Stokes was more than an Apple Man

Shriniwas Joshi

Two policemen entered a first-class compartment of the Punjab Mail on December 3, 1921, and arrested an American on charges of sedition and took him to Lahore Police Station. Do you know who this American was? Satyanand (Samuel Evans) Stokes. A trial sentenced him to jail. He was released in June 1922. Not knowing this aspect of his, I had always thought of him as the Apple Man coming from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and introducing, in 1916, a delicious variety of apple in Himachal Pradesh till I read a book “An American in Khadi” written by Asha Sharma, Satyanand Stokes’ granddaughter. The present is not a review of the book but a peep into the life of Stokes through the book. 

Asha Sharma believes it may appear on face that he was being arrested along with Lala Lajpat Rai and Gopi Chand Bhargava for attending a Punjab Provincial Congress Committee meeting at Lahore, but actually he was arrested for writing articles for The Tribune that could ‘spread sedition and promote hatred between different classes of His Majesty’s subjects. Having read excerpts of the articles, I find that these were straight, good and pious words from a man whose life is a lesson for many and Asha picturises it: “His was truly a remarkable life, noteworthy for his fearless intellectual honesty, the strength of his convictions and his absolute sense of justice, equality and fair play, and for his immense contribution to the social and economic development of the hills.”

Samuel Evans was born on August 16, 1882, to a distinguished and wealthy Quaker family in Philadelphia. Quakers are a group of Christians who believe in great simplicity in daily life and silent worship. Perhaps that is why his birthday this year too, like every year, passed silently two days back.  Samuel Evans carried that simplicity throughout his life.

In 1904, Samuel Evans became 22 years old and divorced all comforts that a rich family could give to him for serving in a leper home in India and that, too, in a small place like Sabathu. Dr Carleton, the in charge of the leper home, was happy with the working of the young American volunteer. In the summers of 1905, Dr Carleton sent him to Kotgarh. He footed the 50-mile road; reaching there he lived in a cave at Rhoga Khad forcing a discipline of self-denial upon him.  He wanted to live a solitary life but the 1905 earthquake in Kangra forced him to offer himself as a volunteer to help the suffering humanity. He was given the job of distributing money to the sufferers which he did meticulously and honestly but understood that distributing money attracts curses too.

He got married to a Pahari Christian, Agnes on September 12, 1912 at St Mary’s Church in Kotgarh. He did it in a traditional Pahari way — local band and wearing achkan and churidaar. Samuel Evans started studying the history of India seriously after his marriage and came to the conclusion that India could become truly great not by emulating the West but by internal development and removing the lacunas in its existing civilisation. It is what every real Indian thinks but the respect for Indian beliefs coming from an American was refreshing. 

Then came the World War I and Gandhi announced that Britain should be helped in ‘her hour of need’. Stokes decided to join the army and in October 1917, he was in uniform. He was given the duty of recruiting people for the army because he knew Hindi. Not getting the active duty pained him. With the war ending in 1918, political fervour in India touched the peak. Struggle for independence spearheaded by Gandhi became the slogan of each house. Stokes took active part in India’s independence struggle and attended the Indian National Congress Committee Meeting in 1920 at Nagpur. In 1921, he went to the jail. Coming out of it, he was on a mission of starting a school at Barobagh, his village, in Kotgarh whose primary section started functioning on April 1, 1923. It was named Tara School after his lost son Tara dying at the age of eight. It was a Hindi medium school with morning prayers having religious and patriotic songs. Samuel Evans was one of the gurus. 

Samuel Evans and his family, on September 4, 1932, embraced Hinduism in a simple ceremony at Barobagh. He became Satyanand. Throughout his life, he did utmost for the humanity even at the risk of his health and lived a true Indian in the skin of an American. Surely he was much more than an Apple Man.

Foreseeing his death on May 14, 1946, he closed Tara school that year. The state government has, at least, named the library in the State Horticulture University, at Nauni (Solan) as Satyanand Stokes Library.

Tailpiece

A stanza from Stokes’ poem written in jail, “And I joy that God in His mercy/ Hath granted this boon to me-/To march with the sons of the Future-/To suffer dear Hind for thee.”