Born in 1871, C. F. Andrews came to India as an Anglican priest and lecturer at St. Stephens College, Delhi in 1904. Starting from his position as a clergyman, he became increasingly respected in the Indian nationalist circles and official British ones until his death in 1940. A close friend of Gandhi and Rabindranath, Andrews championed the Indian cause for independence, and, in a broader sense, the cause of all downtrodden people against oppression. Rabindranath met Andrews in 1912 at Rothenstein’s home in England on the evening when W. B. Yeats gave the recitation of the Gitanjali poems. In the next few months they met frequently and Rabindranath invited Andrews to Santiniketan. Andrews was not only a life long friend of Rabindranath, he was a friend of Santiniketan and Visva Bharati. It was around this time in 1914 that he met Gandhi at South Africa. He had been following the struggle of Gandhi and Gokhale on behalf of the Indian Community in South Africa. He was impressed with Gandhi’s ideals of non-violence and Satyagraha. It was through Andrews that Gandhi and Rabindranath met. On the one hand he took upon himself the task of interpreting Gandhi to the West and keeping open the possibility of a dialogue between Indian leaders and the British Government. On the other hand, he was working closely with Rabindranath in the making of Visva Bharati and traveling with the Poet both in India and abroad. Andrews visited Fiji and fought for the indentured Indian labourers at the sugar plantations and succeeded in abolishing the indenture in 1929. The labourers gratefully called him “Dina Bandhu”.
Rabindranath and Andrews corresponded with each other regularly and some letters to Andrews were collected in a volume, “Letters to a Friend”.
Rabindranath wrote Ajit Kumar on 2nd Aug,
"We are going to a village here for some days. Train will start in the morning but we are not yet ready."
Andrews himself accompanied Rabindranath and Pratima to their desired place and got a seat after many trouble in the train. Andrews wrote,
"I noticed that all through the long train journey Rabindranath sat with his eyes closed, wrapt in meditation."
They changed the train at Staford station and then got down at Newcastle on 3rd Aug. The friend of Andrews, mr. Rev. W. Outramwas waiting on the station with a car. When they ascended the car, it was cloudy all aound and rain started in a few moments. Principal Sushil Rudra of St. Stephen College , Delhi and his daughter was also there as guests. Hence Rabindranath was given a Bengali welcome.
