When Gandhi listened to Beethoven

Gandhi & Beethoven were born a century apart. When Gandhi was returning home  from the Round Table Conference in London in 1931, he broke his journey in Geneva & stayed with Romain Rolland, who was his admirer, for five days.

Romain Rolland had written a multi-volume work called "John Christopher" running into 1500 pages, which had won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915. This is a fictional work encompassing the lives of Beethoven, Wagner, Berlioz & many other composers in the eponymous character. Also like Tolstoy's "War & Peace" & Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables", it gave a panoramic picture of the musical, economic, political & social life in Europe at that period. 

Gandhi's associate Pyarelal had read the work & another associate Mahadev Desai was also familiar with Beethoven's music. Gandhi asked Rolland to play some Beethoven & Rolland played the Piano version of the Andante from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.

Much later, Madeline Slade, daughter of a British Rear-Admiral, & an admirer of Beethoven, read the book & met Romain Rolland. In passing, Romain Rolland told her about Gandhi. Intrigued, she travelled to India to meet him, was entranced by his vision & renamed by Gandhi as Miraben, took part in the Indian freedom struggle. After Gandhi's death, she returned to Vienna, the place of her first idol Beethoven & lived there until the end.