C.F. Andrews

The Story

An Anglican priest and Cambridge scholar, Andrews first came to Bhārat in 1904 to teach at St. Stephen's College, Delhi. He was so moved by the people and their struggle that he made Bhārat his home — joining the movement for swaraj and becoming one of Gandhi's closest friends and most trusted negotiators.

Gandhi called him 'Deenabandhu' for his lifelong service to the poor. Andrews went to Fiji, South Africa, and the West Indies to expose the brutal conditions of indentured labourers of Bhārat, and his agitation helped end the system of indentured emigration. He stood beside Tagore at Santiniketan, serving the poet's school for decades, and beside Gandhi in every crisis of the movement.

He never surrendered his British citizenship, but he spent his life arguing for Bhārat's freedom within and outside Britain — a bridge between the empire and its subject. When he died in 1940, both Bhārat and the world's conscience mourned him, and Tagore sang at his funeral.