Charles Freer Andrews

ABOUT CHARLES FREER ANDREWS

Famous for his close friendship and activist collaboration with Indian Independence movement leader Mahatma Gandhi Andrews returned to his native England in his later years and became a leader in the Christian radicalism movement. He penned several books, including What I Owe to Christ and Christ and Labour.

After studying Classics at Pembroke College, Cambridge, he became a deacon in the Church of England and subsequently joined the Cambridge Mission to Delhi. While in India, he became involved in the Indian National Congress.

As a play on Andrews' initials, C.F.A., Gandhi nicknamed his closest friend "Christ's Faithful Apostle."

He grew up in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Birmingham, England, as the son of a Catholic Apostolic Church minister.

During the 1920s and '30s, he was a close associate of the acclaimed Indian author Rabindranath Tagore .