More anguished was a letter written by a Polish woman who had converted to Hinduism and joined Ramana Maharshi’s ashram in Tiruvannamalai. She charged Gandhi with betraying freedom and humanity by planning to launch his Quit India movement. Anything that hindered the Allied war effort, she argued, ‘prolongs the sufferings of 250 million people under the Nazis’ rule of whose moral and physical agonies you have not even the slightest idea; comparing [sic] with them Indians are till now in a heaven of peace and freedom…’
