proselytizing took a back seat to encouraging self-government countering conditions that led to disease poking moneylenders in the eye and curbing population growth. There was an enormous need to handle infant and female health care which Williams found of greater value than foisting one's religion on others. None of this Williams admits exempts his parents from ingrained colonial superiorities. Still they were ready to relinquish their Western lifestyle and embrace the clothing and food of their neighbors and their desire for independence. Everything would come to a head in India with Gandhi-the challenge to tradition and custom undermining the hierarchy of class that suffocated independence. Williams' parents who forged a friendship with the iconic leader joined the fray offering practical advice in place of tallying another Christian. A well-told story crisp with particulars of the fundamental engagement of a Western family with the lives of ordinary Indians during a pivotal moment in history. -Kirkus Discoveries