Free The Hope of Shridula by Kay Marshall Strom Page A

issues and matters of land reform, they clashed equally with Hindus and Christians.
    "Actually, Communism and Christianity have much in common," Nihal Amos told his uncle. "Both fight for justice among the poor. Surely Jesus would approve of that."
    "I suppose you want me to set all our workers free," Boban Joseph said. "I suppose you are offering to plow the land yourself, and then to plant the crops and bring in the harvest with your own hand."
    "Certainly not," Nihal Amos answered. "As a matter of fact, I am saying that the slave castes are a different breed of people than we high castes. They are the true sons of the soil. They are the ones who descended from the earliest inhabitants of India. Therefore, they deserve our help and compensation for all that their kind has suffered at the hands of those who invaded their land, killed their kings, and stole their homes."
    Boban Joseph's eyes narrowed and he glared at his second nephew. "And who is supposed to provide this help and pay all this compensation?"
    "Well . . ." Nihal Amos hesitated. "I suppose . . . uh . . . well, all of us—that is, to some extent."
    "I will begin to this extent," Boban Joseph said. "By the new moon, you and your family will leave my house. Whatever expense I have previously wasted on you and your wife, I will expend on my new dairy, which will provide extra work—and therefore, extra rice—for the laborers."
    "Now, Uncle, do not be hasty," Nihal Amos said. "All I meant to say was that—"
    "By the new moon."
    "Uncle, please. This is our home. It is our only home. We have nowhere else to go."
    "Join the beggars by the side of the road, then. Become one with them."
    "You do not understand my point, Uncle. It is simply that—"
    "You will be gone by the new moon!"

 
    9
    June 1946
     
     
     
    C ome Gather around and listen to what I have to say!" Nihal Amos called as he walked through the workers' settlement. "Come, come and hear!" Nihal's lean, unpretentious appearance attracted the attention of the Untouchable laborers. This could be no well-fed, pampered high caste landowner— could it?
    Still balancing her water pot on her head, Shridula stopped to gape at the thin man, his mundu flapping around his brown legs. Not like a Brahmin, though. For with the mundu he wore an Englishman's white shirt.
    "Come! Come!" Nihal Amos called. "Gather around. What I have to say is important to all!"
    Ashish kept his mouth shut tight. He recognized Saji Stephen's second son. And he knew perfectly well why Nihal Amos had come to the settlement.
    It wasn't difficult to persuade the workers to toss their plows and hoes aside and forget about the weeds that threatened to overtake the paddies. The men clumped together in groups, staying far enough back from the stranger to feel safe, but inching close enough to hear what he had to say.
    "I am Nihal, nephew of the landowner."
    The workers cast anxious eyes to their idled working tools. Slowly, they began to edge back toward them. But as they whispered worried suspicions to one another, Nihal Amos quickly added, "Please do not worry. I have not come here to oppress you further. Nor do I intend to force more work from your tired backs. On the contrary, I have come to help you."
    The whispering hushed. Every worker fixed his eyes on the skinny man in the white man's shirt.
    Nihal Amos began by telling the laborers what they already knew: "The landlord forces you to work too hard. He rests on his bed through the searing heat of the day. Why should he deny you the right to do the same? It is through your sweat and labor that the rich landlord grows richer still. Why then should you struggle to work when you are so weak from hunger you find it difficult to stand? Why should your starving children cry themselves to sleep at night? It is not fair! It is not right!"
    "Yes, yes!" the workers said to one another. "Everything the man says is true. He knows. He knows!"
    Nihal Amos spoke of the workers' suffering. Of their