Sharma : Do they come alive in that ?
Chavan : They do. Khandekar has taken the background of these novels, but not in the same way as prem Chand – I have read his novels. I have not read Meghani but I have heard about him. Prem Chand has made it a living theme; these are not of that type; nothing compared to that.
Sharma : How were you first arrested in 1930?
Chavan : Well, Prabhat pheries were banned in those day, once while we were leading a prabhat pheri, they came and took me away and kept me in th local jail for a few weeks. They wanted to prosecute me, but by that time the Gandhi-Irwin pact came about and they allowed us to.
Sharma : What was the impact of Gandhiji on you?
Chavan : Gandhiji's impact was there all the time as the leader of the national movement – as Father of the Nation. But in 1932 movement when I was in jail for a longer period. I started reading about socialism, about political movments in other countries, and my views broadened. And then I became somewhat sceptical about his econimics of khadi, village industries, al though in the beginning khadi was very attractive to me. But whether that could be ahundred per cent model for India's economy became a matter of doubt. And later on, I devel oped the inclination that the modern India could not be built on those concepts.
