Madeleine Warre Slade (1892 - 1982)

Born 22 Nov 1892 in Reigate, Surrey, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Died 20 Jul 1982 at age 89 in Vienna, Austria

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Greg Slade [send private message]

Biography

Madeleine Slade is Notable.

Madeleine Warre Slade was born on 22 November 1892. She was the daughter of Edmond Slade and Florence Saunders. Her birth was registered (without recording her first name) in Reigate, Surrey in the fourth quarter of 1892^[1].

The Indian Coast Guard commisioned an extra fast patrol boat Meera Behn in her honour on October 2006^[2].

Census

Census:

Date: 31 MAR 1901

Place: Chelsea, London

Age: 8y^[3]

Emigration

Emigration:

Date: 18 JAN 1959

Cause: Left India for Austria

Residence

Residence:

Date: FROM 9 AUG 1942 TO MAY 1944

Place: Aghakhan Palace Detention camp, India

Event

Event:

Type: Honour

Date: JAN 1982

Cause: Padma Vibhushan

Immigration

Immigration:

Date: 6 NOV 1925

Place: Bombay, India

Cause: Came to be with Ghandi

Note

Note: Did not Marry

Note: AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOTE*

Madeleine Slade, borne on 22nd November 1892 at Reigate, Surrey, England.

Parents: Admiral Sir Edmond and Lady Slade.

I spent my childhood and early youth mostly in my maternal grandfather's big country house with a large garden near Dorking. The stables were filled with beautiful horses and the cow-sheds with Jersey cows. My greatest happiness was in long rides on horseback through the countryside.

At the age of 15, I heard Beethoven's music for the first time. My spirit was illuminated. His music, his letters and the memories of his contemporaries now absorbed my time and I learnt what is little known, namely, that Beethoven had been profoundly moved by the ancient wisdom of the East and had copied out in German translation long passages from Sanskrit literature.

When I was 16, my father was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the East Indies Squadron and I accompanied my mother and elder sister to Admiral's House, Bombay. We three went back to England for the second summer, but were to return to India the following winter for the Durbar of King George V. As I had a great dislike for social functions, especially balls, I begged to be allowed off. Seeing my earnestness my parents agreed and I stayed behind absorbed in my studies.

Then came the First World War and with it blind prejudice of everything German, including the greatest music. I went to the countryside and helped on farms. At the end of the war, I worked hard for the return of Beethoven's music into the concert hall. At this time I came in contact with Romain Rolland, who had just written his book „Mahatma Gandhi". As soon as I read it the call came, I had to go to India; Sabarmati Ashram.

I at once started preparing myself for all the rules and regulations there and when half way through my year's training, I wrote to Gandhiji, asking if I might come. While warning me of the severity of the life I would enter into he agreed, and in the beginning of November 1925 my life in Gandhiji's service began, under the new name of Mira (Mirabehn - Sister Mira).

The first two years were devoted to the learning of Hindi, carding and spinning, after which I moved to various parts of India for work in the villages. Sometimes I accompanied Gandhiji on his tours when my job was to look after all his personal needs.

At the time when the invasion of the East Coast by the Japanese was expected, I went there to help the Congress workers prepare the villagers for non-violent non-cooperation with the enemy. When at that time the big All India Congress Committee took place in Bombay, I went there to report to Gandhiji about the situation on the East Coast and was arrested along with Gandhiji and his party.

We were all incarcerated in the Aga Khan's palace. This was my third arrest, having twice before been sent to prison for supplying information to Europe and America regarding conditions then prevailing in India.

When after one and a half years Gandhiji and the rest of us (alas without Kastur Ba and Mahadev Desai) were released; I decided to start a small Ashram of my own. I chose 10 acres of land situated between Rishikesh and Hardwar for development of Khadi work and farming which I named Kisan Ashram.

After two or three years Sardar Datar Singh (Sardar Bahadur Sir Datar Singh) requested me to create a big cattle centre financed by the Centre and U.P.. Governments.

So I handed over Kisan Ashram to Gandhian Khadi workers. I selected land for the cattle centre four miles in length along the right-hand bank of the Ganga from Rishikesh towards Hardwar. I named it Pashulok and it has developed now into a big centre of horticulture as well as of animal husbandry.

At the time of the Round Table Conference in 1931, I accompanied Gandhiji to England for lectures.

At the time I also made a brief visit to America for lectures and radio talks. While there, I was able to meet Mrs. Roosevelt in an interview at the White House. On my return to Europe, before going back to India, I had interviews with a number of outstanding politicians in England: Sir Samuel Hoare, Lord Halifax, Winston Churchill, General Smuts, Lloyd George and Clement Attlee. These interviews varied in length but in all cases genuine respect and in some cases warm affection for Gandhiji were expressed.

It was during the construction of Pashulok that the shattering news came of Gandhiji's assassination. Many a time in the past Gandhji had said to me; "when the time comes do not rush to have a last look, but stay at your work wherever it may be." So that was what I did. How could I do otherwise.

Pashulok being situated as it is at the foot of the mountains just where the Ganga emerges from the Himalayan Valleys, I became very realistically aware of the terrible floods which pour down from the Ganga catchment area, and I had taken care to have all the buildings constructed above the flood-highmark. Within a year or two I witnessed a shocking flood; as the swirling water increased, came first brushes and boughs and great logs of wood, then in the turmoil of more and more water came whole trees, cattle of all sizes and from time to time a human being clinging to the remnants of his hut. Nothing could be done to save men or beast from this turmoil, the only hope was for them to get caught up somewhere on the edge of an island or riverbank prominence.

The sight of these disastrous floods led me each summer to investigate the area north of Pashulok whence they came. Merciless deforestation as well as cultivation of profitable pines in place of broad-leaf trees was clearly the cause.

This in turn led me to hand over charge of Pashulok to the Government staff and to undertake a Community Project in the valley of the Bhilangana. Here I built a little centre, Gopal Ashram, and concentrated on the forest problem. I listened to the recollections of the older villagers and closely examined the present condition of the forest.

I sent detailed reports with many photographs to Pandit Nehru. He passed them on to the Chief Conservator of Forests, with whom and with other forest department officers I had many discussions. They were friendly, but nothing came of it at all; the necessary changes were too fundamental. In the meantime the Community Project ws developing well and the villagers were delighted with a new sense of independent responsibility, but the U.P. Government officials found it too independent and I finally handed it over to them to run it their own way - very different from mine.

During the last year or two (1980, 1981) the crisis of the Himalayan deforestation has come much more to the fore. Sundarial Bahuguna who gave me valuable cooperation in Gopal Ashram, is concentrating on the Chipko movement which has attracted the attention of even the BBC. Krishna Murti Gupta who was in charge of my office and accounts in Pashulok and has now become Secretary of the Himalaya Seva Sangh is also working hard on the forest problem but no efforts can be fully successful until the Central Government comes out boldly with a complete reorientation of the Forest Department's goal, putting financial advantage at the bottom and protection of trees and soil at the top.

After leaving the Community Project I moved across to Kashmir and concentrated on the introduction of Dexter cattle from England for cross-breeding with the Yak. The difficulty of working through government for the development of cattle in the mountains is that Animal Husbandry Department officials very much dislike to live in distant areas where there are no schools for their children or any social intercourse for their wives. Yet it is just those places which suit the cattle best.

If really good cattle development is to be carried out in the Himalayas (and it is very important that it should be), this question needs to be seriously tackled. It would probably mean close cooperation with the Gujjars who live right alongside their own animals in all places and at all seasons.

When I finally gave up working through the Government, I loved in a cottage built on a ridge above Chamma in full view of the Great Himalaya Range. There the call came to me (as clearly as the one which brought me to India in 1925) to return to Beethoven and live in the forest outside Vienna where all his greatest music had come to him. Here, while still keeping contact with the problem of India´s diminishing forests, I have devoted myself to Beethoven´s message to mankind through the spirit of his music, expressing my thoughts on him in writing.

Thus my life has been devoted to the service of two great souls with the loftiest ideals - one expressing himself through perpetual activity in moral, social and political reform, and the other through perpetual expression of the spiritual voice that came to him through music. In Beethoven´s own words "it is through untiring use of the powers with which he has been endowed that man can reverence the Creator and Preserver of Nature".

Note: That I am still here in this body and able to write the notes is due to the devoted services of Rameshwar Datt from the Himalayas, who came to me in Pashulok 32 years ago.

Sources

• Source: S182 Author: Transcribed by NDS Title: Collation of Census Information 1841 to 1901 Abbreviation: Census Index Publication: Ancestry.co.uk Reference: Census Index.xls Data Changed: Date: 11 SEP 2015 Time: 11:18:43

1. ↑ FreeBMD: Births Dec 1892, Surname: Slade, Given Name: Female, District: Reigate, Volume: 2a, Page: 161.
2. ↑ Wikipedia: Sarojini Naidu-class extra-fast patrol vessel
3. ↑ Source: #S182

See also:

• Pine, Leslie Gilbert, Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage., 102nd Edition, London: Burke's Peerage Limited (1959), pages 2077-2078.
• Sir Benjamin Slade tree published on Maunselhouse.co.uk.
• ThePeerage.com: Madeleine Warre Slade
• Wikipedia: Edmond Slade
• Wikipedia: Mirabehn
• Wikidata: Item Q3522701, en:Wikipedia