M.K. Gandhi | Autograph letter signed, to Elisabeth Feurstein, advising her against marriage, 2 April 1933

Mohandas K. Gandhi

Autograph letter signed ("MK Gandhi"), to Elisabeth Feurstein

advising her against her relationship with Manu Trivedi ("...you and Manu are like blood brother & sister. For Manu went there as a brahmachari - a student vowed to celibacy whilst he remained one. During that period there could be no courtship. Manu was a lodger in your mother's home. In my opinion lodgers would be free from marital attention on the part of the girls of the house..."), 2 pages, 8vo, [Yerawada Central Jail], 2 April 1933, splitting at fold, some light staining and discolouration

[with:] Photographic portrait of Elisabeth Feuerstein in the early 1930s, head and shoulders, modern print

Elisabeth Feurstein had fallen in love with Manshanker Trivedi (known as Manu) when both were studying medicine at the University of Freiburg. Trivedi also lodged with the Feursteins, who were a medical family: Elisabeth's mother was a doctor, although she found herself unable to practice when she refused to join the Bund Deutscher Mädchen under Nazi rule. Elisabeth and Manu had both written to his father, Professor J.P. Trivedi, asking his permission for them to marry. Trivedi was a friend and follower of Gandhi who lived in Pune, and was a regular visitor when Gandhi was imprisoned at nearby Yerawada Jail between January 1932 and May 1933. Professor Trivedi, who baulked at his son's choice of marriage partner, showed the letters to Gandhi, who then wrote to both parties. His tone was kindly - he begins by saying that her letter to Manu's parents "does you credit" - but typically firm: the proposal is a "grave error and you should both give up the idea of marriage." He gave similar advice to Manu, warning him that "you ought not to marry Elisabeth even if she is as good-looking as Rambha and as faithful as Savitri" (letter dated 1 April 1933, published in Gandhi, Collected Works: Volume 60, p.238). The young couple were not easily dissuaded from marriage and correspondence on the subject continued for another year (Gandhi affectionately gave Elisabeth the name Vimala), well after Manu's graduation in August 1933. Family resistance to the match came from both sides: Professor Trivedi was adamant in his opposition, and marriage to a Hindu did not sit easily with the Roman Catholic beliefs of Elisabeth's mother. Ultimately the couple were also unable to agree on whether any children should be brought up Hindu or Roman Catholic (see letter by Gandhi to Manshanshankar Trivedi, 16 May 1934, published in Gandhi, Collected Works: Volume 63, pp.501-2) and eventually the couple broke up. 

PROVENANCE

By family descent to the current owner