Readers' Forum
“I want view cards”
After reading the article about my paternal grandmother Meher Taleyarkhan’s (pictured) collection of picture postcards ("I want view cards,” Parsiana, June 21-July 6, 2021) I recalled that Mahatma Gandhi had written some letters to my grandfather Furdoonji, her husband. My mother Indira wrote an article on these, I think for an Air India magazine in 1986, from which I would like to share some excerpts.
"In these rare letters Mahatma Gandhi is trying to persuade his friend Furdoonji Sorabji Talyarkhan to join him as a partner in his law practice in Natal, and help him with his political aims to better the lot of Indians in South Africa. Gandhi and F. S. Talyarkhan had both studied law in England and were called to the bar at about the same time. Talyarkhan later came back to Bombay and became an eminent barrister and acted, for a while, as a judge.
"These fascinating letters are an interesting amalgam of private concerns between friends, and the method of dealing with momentous public affairs, about politics and ‘man’s inhumanity to man.’ As such they are a composite slice of history, geography, politics and economics…
"Gandhi made his first, rather unsuccessful public speech to a gathering of vegetarians in London, when he was about 21. It is interesting to see that these letters have, as one of his credentials, ‘Agent for the London Vegetarian Society.’ He was a staunch vegetarian and there is a delightful passage in one of his letters to Talyarkhan which says, ‘Boarding together may present a slight difficulty. If you could manage with vegetarian food I could place on the table most palatable dishes cooked both in the English as well as in the Indian style. If, however, that is not possible, we shall have to engage another cook. At any rate, that cannot be an insurmountable difficulty’….
"In the middle of the year 1896 Gandhi went to India for six months and met Indian Congress stalwarts like Sir Pherozeshah Mehta, Justice Badruddin Tyabji, Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade, Lokmanya Balgangadhar Tilak and Gopal Krishna Gokhale. It was during this time that he wrote these letters to F. S. Talyarkhan.
"F. S. Talyarkhan, a brilliant lawyer, had been the youngest Chief Presidency Magistrate of Bombay. He specialized in criminal cases and … was an authority on the Rent Act… When he became a judge, his verdicts were renowned for being clear and cogent.
"These letters from Gandhi tempted Talyarkhan to leave Bombay and join the Mahatma in South Africa, but just at this time he met the lovely and intelligent Meher Marzban Mugaseth, his future wife. Later Gandhi said that as F. S. Talyarkhan preferred the attractions of this charming lady, the country had lost the services of an ardent patriot who would have been of great use in South Africa. Talyarkhan’s friends and contemporaries were Bhulabhai Desai, Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Jamshed Kanga.”
DARAB TALYARKHAN
darab.talyarkhan@yahoo.co.in
"In these rare letters Mahatma Gandhi is trying to persuade his friend Furdoonji Sorabji Talyarkhan to join him as a partner in his law practice in Natal, and help him with his political aims to better the lot of Indians in South Africa. Gandhi and F. S. Talyarkhan had both studied law in England and were called to the bar at about the same time. Talyarkhan later came back to Bombay and became an eminent barrister and acted, for a while, as a judge."These fascinating letters are an interesting amalgam of private concerns between friends, and the method of dealing with momentous public affairs, about politics and ‘man’s inhumanity to man.’ As such they are a composite slice of history, geography, politics and economics…
"Gandhi made his first, rather unsuccessful public speech to a gathering of vegetarians in London, when he was about 21. It is interesting to see that these letters have, as one of his credentials, ‘Agent for the London Vegetarian Society.’ He was a staunch vegetarian and there is a delightful passage in one of his letters to Talyarkhan which says, ‘Boarding together may present a slight difficulty. If you could manage with vegetarian food I could place on the table most palatable dishes cooked both in the English as well as in the Indian style. If, however, that is not possible, we shall have to engage another cook. At any rate, that cannot be an insurmountable difficulty’….
"In the middle of the year 1896 Gandhi went to India for six months and met Indian Congress stalwarts like Sir Pherozeshah Mehta, Justice Badruddin Tyabji, Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade, Lokmanya Balgangadhar Tilak and Gopal Krishna Gokhale. It was during this time that he wrote these letters to F. S. Talyarkhan.
"F. S. Talyarkhan, a brilliant lawyer, had been the youngest Chief Presidency Magistrate of Bombay. He specialized in criminal cases and … was an authority on the Rent Act… When he became a judge, his verdicts were renowned for being clear and cogent.
"These letters from Gandhi tempted Talyarkhan to leave Bombay and join the Mahatma in South Africa, but just at this time he met the lovely and intelligent Meher Marzban Mugaseth, his future wife. Later Gandhi said that as F. S. Talyarkhan preferred the attractions of this charming lady, the country had lost the services of an ardent patriot who would have been of great use in South Africa. Talyarkhan’s friends and contemporaries were Bhulabhai Desai, Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Jamshed Kanga.”
DARAB TALYARKHAN
darab.talyarkhan@yahoo.co.in
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