21 June 2016
3 hours

Archief Hein van Wijk
(Archive boxes researched: 8, 24, 63, 66, 439, 446, 451, 642-643)
Archive Box 24. The cover states: Stukken betreffende de WRI. Met aantekeningen. 1976 ; Correspondentie WRI / 1954, 1960-1961, 1972-1979 ; Dossier inzake India / 1961.
Folder I. 
File on the 1960 WRI Triennial in Gandhigram, India.
- ‘Nehru Remembers Gandhi’
Reprint from Gandhi Marg. Author: Jawaharlal Nehru. Date: July 1959. Format: A5. 5 pages.
Transcript of Nehru’s address at the opening of the Gandhi Memorial Museum, April 15th, 1959.
Nehru’s fond memories of Gandhi, in which he portrays Gandhi not just as a great leader, but also as a unique one: “He was entirely different from the political leaders that one normally sees, however big they may be. […] The leader might see the truth […] but unless those whom he leads also see it, what is he to do? If he cannot lead them far and simply goes ahead by himself, that would be wrong. If he is to keep pace with them, to some extent he has to limit that truth or the action following his perception of the truth, because the others have not perceived it adequately or enough. And so he is always troubled with this problem of what is essentially a compromise between things that ought to be done and what he feels can be done under limiting circumstances.”
As Nehru states, more than any politician Gandhi was in touch with the people, with what he could ask from them, and more than any other political leader he represented the essence of the people. This way Gandhi managed to solve the classical politician’s dilemma: he never demanded the impossible, but also never compromised with what he considered to be wrong. 

Folder II. 
‘Gandhigram’
Original typescript. Author: Hein van Wijk. No date [ca. 1961]. Format: A4. 20 pages. Language: Dutch.
Lengthy article on Gandhigram, its history and its role in the development of education and agriculture.

Archive Box 63. The cover states: Briefje van M. Gandhi (origineel; fotokopieën in nr. 57) / 1928 / Met krantenknipsel en documentatie / 1963, 1968 / Vertaalde teksten uit het Duits door H. van Wijk / Ca. 1926 / Stukken betreffende Amnesty International / 1977 / Stukken betreffende de 2e Kamerdebatten over de "drie van Breda". 
Folder I.
- ‘India News: Information Service of India’
Periodical. Publisher: India News. Date: 2 October 1968, No. 20/10/68. Format: A4. 9 pages.
Dutch Information Bulletin on India. This issue contains three articles – ‘messages’ – on the Gandhi Centenary by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, President Zakir Hussain and the Secretary General of the UN, U Thant.
- ‘Message by Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, at the Occasion of the Gandhi Centenary’
Carbon copy. Author: Indira Gandhi. Date: 1968. Format: A4. 2 pages.
“In just four weeks in 1919, he changed the outlook of this subcontinent. He transformed the cowed and weak into a nation which fearlessly asserted its right to be free. He gave his people a new weapon, which ultimately delivered them from colonial rule. This weapon was ‘Satyagraha’, civil disobedience or non-violent non-cooperation. Literally the word means ‘insistence on truth’. It was a weapon that did not need physical strength. But to be effective it needed the greatest self-discipline.”
A glowing testimony to Gandhi’s historical importance, though rather from a narrow, nationalist point of view.
- ‘Message by the president of India, Dr. Zakir Hussain, on the Occasion of the Gandhi Centenary’
Carbon copy. Author: Zakir Hussain. Date: 1968. Format: A4. 4 pages.
Interesting analysis of Gandhi as a ‘larger than life’ figure whose importance far outstripped the confines of the Indian nation. “Before Gandhi discovered and practiced Satyagraha, it appeared to be an inescapable imperative of history that the weak must surrender to the strong or perish. After Gandhi, this imperative is no longer valid in our history. In Satyagraha, the physically weak but morally strong found the only effective weapon against the physically strong but morally weak.”
Hussain continues with a brief look at Gandhi’s role in India’s political, moral and economic development. 
- ‘Statement by U Thant’
Carbon copy. Author: U Thant. Date: 1968. Format: A4. 3 pages.
Key to U Thant’s contribution is his comparison between the UN Charter and Gandhi’s Ahimsa: “Changes brought about by peaceful means are not only more desirable but more durable.”

Folder II.
This folder contains an original handwritten note from Gandhi sent to the 1928 Youth World Peace Conference held in Eerde near Ommen (Overijssel).  
The full text: “Whether the world is to have Truth and Peace or wrath and war will depend upon youth.”

Archive Box 66. The cover states: Stukken uit het boek: "21st. Anniversary Souvenir Gandhigram / 1968 / Aantekeningen over een reis naar India / Correspondentie, voorn. over Gandhi en Gandhigram, India / 1965-1980 / Documentatie over India / 1974-1976 / Stukken betreffende een WRI-conferentie over Gandhigram, India. 1960 / Met enige documentatie en foto's.
Folder III.
- ‘My First Darshan of Gandhi’
Reprint. No author [G. Ramachandran]. No date [1964]. No publisher [Gandhigram]. Format: A5. 5 pages.
Reprint of a chapter from Ramachandran’s Gandhigram Thoughts and Talks of G. Ramachandran.
Fond recollection of the author’s first meeting with Gandhi in 1924, just when Gandhi was preparing for his 21 day fast. The brief meeting had a lasting effect on Ramachandran. He describes who he was well on his way to become a staunch atheist/communist when his meeting with Gandhi changed all that and how he became a devout Gandhi follower instead.

Archive Box 451. The cover states: Stukken betreffende een bezoek en lezingen van Bhikshu Nirmalananda. 1948.
Folder I. 
- ‘Mahatma Gandhi: the Prophet of the New and Angel of Peace’
Original typescript. Author: Bhikshu Nirmalananda. No date [ca. 1948]. Format: B4. 7 pages.
A biographical sketch of Gandhi based on the highlights of Gandhi’s philosophy (truth, Man is inherently good, compassion, unity of ends and means, etc.) and the effects and consequences of his thinking (giving up all possession, leading a truthful life, the practical application of nonviolence, etc.).