by M K Gandhi
254 ‘said the inner voice’ added in the English translation.
255 ‘discovered that we had left’ added in the English translation.
256 ‘washing and’ added in the English translation.
257 ‘Doctor’ in the original. Dr. Mehta is implied.
258 ‘and its appointments’ added. In the original, ‘room etc.’
259 ‘of English life and customs’ added in the English translation.
260 Dalpatram Shukla.
261 MKG moved into these rooms with Shukla on his nineteenth birthday on 2 October 1888 and spent the month of October in these lodgings in Richmond.
262 In his ‘Guide to London’ MKG wrote that the friend ‘treated me very kindly and taught me how to behave and how to use the fork and the spoons’. CWMG, vol. 1, p. 115.
263 ‘vegetable’ in the first edition.
264 ‘I could not match his arguments.’ To add.
265 ‘that you can take back to the country’ to add.
266 Literal translation of the Gujarati proverb from the original would be: ‘a no that cures thirty-six diseases’.
267 ‘was’ in the first edition.
268 ‘the good nurse’ added in the English translation.
269 ‘I understand your intent’ to add.
270 ‘in surprise’ added in the English translation.
271 ‘might’ in the first edition.
272 An English family that had lived in India; not of a mixed racial parentage as the term suggests at present.
273 This Victorian-terraced house, four storeys high, was at 20, Baron’s Court Road. MKG spent the winter of 1888 and spring of 1889 in this house.
274 ‘whether I liked the food’ added in the English translation.
275 ‘and dared not ask for more than was put before me’ added in the English translation.
276 ‘slice or two of’ added in the English translation.
277 The Daily News founded in 1846 by Charles Dickens, who also served as its first editor. During the period in which MKG read it John Robinson was its editor.
The Daily Telegraph was founded in 1855 by Arthur B. Sleigh; among its editors was Edwin Arnold (1873–88).
The Pall Mall Gazette founded in 1865 by George Murray Smith took its name from a fictional newspaper conceived by William Mackpeace Thackeray.
278 In Navajivan of 7 March 1926 two terms ‘niramishahar’ and ‘annahar’ are used.
279 This was ‘The Central’ at 16, Saint Bride Street. The date was probably Monday, 22 October 1888. In his ‘Guide to London’ MKG included the whole menu of a vegetarian restaurant including soups, porridge, savouries, vegetarian pies, extra vegetables, sweet puddings, pastry, stewed fruit and sundries. The menu bears this date.
280 Henry Stephens Salt (1851–1939), noted ethical vegetarian, anti-vivisectionist, socialist, pacifist and naturalist. He also wrote a biography of Henry David Thoreau and introduced MKG to Thoreau’s ideas. Plea for Vegetarianism was first published in 1886.
281 ‘from cover to cover’ added in the English translation.
282 In the original Gujarati the term is ‘annahar’, literally, eater of grains. In Navajivan of 7 March 1926 MKG used the term ‘niramishahar’, literally, non-eater of meat, and added a footnote: ‘The more prevalent term for vegetarian is Shakahari (literally, eater of vegetables). This is closer to the root of the English term but does not indicate real substance. Hence I have used Niramishahari, though the term is abstruse. I would use another term, if I were to find it, that is closer to the meaning and simple. Will someone come to my aid?’
283 ‘subsequently’ to add.
284 Howard Williams (1837–1931), English humanitarian and vegetarian. MKG met him at Ventnor.
285 First published in 1883. Leo Tolstoy wrote an introduction to the Russian translation of this work in 1892.
286 Anna Kingsford (1846–88), one of the first English women to obtain a degree of medicine. She was a passionate anti-vivisection advocate and a campaigner for vegetarianism. The Perfect Way in Diet was published in 1881. She was interested in theosophy and esoteric Christianity. She wrote with Edward Maitland The Perfect Way or The Finding of Christ and Clothed with the Sun.
287 Dr. Thomas Allinson (1858–1918), trained in Edinburgh, was a voluminous scholar. His best-known work is A System of Hygienic Medicine (1886). A passionate vegetarian, he wrote on the advantages of nutritious whole foods in The Advantage of Wholemeal Bread.
288 At No. 252, High Holborn.
289 ‘The friend had planned . . . forbid any questions.’ Added in the English translation.
290 ‘soup’ English word in the original.
291 ‘What was I to do, I did not know.’ To add.
292 ‘with’ in the first edition.
293 ‘English-style’ to add.
294 ‘Army and Navy Stores’ English phrase in the original. The Army & Navy Co-operative Society was incorporated in 1871, with an aim to supply its members goods at lowest possible rates.
295 ‘chimney hat’ in the original.
296 ‘etiquette’ to add. First recorded usage of the word dates back to 1850–55.
297 ‘(akin to a broomstick, isn’t it?)’ to add.
298 ‘parting in the’ to add.
299 ‘One, two, three would go on, but the intervals between them were indicated by the piano, which I could not follow.’ To add.
300 ‘My lot was akin to the story of the mendicant and the cat.’ To add.
301 David Charles Bell and Alexander Melville Bell, Bell’s Standard Elocutionist, Principles and exercises followed by a copious selection of Extracts in prose and poetry, classified for reading and recitation (William Mullon & Son, 1878; rev. ed.).
302 Pitt’s speech. On pages 131–32 of the Standard Elocutionist ‘The Retort to Walpole’ (1741) by William Pitt, Earl of Chatham.
303 This was a woman teacher. The gendered term in the Gujarati original indicates this.
304 ‘I had decided not to spend more than £15 a month.’ To add.
305 ‘or a couple of coppers spent on news-papers’ added in the English translation. In his ‘Guide to London’ MKG describes newspapers to be a daily requirement. ‘In above estimates no mention is made of expenses on account of newspapers which are found to be an absolute necessity, a daily food as it were . . . The London newspapers are very cheap. An evening newspaper can be had for one half penny.’ CWMG, vol. 1, pp. 100–01.
306 In his ‘Guide to London’ MKG devoted a chapter on the cost of living, in which he cited examples of sparse but noble lives, including those of Charles Bradlaugh and Cardinal Manning. He also cited guides that could help an aspirant to model his finances: Dr. T.L. Nichols, How to live on six pence a day and How to live on one pound a week. See CWMG, vol. 1, pp. 82–101.
307 According to James Hunt this suite of rooms were on Store Street, close to the British Museum and the University of London. Gandhi in London, p. 221.
308 ‘(afterwards Sir Frederic)’ added in the English translation. The original has ‘Lely Sahib.’
309 ‘which I decided to complete’ to add.
310 ‘within the given period’ added in the English translation.
311 In January 1890.
312 ‘become’ in the first edition.
313 ‘Cocoa Rooms, and especially Lockhart’s cocoa rooms, have become an important factor in the life of the people. At first cocoa rooms, or coffee palaces as they were then called, were the result of philanthropic or religious effort. They were to pay their way; but they did not do it. They were to provide good refreshments; but tea, coffee, cocoa and cakes were alike bad. It was not till the work was taken up as a business that any good was done with it. Now it strides forward, and though Lockhart’s are the best and the most numerous, others are following and are bound to come up to, or excel, the standard so established. Very soon we shall have no length of principal street without such a place, and we shall wonder how we ever got on without them. In
their rules they are wisely liberal: those who drink the cocoa may sit at the tables to eat the dinner or breakfast they have brought from home, or bringing the bread and butter from home they can add the sausage or whatever completes the meal.’
Charles Booth Life and Labour of the People in London, ‘Pubs and Cocoa Rooms,’ in Peter Keating (edited), Into Unknown England: 1866-1913 Selections from the social explorers. Manchester University Press, 1976. pp. 130-31.
314 In ‘Guide to London’, MKG provided menus, including recipes of three vegetarian meals which could be cooked in the rooms at a total cost of 11 dimes or 1 shilling per day.
315 ‘for eight shillings a week’ to add.
316 On Tavistock Street.
317 MKG describes oatmeal porridge as ‘a splendid dish especially in winter’. CWMG, vol. 1, p. 96.
318 June 1890.
319 ‘four’ to add.
320 The Vegetarian Society was established on 30 September 1848, with James Simpson as its president and William Horsell as its secretary.
321 The Vegetarian commenced publication in January 1888, and became the London Vegetarian Society’s (LVS) official organ. Its masthead announced ‘A Paper for the Promotion of Humanity, Purity, Temperance, Health, Wealth and Happiness’. The office of the LVS was initially next door to the Central Restaurant in London where MKG discovered the Vegetarian movement and had his first satisfactory meal in London. In South Africa MKG became an ‘agent’ of the LVS and included this fact on his letterhead.
322 ‘Executive’ added in the English translation.
323 ‘Committee’ English word in the original. MKG became member of the Executive Committee of the LVS on 19 September 1890 and attended its meetings regularly till his departure in June of the following year.
324 In ‘Guide to London’ MKG quoted Dr. Nicholas on tea and coffee: ‘Even the milder stimulants such as tea and coffee have no appreciable nutritional value . . . Tea and coffee are stimulants only and their influence upon the body is either inappreciable or hurtful.’ CWMG, vol. 1, pp. 88–89.
325 MKG described the six-penny dinners thus: ‘You buy a ticket and, on presenting the ticket, you get a selection of 3 out of about 20 courses. The popularity of these dinners is immense. From 1 pm to 2 pm, very often it becomes very difficult to find a place owing to the large number of customers.’ CWMG, vol. 1, p. 97.
326 ‘starch’ English word in the original.
327 In an essay, ‘The Foods of India’, that MKG read on Saturday, 2 May 1891, he said: ‘I am sorry to say that I have been taking eggs for about a month and half.’ CWMG, vol. 1, p. 36.
328 ‘given to my mother’ to add.
329 ‘not only eggs, but’ added in the English translation.
330 ‘awkward’ added in the English translation.
331 English word in the original.
332 English word in the original.
333 ‘compared to momentary taste.’ To add.
334 ‘The meaning that we carry in our minds is either false or partial.’ To add.
335 ‘golden rule’ to add.
336 ‘according to the golden rule’ added in the English translation.
337 ‘and propagation of’ to add.
338 ‘For me it was akin to conversion to a new religion.’ To add.
339 MKG lived at 52, St Stephens’s Gardens, Bayswater, where he shared rooms with Josiah Oldfield.
340 Sir Edwin Arnold (1832–1904), wrote a life of Buddha in verse, The Light of Asia, and translated the Gita as Song Celestial. MKG’s first acquaintance with the Gita was through Sir Edwin’s translation.
341 Dr. Josiah Oldfield (1863–1953), theologian, barrister and physician. Perhaps the only Englishman with whom MKG lived as a friend and an equal during his student days. For Oldfield’s reminiscences of MKG, see ‘My Friend Gandhi’, in Chandrashankar Shukla (ed.), Reminiscences of Gandhiji (Bombay: Vora & Co., 1951), pp. 187–90.
342 ‘The discussion arose somewhat in this wise.’ Added in the English translation.
343 Arnold F. Hills (1857–1927), a wealthy industrialist and chairman of Thames Iron Works, a shipyard that built battleships and other large vessels.
344 ‘my’ in the first edition.
345 ‘of vegetarian fame’ added in the English translation.
346 ‘There was then a movement for birth-control through artificial means.’ To add.
347 Dr. Allinson wrote A Book for Married Women that advocated artificial birth control.
348 ‘to the President’ to add.
349 ‘in my pocket’ added in the English translation.
350 ‘Dr. Allinson’s faction’ in the original.
351 This meeting was held on 20 February 1891. Hills and Allinson debated ‘The Meaning of Sexual Morality’ with Oldfield in the chair.
352 According to James Hunt, MKG continued to be the member of the Committee till June 1891, that is, till his departure for India.
353 At the Osborne House.
354 Howard Williams. The original Gujarati does not mention the name of the author.
355 The meeting took place on 11 May 1891.
356 ‘To speak extempore would have been out of the question for me.’ Added in the English translation.
357 ‘foolscap’ English word in the original.
358 ‘to speak’ to add.
359 According to Pyarelal, Mahatma Gandhi: The Early Phase (Ahmedabad: Navajivan, 1965, 1986 reprint), p. 267, the dinner was held on Saturday, 5 June 1891. CWMG puts the date of the dinner as 11 June 1891, which is literally the eve of his departure from England.
360 ‘But this time too I only succeeded in making myself ridiculous.’ Added in the English translation.
361 ‘referred to in these chapters’ added in the English translation.
362 ‘but I ridiculed myself’ to add.
363 ‘Speeches, therefore, there had to be.’ Added in the English translation.
364 ‘and meaningful’ to add.
365 The Vegetarian, 13 June 1891, reported: ‘At the close of the function, Mr. Gandhi, in a very graceful though somewhat nervous speech, welcomed all present, spoke of the pleasure it gave him to see the habit of abstinence from flesh progressing in England, related the manner in which his connection with the London Vegetarian Society arose, and in so doing took occasion to speak in a touching way of what he owed to Mr. Oldfield.’ CWMG, vol. 1, p. 14.
366 ‘the’ added in the 1940 edition.
367 ‘be ashamed of or’ to add.
368 ‘Economy of words is necessary to overcome such dangers.’ To add.
369 ‘My shyness that pinched me earlier, its memory gives me joy today.’ To add.
370 MD’s note: ‘One who observes brahmacharya, i.e., complete self-restraint.’
371 ‘in England’ added in the English translation.
372 ‘the fact of marriage’ to add.
373 ‘for five–six years’ to add.
374 ‘Only’ added in English translation.
375 ‘from going into deeper waters.’ Added in English translation.
376 MKG stayed at this seaside resort on the Isle of Wight from 7 to 23 May 1891.
377 ‘at least as a matter of courtesy’ to add.
378 Mrs. Shelton was the landlady. Pyarelal, in Early Phase, p. 770, footnote 32, suggests a ‘slim possibility’ that the young lady might have been Mrs. Shelton’s stepdaughter.
379 ‘I lacked the courage to say, “Let us return.”’ To add.
380 Based on this episode Keith Heller wrote a novel, The Woman Who knew Gandhi (Houghton Miffin Harcourt, 2004).
381 The precise dates are not known. He went after giving his matriculation examinations between 9 and 13 June 1890 and spent four weeks here. He described the experience of his holiday in Brighton in detail in ‘Guide to London’, CWMG, vol.1, pp. 118-20. It was in Brighton that he learnt to cook with facility. His four-week-long holiday cost him £3-10-0 for board and lodging and £4-8-5 for fares.
&n
bsp; 382 ‘This was before the Ventnor visit.’ Added in the English translation.
383 ‘before I went to Ventnor’ to add.
384 The Theosophical Society was founded in New York on 17 November 1875 by Madam H.P. Blavatsky. Colonel Henry Steel Olcott gave the inaugural address.
385 James Hunt writes: ‘He calls them “brothers” but they have been tentatively identified as Bertram and Archibald Keightley, actually uncle and nephew, wealthy theosophists whose home at 17, Lansdowne Road, Notting Hill had been placed at Mme. Blavatsky’s disposal.’ Gandhi in London, p. 27. The identification of the Keightley ‘brothers’ was first done by Chandran D.S. Devanesan, The Making of the Mahatma (Madras: 1969), p. 202. Hunt surmises that they were probably vegetarians, which brought them in touch with MKG.
386 The Song Celestial added in the English translation. Sir Edwin Arnold (1832–1904), English poet and journalist, came to India (1856–61) as principal of Government Sanskrit College, Poona. His other well-known poetic work is the life of Buddha, The Light Of Asia: The Great Renunciation (1879). The Song Celestial was published in 1885.
387 MKG’s first biographer Rev. Joseph Doke, however, writes: ‘When he commenced, he was ashamed to find that, although he was familiar with the Sanskrit language and had frequently read the poem as a lesson, he was utterly unable to explain its subtle meanings.’ Joseph Doke, Gandhi: A Patriot in South Africa (New Delhi: Publications Division, 1994), p. 39. It was first published in The London Indian Chronicle in 1909, and the first Indian edition came out in 1919.
388 Verses 62, 63, Discourse II.
389 ‘Though I read the Gita with these friends’ added in English translation.
390 MKG’s engagement with the Gita continued to deepen over the years. In 1926–27 he translated the Gita as Anasakti Yoga in Gujarati (published on 12 March 1930, the day he commenced the Salt March to Dandi). During his imprisonment in 1922 he wrote a lexicographic commentary on the text, published as Gita Padarthkosha in 1936. During his year-long stay at the Satyagraha Ashram at Ahmedabad, MKG gave, between 24 February and 27 November 1926, 218 discourses on the Gita. The imprisonments in 1930 and 1932 provided another occasion to discourse on the Gita, when he wrote a series of letters, called ‘Letters on the Gita’, to the inmates of his ashram, which were read out during the morning prayers. He also composed a primer on the Gita, called Ram Gita as it was composed for his son Ramdas. The recitation of the Gita was obligatory in the ashram prayers, both morning and evening. During the morning prayers the recitation was so arranged that the entire Gita was recited every fourteen days; later it was changed so as to complete it in seven days. The nineteen verses of Discourse II that describe the characteristics of a Sthitaprajna were recited daily during evening prayers.