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Sunnyvale, CA: Asha Sharma, author of the much talked about book, ‘An American in Gandhi’s India. The Biography of Satyanand Stokes,’ will sign copies of her book at Borders, , 316 West El Camino Real, Sunnyvale (Store Tel. 408 730 5050 ) on today, November 22nd from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m (PST).
‘An American in Gandhi’s India,’ with a Foreword by the Dalai Lama, is a fascinating account of the life of Samuel Evans Stokes of Philadelphia who went to India in 1904 at the age of 21 to work in a leper home and later became a leader in Gandhi’s independence movement. He was the only American who was jailed for his active role in India’s freedom struggle.
Popularly called the Jhonny Appleseed of the Himalayas, Stokes introduced the American delicious apples to the Simla Hills in India which subsequently changed the entire economy of the Western Himalayas.
Sharma, a granddaughter of Samuel Stokes had her early education in Simla, India. She is a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and has been a Research Associate at University of California at Berkeley.
The event is free and open to the public.
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Some reviews:
“Sharma has written a lively and philosophical book, reflecting closely Stokes’s mixed personality and steely commitment.”—Michael Fathers, Time Asia
“This is . . . the story of the commitment to India that prompted Gandhi to describe Stokes as a foreigner who had made India his home, ‘in a manner in which perhaps no other American or Englishman has.'”—Mark Tully, India Today
“Of the men and women from foreign climes who came to India to preach and stayed to learn, the name of Samuel Stokes is an outstanding one.”—Chanchal Sarkar, Hindustan Times
“The fascinating story of Samuel Evans Stokes is a meticulously documented and well—written book.”—H. V. Sharada Prasad, Asian Age
“All interested in the America—India relationship, including the growing ranks of Indian—Americans, will profit from this fascinating account of an ‘American Indian,’ a Pennsylvania Quaker
who made the hills of northern India his home, and who played a memorable role in India’s freedom movement.”—Rajmohan Gandhi, author of Gandhi: The Man, His People, and the Empire
Samuel Evans Stokes, Jr., a son of a prominent Philadelphia family, went to India in 1904 to work in a leper home and became a leader in Gandhi’s independence movement in the 1920s and was the only American jailed by the British for this cause. He is most often remembered in India, however, as the man who introduced American Delicious apples to the Himalayas.
An American in Gandhi’s India draws on oral history and interviews as well as Stokes’ books, journals, and letters. Sharma’s fascinating account offers a rare glimpse into a century of interaction between India and the United States.[/lang_en]
Asha Sharma had earlier named the biography as “An American in Khadi”. I have this book and the cover pic of Mr. Satyanand Stokes is the same in this new book. This is an older edition mid eighties. Could be the same book with a new name. Is this book coming out in India?
nice too see the book being published, stiil refreshing the minds of people about the great man who introduce apples to india at least he was gandhi for himachal (kotgarh)……