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Rare signed book: India in Bondage: Her Right to Freedom and a Place Among the Great Nations by Jabez T. Sunderland. First edition. NY: Lewis Copeland Company, 1929. Hardcover, 6 x 9, 531 pages. Signed on the reverse of the frontispiece in fountain pen, "M. K. Gandhi" and "Charlie Chaplin." The page is also signed “Mira” by Mirabehn, the name adopted by Madeleine Slade (1892–1982), an Englishwoman who became a devoted follower of Mahatma Gandhi and an influential figure in India’s independence movement. Autographic condition: fine. Book condition:
Accompanied by a typed holiday greeting card from “Doctor Katial,” and a handwritten letter or provenance from the original recipient, W. Stuart Masters, who writes: “This book was a gift to me by my friend Dr. C. L. Katial, sometime mayor and alderman of Clerkenwell. At the time of the abortive 1931 All-India Conference Chaplin was visiting London, and wished to meet Gandhi privately for a talk. (The result of the talk was the film Modern Times). News of the impending meeting have ‘leaked’ to the Press a ‘secret’ meeting place was sought and found in the East End home of Dr. Katial, who was acting as Gandhi’s personal physician during his London visit. Dr. Katial phoned me the place and time to give an ‘exclusive’ interview; and I obtained the autographs at that time.”
On September 22, 1931, in a modest house on East India Dock Road in London’s East End, Charlie Chaplin met Mahatma Gandhi during the latter’s visit to Britain for the Second Round Table Conference—a series of high-profile negotiations on India’s constitutional future. Gandhi had come as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress, hoping to press the case for Indian self-rule.
Although Gandhi had never heard of the film star, he agreed to meet him only after learning how profoundly Chaplin’s work resonated with ordinary people. Their conversation turned to machinery and its social impact: Chaplin argued that machines could free workers from drudgery, while Gandhi countered that, under colonialism, mechanization had only deepened India’s economic dependence on Britain. Before India could enjoy the benefits of technological progress, he insisted, it first needed freedom.
The encounter made a lasting impression on Chaplin. According to recollections, he joined Gandhi in prayer during the visit and afterward described him as 'one of the most brilliant men' he had ever met. Five years later, Chaplin released Modern Times, widely regarded to be one of the best films of his career, one of the last great silent movies, and the last outing for his Little Tramp character. The themes of the movie—concern for workers, skepticism toward unrestrained industrialization, and an interest in human dignity—echo the conversation he shared with Gandhi that afternoon.
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