Mahatma Gandhi

by Dennis Dalton

  33. Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Speeches and Writings, vol 1, R. P. Patwardhan and D. V. Ambeker, eds. (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1962), p. 8.

  34. CWMG 5: 101.

  35. CWMG 10: 12.

  36. Ibid., 42: 434.

  37. Times of India, February 5, 1930, p. 11.

  38. Interviews with Archarya Kripalani in Ahmedabad, July 1975, and Pyarelal Nayar in New Delhi, October and November, 1966; and with C. Rajagopalachari in Madras, May 1967; and account by Mira Behn, Spirit s Pilgrimage, pp. 109–110 and B. R. Nanda, Mahatma Gandhi (Bombay: Allied Publishers, 1968), pp. 290–291. Jawaharlal Nehru admitted later that once the campaign caught on, “we felt a little ashamed for having questioned the efficacy of this method [of resisting the salt tax] when it was first proposed by Gandhiji” Mahatma Gandhi, Bombay, Asia Publishing House, 1965, p. 63.

  39. CWMG 42: 501.

  40. Gene Sharp, Gandhi Wields the Weapon of Moral Power, (Ahmedabad: Navajivan, 1960), p. 56. In his case history of the 1930–1931, satyagraha, Sharp comments that Gandhi “could hardly have picked an issue which touched directly the lives of more people.”

  41. Note that these symbolic arguments are not particularly Indian in form, but are familiar to Western political thought as well, especially the ideas of anarchist thinkers, P.J. Proudhon and Peter Kropotkin.

  42. CWMG 29: 240–243. “The Great March,” Ibid., 12: 258–269. R. A. Huttenback, Gandhi in South Africa, 1971, Cornell University Press, pp. 316–319. D. G. Tendulkar, Mahatma, rev. ed. (Delhi: Government Publications Division, 1960) 1: 139–145, “The Epic March.” Sushila Nayar Mahatma Gandhi (Ahmedabad: Navajivan, 1989), 4: 643–667. Maureen Swan offers another perspective on the South African march by placing it in the context of the labor strike and the economic issues involved in 1913: Gandhi: The South African Experience, (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1985), pp. 243–256.

  43. Rand Daily Mail, November 11,1913, p. 6 and Natal Witness, November 15,1913, p. 3. The march received extensive reporting and editorial comment from these papers as well as from the Natal Mercury, Cape Times, Evening Chronicle, and Sunday Post Dr. A.D. Lazarus, a South African Indian who was fifteen at the time of the march and later became a prominent leader of his Indian community there, recalled that the press and government initially ridiculed the protest as ludicrous, in contrast to the pro-Gandhi nationalist press later in India, especially the Bombay Chronicle and local Gujarati papers that glorified the Dandi march from the outset. (Interview with A. D. Lazarus in Durban, South Africa, August 1975) A notable exception was the Cape Times, whose sympathetic reporter called it “The Great Indian Trek,” praised the patience and discipline of the marchers, and remarked on the enthusiasm of the women and the devotion of all to Gandhi.

  44. CWMG 43: 61.

  45. CWMG 42:419–420. Joan Bondurant (following Louis Renou) goes so far as to describe Gandhi’s “inner voice” “In terms more familiar to the West, as a feeling of what the masses expected of him.” “The Non-conventional Political Leader in India” in Richard Park and Irene Tinker eds., Leadership and Political Institutions in India (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1959), p. 280. Gandhi’s thinking at this crucial period would seem to confirm Bondurant’s suggestion. W H. Morris Jones has also noted the significance of this input in Gandhi’s decision-making.

  46. In Gandhi’s Congress resolution, adopted by the Working Committee meeting in Ahmedabad on February 15, the language is quite vague, authorizing Gandhi and his followers to “start civil disobedience as and when they desire and in the manner and to the extent they decide.” CWMG 42: 480.

  47. Ibid., p. 500.

  48. CWMG 43: 12..

  49. CWMG 42: 481–82.

  50. Interview with Dwarkanath Harkare, Bombay, July 31, 1975.

  51. Interview with Pannalal Balabhai Zaveri, one of 79 marchers, July 28, 1975, Ahmedabad, India.

  52. Bapu’s Letters to Mira. 1924–1928. Ahmedabad 1949, p. 98, Note to Gandhi’s letter of Nov. 26, 1929.

  53. Haridas T. Muzumdar, who had just received his Ph.D. in Social Science from the University of Wisconsin, confessed to being “torn by conflicting desires, pulled by different ideas” before he volunteered to join Gandhi. But he was persuaded that “The greatest battle of human history is being fought,” and so he became one of the marchers. Haridas T. Muzumdar, statement in Gandhi Papers (S. N. 16557, 44, #586) and interview in New York City, Oct. 11,1976. Another marcher, Harilal Mahimtura, concurred. Interview in Bombay, July 30, 1975.

  54. Interview with Satish Kalelkar, Ahmedabad, March 13, 1975.

  55. Personal communication to author from Valji Govindji Desai, Vododara, Gujarat, October 1, 1975.

  56. CWMG 42: 497

  57. CWMG 43: 33–35

  58. Irwin to Gandhi, from Viceroyal Lodge, Simla, May 13, 1928, Gandhi Papers (S.N. 13385) and interview with Pyarelal Nayar, February 13, 1967 in Delhi. Pyarelal, who was at Gandhi’s side throughout the march, was the principal informant for the present accounts of the salt satyagraha; he read earlier drafts of this chapter and made extensive comments on them. The account of the salt march was also discussed with Dr. Haridas T. Muzumdar. His own chronicle of the march is presented in his book India’s Non-Violent Revolution (New York: India Today and Tomorrow Series, 1930).

  59. Gandhi’s approach may be compared with V. I. Lenin’s model of a political movement depicted in What Is To Be Done?: “We are surrounded on all sides by enemies, and we have to advance almost constantly under their fire.” This is an “exclusive group”: “A small, compact core of the most reliable, experienced, and hardened workers…connected by all the rules of strict secrecy…. such an organization must have the utmost secrecy. Secrecy is such a necessary condition for this kind of organization that all the other conditions (number and selection of members, functions, etc.) must be made to conform to it” (New York: International Publishers, 1973), pp. 11, 116, 133. It may be argued with much validity that Lenin’s model of politics was suitable to Czarist Russia as was Gandhi’s to British India. However, M. N. Roy and other Indian revolutionaries, Communist and terrorist, preferred Lenin’s model, but applied it without success to India, thus not accepting Gandhi’s emphasis on openness and inclusivity in the Indian context. See John P. Haithcox, Communism and Nationalism in India: M. N Roy and Comintern Policy, 1920–1939, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971), pp. 27–30.

  60. Cited above, and listed in CWMG 42: 434–435, Gandhi cites these as “pressing,” “very simple but vital needs of India.” They include, in addition to abolition of the salt tax, reduction of the land revenue, of the military expenditure, of salaries of higher grade civil servants; discharge of political prisoners; tariff on foreign cloth; and abolition of the secret intelligence service.

  61. The English friend, a young Quaker, Reginald Reynolds, wrote “My taking of this letter was, in fact, intended to be symbolic of the fact that this was not merely a struggle between the Indians and the British. …” To Live in Mankind, quoted in MGCW, 43: 8. Gandhi’s letter to Irwin appears in CWMG 43: 2–8.

  62. Geoffrey Ashe, Gandhi:. A Study in Revolution, (London: Heinemann, 1968), p. 286 The Bombay companies were the Sharda, Krishna, and Ranjit.

  63. Herbert A. Miller, “Gandhi’s Campaign Begins,” The Nation, April 23, 1930, p. 501

  64. Harnam Singh, The Indian National Movement and American Opinion (New Delhi: Rama Krishna & Sons, 1962), p. 277. The New York Times published regular, almost daily, reports of the salt march from March 12 to April 5th and with Gandhi’s completion of the march printed two front page articles about it on April 6 and 7. Unfortunately, these reports contain numerous factual errors and also reflect the confusion of British policy, especially about the likelihood of Gandhi’s arrest.

  65. The Literary Digest, April 19, 1930, p. 12.

  66. Time Magazine, January 5, 1931, pp. 14–15. Gandhi’s picture appeared on the cover and the article featured the reporting of the British journalist Henry Noel Brailsford who str
essed the revolutionary nature of Gandhi’s movement. He claimed that the British government now had the allegiance of only the military, the Princes, and the older Muslims. The vast majority of Indians followed Gandhi. Both American and British journalists who met Gandhi during this time and then covered his movement have written extraordinarily vivid and favorable assessments. Among the most striking are: William L. Shirer, Gandhi. A Memoir (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979); Webb Miller, I Found No Peace (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1936), pp. 238–241; Negley Farson, The Way of a Transgressor (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1936), pp. 558–560; Robert Bernays, “Naked Fakir” (London: Victor Gollancz, 1931); and Malcolm Muggeridge, Chronicles of Wasted Time. I: The Green Stick (New York: Morrow, 1973), pp. 108–113. All are fascinated by the mass allegiance to Gandhi and ponder its causes. Muggeridge considers several reasons for Gandhi’s appeal to the average Indian and then concludes: “He drew them to him, I decided, because he gave them a feeling that they mattered; that they, too, existed in the scheme of things, and were not just helots, extras in a drama which did not concern them. This was why they saw him as a Mahatma, and took the dust of his feet.” (no) Finally, one must mention the outstanding contribution of the American journalist Louis Fischer. Although he met Gandhi later than the others, in 1942, his remarkable biography, The Life of Mahatma Gandhi (New York: Harper, 1950), is foremost among those journalists who were informed by their personal acquaintance with Gandhi.

  67. CWMG 43: 37.

  68. Ibid., pp. 38 and 60.

  69. Gandhi explained the purpose of the march to the ashramites as a “symbolic action,” undertaken at first by a few, and then the force of the example would ignite the whole nation. Interview with C. K. Nair, one of the initial 78 marchers, in Delhi, July, 1975.

  70. Mehta and Desai, Dandi Kutch, pp. 52–53; Desai, The Story of Bardoli, p. 13.

  71. CWMG 42: 60.

  72. Mahadev Desai, “The Great March,” Navajivan, March 16, 1930 (in Gujarati).

  73. The relationship of the modern Indian conception of the political leader to the traditional ideals of the “hero, saint, and teacher” is drawn by Karl H. Potter, Presuppositions of India s Philosophies (New Delhi 1965), p. 5.

  74. “Speeches delivered by Gandhi on course of march to sea to break the salt laws” in Home Poll. File #122, 1930. There are two primary sources of Gandhi’s speeches during the salt march: CWMG 43: 62–185; and the Government file cited here, which contains the complete translations of the speeches from the notes of a stenographer employed by the Government to follow Gandhi on the march. The Government official also comments on the degree of enthusiasm and size of the audience. When the transcript of the speeches in this file is compared with that in the Collected Works there are many differences, one being that the former retains Gandhi’s frequent usage of words like swaraj. For example, the translation in the Collected Works of the sentence just cited reads: “Your reply can only be winning complete freedom. How could you do that? Only by following my path.” (p. 80).

  75. CWMG 43: 62. A paisa = 1/64 of a rupee. The exchange rate in 1930 was one rupee = .365 cents.

  76. CWMG 43: 146–149.

  77. Kapilprasad M. Dave, “My Reminiscences of Dandi March,” personal communication to author, from Ahmedabad, Jan. 1976.

  78. Communication to the author from N. P. Raghava Poduval, Kerala, March 7 and May 6, 1977.

  79. Interview with Pyarelal in Delhi, February 20, 1967. Careful attention was given to the diet of the marchers: for breakfast, gram and groundnuts; for lunch, rice, dal, chapati and vegetables; for supper, khichdi (mixture of rice and dal), chapati and vegetables, and milk.

  80. Bombay Chronicle, 25 March 1930, p. 6.

  81. Jamnabhumi, quoted in Bombay Chronicle, 28 March 1930, p. 6.

  82. CWMG 43: 162.

  83. Ibid., pp. 44, 49.

  84. Ibid., p. 166.

  85. Ibid., p. 167.

  86. Bombay Chronicle, 5 April 1930, p. 1.

  87. Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1965), pp. 61,63.

  88. Bombay Chronicle 5 April 1930, p. 8.

  89. Mehta and Desai, Dandi Kutch, p. 286. K. M. Dave, correspondent for two Gujarati newspapers, Bombay Samachar and Prajabandhu (Ahmedabad), covering the Dandi march, recalled that Gandhi “used to walk so fast during the march that those with him were actually forced to run to keep pace with him.” Some of the journalists arranged for horses or cars to stay with the march. (K. M. Dave, “My Reminiscences of the March,” personal communication to the author, Ahmedabad, January, 1976). Newton Phelps Stokes, recently graduated from Yale University, joined the march for a short distance and reported that Gandhi walked “at an amazingly fast pace.” He was struck by the vast crowds that joined or observed the marchers as they passed through villages. “Marching with Gandhi,” The Review of Reviews 81 (6) (June 1930): 38.

  90. CWMG 43: 179.

  91. Ibid.

  92. Ibid., p. 180.

  93. Ibid.

  94. Ibid., pp. 182–84.

  95. Mehta and Desai, Dandi Kutch, pp. 291–93.

  96. CWMG 43: 216. S. R. Bakshi calculates that as Gandhi did his deed at Dandi on April 6, the salt laws were broken “throughout India by at least five million people at over 5,000 meetings,” (Gandhi and Salt Satyagraha, p. 58).

  97. Interview with Pyarelal, Delhi, February 20, 1967

  98. Raja Rao, Kanthapura (London: Oxford University Press, 1963), pp. 169–174.

  99. IOR/L/PJ/6/1983. Viceroy to Secretary of State, April 28, 1930. (Irwin reproduces Sykes’s telegram from Bombay, which is quoted above).

  100. IOR/MSS. Eur. C. 15V24. Sir Purshotandas Thakurdas to Irwin, April 28, 1930.

  101. IOR/L/PJ/6/1983 Viceroy to Secretary of State, June 2, 1930.

  102. Sir Frederick Sykes, From Many Angles: An Autobiography (London: 1942, George Harrap), p. 392.

  103. India in 1930–31: A Statement Prepared for Presentation to Parliament (Calcutta: Government of India Central Publishing Branch, 1932), p. 73. Jawarharlal Nehru wrote in these same terms, recalling the salt satyagraha: “Many strange things happened in those days, but undoubtedly the most striking was the part of the women in the national struggle. They came out in large numbers from the seclusion of their homes, and, though unused to public activity, threw themselves into the heart of the struggle.” Mahatma Gandhi, p. 63. Judith Brown documents the extensive mobilization of women in Gandhi and Civil Disobedience, pp. 136, 146, 291–92. S. R. Bakshi uses interviews with women participants in the struggle to show the depth of their resistance across the nation, Gandhi and Salt Satyagraha, pp. 98–105.

  104. Madhu Kishwar, “Gandhi on Women,” Economic and Political Weekly, 20, No. 40, October 5, and No. 41, October 12,1985, pp. 1696,1757–1758. H. N. Brailsford, a British journalist who observed the civil disobedience movement in 1930, wrote that “nothing in this astonishing movement was so surprising” as the participation of women. Rebel India (New York: New Republic, 1931), p. 2.

  105. Judith Brown, Gandhi-Prisoner of Hope, pp. 208–209. Insight on Gandhi’s approach to the recruitment of women may be gained from M. K. Gandhi, The Women in Gandhis Life (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1953); Eleanor Morton, Women Behind Gandhi, New Delhi, 1961; and CWMG 75: 155; and Susanne Rudolph, Gandhi (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983), pp. 60–62.

  106. Judith Brown, Gandhi and Civil Disobedience, p. 86.

  107. Ibid., pp. 90–91, 104–106; Bipan Chandra, India’s Struggle for Independence, 1857–1947 (Delhi: Viking, 1988), pp. 282–283.

  108. CWMG 43: 54–55.

  109. CWMG 43: 55–57.

  110. The profound extent of Gandhi’s despair over the civil war was related in a personal interview with his associate, Nirmal Kumar Bose, who was with him in Calcutta at the time of India’s independence. Interview in Calcutta, November, 1966.

  111. Sumit Sarkar, “The Logic of Gandhian Nationalism: Civil Disobedience and the Gandhi-Irwin Pact (1930–1931)” The I
ndian Historical Review (1) (July 1976): 117, 146; Sumit Sarkar, Modern India, 1885—1947 (Delhi: Macmillan India Ltd., 1983), pp. 281–308.

  112. Tanikar Sarkar, “The First Phase of Civil Disobedience in Bengal, 1930—1931,” The Indian Historical Review, 4 (1) (July 1977): 83.

  113. Heman Ray, “Changing Soviet Views on Mahatma Gandhi,” Journal of Asian Studies 29 (1) (November 1969); “To Lenin, Gandhi as the leader of the mass movement like the Indian National Congress was a revolutionary,” p. 87.

  114. Bipan Chandra, India’s Struggle for Independence, p. 273.

  115. Times of India, 6 Feb. 1930, p. 10.