Reginald Reynolds (1905-1958) was born in Glastonbury, England. He was raised in a Quaker family and educated at Quaker institutions, including Friends School in Essex and Woodbrooke College in Birmingham. As a young pacifist with anticolonial leanings, Reginald was drawn to Gandhi’s teachings, and after exchanging letters with Gandhi, Reginald left his home to embark upon the journey to join Gandhi at Sabarmati Ashram. Reginald arrived at Sabarmati Ashram in 1929, at the age of 24, and recorded in his journal that he was joining the community for an “indefinite duration” and with “a determination to make amends, so far as one person could do so, for all the degradation that Indians had suffered from the British.”

            At Sabarmati Ashram, Reginald began to study Hindi and Sanskrit languages, and joined the life of the community by learning to spin cotton, working in the fields, taking turns on sanitation duty, cooking duty, and at other daily chores, and participating in the ecumenical group prayer sessions. While at Sabarmati Ashram, Reginald grew increasingly active in the Indian freedom struggle. When the Salt Satyagraha civil disobedience movement began in 1930, Reginald was eager to participate. Gandhi selected only Indian coresidents to join him on the Salt March, but asked Reginald if he would participate in a different way: Gandhi dispatched Reginald to hand deliver a letter to the British Viceroy, Lord Irwin, informing him of the terms of the Salt March, and stating that in order to demonstrate that he did not consider the British as enemies he was having the letter “specially delivered by a young English friend who believes in the Indian cause and is a full believer in nonviolence.” Gandhi also asked that Reginald not court imprisonment during the Salt Satyagraha, so that he could be available to help edit and publish his newspaper Young India if needed during the movement as more and more coresidents were arrested.

            As Reginald faced ongoing health challenges in India, he ultimately decided to return to England in the summer of 1930, determined to there continue to advocate for the cause of Indian independence from colonial rule. Reginal Reynolds remained dedicated to the ethics of nonviolence throughout his lifetime, and was a conscientious objector to World War II. When his health permitted he undertook significant travels, returning to India once again after its independence. He authored several books about his travels and his views on global politics and culture.