Return to the Motherland: S.N. Goenka's first visit to India

Goenka helped to lead a large group of his family members across the mountains to safety in India, and they arrived at a time of great political tension there. The global strain of World War II had contributed to bringing the Indian independence movement to a head. In early August 1942, Mahatma Gandhi had called for the withdrawal of the British from India in his famous Quit India speech, in which he made a “do or die” pronouncement. At this politically precarious moment, Goenka found himself—for the first time as an adult—in his ancestral motherland, a country that up until then had existed more as an imaginary than a real place. He spent the years between 1942 and 1947 in India. He first took refuge in Churu for a year, then relocated to Cannanore (Kannur) in what is now Kerala, and subsequently went to Madras (Chennai) in what is now Tamil Nadu. His family had business interests in these areas of southern India. Goenka’s accounts of this time focused on his desire to participate in Indian politics. He identified strongly with the independence movement, particularly its more radical elements, and wanted to find a way to get involved.

An excerpt from Daniel Stuart’s S. N. Goenka: Emissary of Insight (Lives of the Masters), describing the time of the Japanese takeover of Burma. Future posts here will look more deeply into this work, and we hope to have Daniel on the Insight Myanmar Podcast as well to discuss his new book.