In 1915, Ernest while a final year medical student in
London appears to have got acquainted with Jesudasan, who was then-working in the
London Medical Mission Hospital; it is also believed that it was Jesudasan who persuaded Ernest to go India for missionary work. Ernest Forrester and S. Jesudasan were sent as missionaries by the
United Free Church (UFC) to
Bombay Presidency's Pune, presently in
Maharashtra. He joined
Gandhi's
Civil Disobedience campaign in 1930, and became a controversial figure in the eyes of the
British Raj. On February 29, 1932, during the Civil Disobedience campaign, he was arrested on charges of
picketing (under Ordinance V of 1932) and in fact, beaten by police during a
Madras demonstration. This police case gained wider attention in India and
Britain, including the raising of questions in the then-
British Parliament. On 18 March February 1934, Gandhi came to Tiruppatur and visited S. Jesudan and Ernest Forrester. With consultations from then-prominent Indian leaders like Gandhi and Rajaji, Ernest and Jesudasan established the
Christukula Ashram (also
Christu-Kula Ashram), family of
Christ Ashram, in 1921 at
Tirupattur in
North Arcot, Tamil Nadu—South India. This ashram is considered as the first Protestant ashram to be founded in India to promote equality between
Europeans and
Indians, and also to present Christian life and worship to Indians—this ashram was aimed largely in aligning Christian community with the presumed ancient Hindu idea of the ashram. Gandhi was invited to this ashram and he looks to have appreciated its remarkable endorsement of another religious ethos. The
Christukula Ashram introduced new strategies like re-thinking everything in the light of
theology through
mysticism to suit the Indian context. As a pursuit of achieving
communion, mysticism was identified with "conscious awareness of ultimate reality, the divinity, the spiritual truth, or God through direct experience, intuition, or insight." In the same context, Indian Christian theologians believed
Bhakti mysticism as a bridge of understanding between
Hinduism and
Christianity as they felt that Bhakti mysticism was the nearest to Christian mystical experience. ==Works==