An Autobiography or the Story of My Experiments with Truth
Page 67
25 John Ruskin (1819–1900). Chapter XVIII of Part IV of the Autobiography deals with the ‘Magic Spell’ of Ruskin’s Unto This Last, which MKG translated into Gujarati as Sarvodaya. He cites, apart from Unto This Last, Ruskin’s A Joy For Ever as an authority in the appendix to Hind Swaraj.
26 The first edition reads ‘. . . readmitted me to the caste’.
27 MKG was in Nasik on 7 July 1891.
28 The term in the original is ‘Ganga Snan’, or bath in the river Ganga, implying a purificatory bath in a sacred river.
29 They reached Rajkot on 10 July 1891 and the caste dinner was organized on 17 July.
30 ‘I believe’ to add.
31 The first edition reads ‘. . . refused it to me’.
32 ‘officially’ to add.
33 ‘my’ in the first edition.
34 ‘a’ added in the 1940 edition.
35 ‘my’ in the first edition.
36 ‘coffee’ in the original. Gujarati does not have a word for coffee.
37 China crockery and tea and’ to add.
38 ‘oatmeal porridge’ in the original. It has explanatory term ‘Ghens’ in parenthesis.
39 ‘every day’ added in English translation.
40 MKG reached Bombay on 15 November 1891.
41 ‘but as a member of the household’ added in the English translation.
42 ‘(daily worship),’ added in the English translation as explanation.
43 ‘and with Ravishankar began to run the kitchen’ added in the English translation.
44 ‘Indian’ added in the English translation.
45 ‘a friend’ added in the English translation.
46 ‘Indian’ added in the English translation.
47 ‘Civil Procedure Code’ in English in the original.
48 ‘Evidence Act’ in English in the original, while in the first instance he used a Gujarati equivalent.
49 Section 32 of Indian Evidence Act, 1872, deals with statements, written or verbal, of relevant facts made by a person who is dead, or who cannot be found, or who has become incapable of giving evidence, or whose attendance cannot be procured without an amount of delay or expense which, under the circumstances of the case, appears to the court unreasonable, which are themselves considered relevant facts in specified cases. This section in lay terms refers to the ‘Dying Declaration’.
50 ‘As I have said earlier’ to add.
51 ‘small cause’ English phrase in the original.
52 ‘the plaintiff’s witness’ added in the English translation.
53 ‘I had simply made a virtue of necessity.’ Added in the English translation.
54 ‘But my concerns increased.’ To add at the beginning of this paragraph.
55 He returned to Rajkot on 15 September 1892.
56 ‘drafting’ to add.
57 ‘I must confess that’ added in the English translation.
58 ‘my’ in the first edition.
59 ‘who briefed you’ added in the English translation.
60 ‘your fee comes to our common purse,’ added in the English translation.
61 Rana Bhavsingh.
62 MD’s footnote: ‘Throne.’
63 It was alleged that the young prince had removed some jewels from the State’s treasury without authority. Lakshmidas’s failure to report this made him an accessory to the act.
64 E.C.K. (afterwards Sir Charles) Ollivant.
65 ‘I thought’ added in the English translation.
66 This sentence is in Hindustani in the original.
67 Sowar is a rider, a messenger on horseback.
68 ‘having come down from Bombay’ added in the English translation.
69 In 1921, while addressing the Council of the Parsi Central Association, MKG recalled the event and the advice. See CWMG, vol. 20, p. 238.
70 ‘false’ added in the English translation.
71 ‘conceit’ to add.
72 The ruler Rana Vikmatij was sent into exile for continued misrule and charge of murder. By 1891 the ruler was permitted in his territory but full powers were not restored. See Ramachandra Guha, Gandhi Before India (New Delhi: Allen Lane, 2013), pp. 57–58.
73 Porbandar’s administrator was S.P. Pundit.
74 ‘more’ added in the English translation.
75 Brother of Dada Abdullah and second president of the Natal Indian Congress.
76 The company traded in the wide range of commodities through its fifteen branches in the Transvaal, the Natal and Portuguese East Africa. It was the first Indian firm to own ships in South Africa.
77 ‘made by Sheth Abdul Karim’ to add.
78 Son Manilal was born on 28 October 1892 (d. 1956). For his biography, see Uma Dhupelia Mesthrie, Gandhi’s Prisoner? The Life of Gandhi’s Son Manilal (New Delhi: Permanent Black, 2005).
79 MKG left Rajkot on 22 April 1893, reaching Bombay on 23 April.
80 ‘for a month’ to add.
81 ‘first-class’ added in the English translation.
82 Captain Asthausen.
83 Francisco Teixeira da Silva.
84 ‘I was happy.’ To add.
85 MKG sailed on 24 April 1893 by S.S Safari.
86 S.S Safari reached Lamu on 7 May 1893.
87 ‘I now found them preparing to return to the steamer, so’ added in the English translation.
88 MKG reached Zanzibar on 8 May 1893 and stayed there till 17 May. He sailed for Durban in S.S Admiral.
89 MKG recalled this incident and attributed the fact of having emerged unsullied to the power of Ramanama. See CWMG, vol. 27, pp. 110–11.
90 In Gujarati, Ishvar, God, the attribute of mercy, added in the English translation.
91 S.S Admiral reached Natal on 24 May 1893.
92 The title in Gujarati is Anubhavo Ni Vangi. Anubhav translates as experience, vangi as novelty. The title could be translated as ‘Novel Experiences’.
93 ‘frock-coat’ English word in the original.
94 Located at 427, West Street, a lane off Grey Street in West Central Durban.
95 ‘to watch me’ added in the English translation.
96 ‘There was no work other than related to the case or that of the clerks.’ To add.
97 ‘Bank Managers’ English in the original.
98 ‘With all these advantages he had one disadvantage—’ added in the English translation.
99 ‘Islamic’ added in the English translation.
100 On 25 May 1893, the day after his arrival in Durban.
101 ‘which’ in the first edition.
102 This was reported in The Natal Advertiser of 26 May 1893 under the heading ‘An Unwelcome Visitor’. ‘An Indian entered the Court House yesterday afternoon and took a seat at the horseshoe. He was well-dressed, and it was understood that he was an English barrister, on his way to Pretoria, where he is reported to be engaged in an Indian case. He entered the court without removing his head-covering or salaaming, and the Magistrate looked at him with disapproval.’ CWMG, vol. 1, p. 57, footnote 2.
MKG, ‘startled’ to read this report, wrote the same day to the editor of The Natal Advertiser. ‘I am very sorry if His Worship the Magistrate looked at me with disapproval. It is true that on entering the court I neither removed my head-dress nor salammed, but in so doing I had not the slightest idea that I was offending His Worship, or meaning any disrespect to the court. Just as it is a mark of respect amongst the Europeans to take of their hats, in like manner it is in Indians to retain one’s head-dress . . . as to bowing or salaaming as you would call it, I again followed the rule observed in the Bombay High Court.’ CWMG, vol. 1, pp. 57–58. He took up this issue of immense emotive and symbolic significance to the Indian community a decade later. The issue arose from a query by Sir Henry Bale, the chief justice of Natal, in regard to the conduct of an Indian witness, Manorath. MKG stated that Sir Henry had made ‘much ado about nothing’ and the matter had been settled through a judicial pronouncement. ‘He was then able to se
cure a dictum from the judge that the British Indians were not to be forced to either remove their head-dress or their boots, but they were to Salaam on entering the court.’ CWMG, vol. 4, p. 26.
103 ‘the Samskrit’ added in the English translation.
104 ‘and it became a common appellation for all Indians’ added in the English translation.
105 ‘Mussalman’ added in the English translation.
106 ‘Being obliged to take off’ changed in the revised edition; in the first edition ‘Taking off’.
107 ‘waiter’ English word in the original.
108 ‘girmitiya’ in the original.
109 ‘demeaning’ in the first edition.
110 ‘of my stay in South Africa’ added in the English translation.
111 ‘at all in South Africa’ added in the English translation.
112 In 1899 MKG wrote about Subhan Godfrey: ‘Though his own education is not very liberal, he is most anxious to bring up his children in the best possible way. All his children but one have been educated in the Government Schools. He sent his eldest son to Calcutta, gave him a university training there, and has now sent him to Glasgow to study medicine. His second son is the first Indian to have passed the competitive examination for the Civil Service of the Colony . . . It may be stated that his family has been living in the European style. All the children have been brought up from their infancy to speak English, and naturally they speak it very well.’ CWMG, vol. 3, p. 98.
113 The third son of Subhan Godfrey, called to the Bar in 1907. Appeared as an attorney for MKG in a trial in 1913.
114 ‘since has been’ in the first edition.
115 In the Gujarati original the year is not mentioned. It says ‘last year’, which would make the year of deputation 1925; the first edition has ‘last year’, changed to 1924 in the revised edition, which was the correct date.
116 Rustomji Jivanji Ghorkhodu (1861–1924) arrived in Natal in 1880 and by 1893 was one of the wealthiest Indians there. He was founder member and vice-president of the Natal Indian Congress, active satyagrahi and repeatedly went to prison. Rustomji was an appointed trustee of the Phoenix Settlement in 1912. In his obituary MKG wrote, ‘With the passing of Parsee Rustomjee . . . India has lost a true soldier. So far as I am concerned, I have lost a true friend.’ CWMG, vol. 25, p. 372.
117 Adamji Miyakhan, leading Indian businessman, vice-president of the Natal Indian Congress, died in India in 1907.
118 ‘for which I had come to South Africa’ added in the English translation.
119 ‘he’ in the first edition.
120 ‘out of court’ added in the English translation.
121 MKG left Durban for Pretoria on 31 May 1893.
122 ‘beddings’ in the first edition.
123 ‘waiting room’ English word in the original.
124 ‘over-coat’ English word in the original.
125 ‘might’ in the first edition.
126 In a discussion with an American missionary, John Mott, in December 1938 MKG described this as ‘a creative experience’, one that changed the course of his life. He said: ‘My active non-violence began from that date.’ CWMG, vol. 68, p. 171.
127 ‘somehow’ to add.
128 David Hunter was then the general manager of the Natal Government Railways.
129 Edward Campbell was the station master at Pietermaritzburg.
130 MKG reached Charlestown on 2 June 1893. The rails did not reach Johannesburg until 1895. The stage-coach was operated by George Heys & Co. The fare was £4, 10s.
131 ‘the “leader”, as the white man in charge of the coach was called’ added in the English translation. The original has ‘coachman’.
132 ‘for’ in the first edition.
133 ‘like an obstinate ghost’ to add.
134 ‘and they’ in the first edition.
135 ‘experience’ in the first edition.
136 Then located at the corner of Rissik and Pritchard streets.
137 Partner and manager of Muhammad Kasam Kamruddin’s firm and first chairman of the British Indian Association of the Transvaal. Satyagrahi in the first phase, arrested on 22 January 1908 and remanded. Released after provisional settlement at the end of January 1908.
138 ‘effort’ in the first edition.
139 ‘had’ in the first edition.
140 ‘frock-coat’ and ‘necktie’ in English in the original.
141 4 June 1893.
142 ‘gentleman’ to add.
143 ‘Family Hotel’ English in the original.
144 ‘waiter’ English in the original.
145 Albert Weir Baker (1856–1939), carpenter, lawyer and lay preacher. In 1893 he was a member of the South African General Mission, which he parted with in 1896 and established his own work, the South African Compounds and Interior Mission. See his autobiography, Grace Triumphant (Glasgow: 1939) and James D. Hunt, Gandhi and the Non-Conformists: Encounters in South Africa (New Delhi: Promila and Co., 1986). The chambers of Baker and Lindsay were off Church Street.
146 Hendrick Cloete. Sheth Tyeb Haji Khan Muhammad’s case was represented by Findlay and Rice.
147 ‘for such as you’ added in the English translation.
148 ‘lay’ added in the English translation.
149 The original has ‘Padri’, literally a Christian priest.
150 ‘He has still kept up correspondence with me.’ In the first edition.
151 ‘from me my religious views’ in the first edition.
152 The South Africa General Mission was established in 1889 as Cape General Mission by W. Spencer Walton with support from Rev. Andrew Murray and Mrs. M.S. Osborne-Howe, who had established a series of institutions for missionary work in Cape Town.
153 ‘I deliver’ in the first edition.
154 In the original an explanation of the word ‘light’ is provided in parenthesis, which would translate as ‘enlightenment of knowledge’.
155 Sheth Haji Muhammad Haji Jesoab.
156 Clara Harris, Georgina Gabb and Michael Coates. Coates was about thirty years of age in 1893 and one of the earliest members of the South Africa General Mission.
157 ‘until my shelf was filled with them’ added in the English translation.
158 Dr. Joseph Parker, The People’s Bible: Discourses Upon the Holy Scriptures (London: 1889). According to James Hunt, MKG had attended Dr. Parker’s weekday services in London. See Gandhi and the Non-Conformists, p. 31.
159 Arthur T. Pierson, Many Infallible Proofs: The Evidence of Christianity (New York: 1886).
160 Bishop Joseph Butler, The Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature (1736).
161 ‘I would narrate all these to Coates.’ To add.
162 ‘five to seven’ in the original.
163 ‘necklace of Tulasi-beads’ translates kanthi, literally, one that is worn around the neck, usually made of tulsi (basil) beads.
164 ‘my’ added in the English translation.
165 ‘voluntarily’ in the first edition.
166 ‘and showed me that he was undisturbed by the thought of them.’ Added in English translation.
167 ‘of atonement’ added in the English translation.
168 ‘lay elsewhere. They’ added in the English translation.
169 In Navajivan, the chapter ‘Narayan Hemchandra’ was published along with this chapter, which was subsequently incorporated as Chapter XXII of Part I.
170 ‘in Pretoria’ added in the English translation.
171 ‘in the Transvaal’ added in the English translation.
172 ‘as a matter of fact’ added in the English translation.
173 ‘and observe’ to add.
174 ‘to be truthful’ added in the English translation.
175 ‘business’ added in the English translation.
176 ‘But God had’ in the first edition.
177 On 23 November 1923 as a prisoner at the Yeravada Central Prison MKG commenced
writing Dakshin Africa Na Satyagraha No Itihas in Gujarati, which appeared serially in Navajivan from 13 April 1924 to 22 November 1925. It was published as a book in two parts in 1924 and 1925. The authorized English translation, Satyagraha In South Africa, by Valji Govindji Desai was published by S. Ganesan, Madras in 1928. CWMG, vol. 29, pp. 1–269, carries the text of the third impression published by Navajivan in 1961.
178 By Ordinance 1 of 1885.
179 According to Maureen Swan, there were only nine Indian merchants in Orange Free State. See Maureen Swan, Gandhi: The South African Experience (Johannesburg: Raven Press, 1985), p. 38.
180 The Transvaal was subject to British suzerainty under the Pretoria Convention of 1881, which allowed it to regulate the conditions regarding the presence of Indians. According to Law 3 of 1885, ‘so-called Coolies, Arabs, Malays and Mahomedan subjects of the Turkish Empire’ could not vote or acquire new land. Settlers were required to pay £25 registration fee within eight days of entry. See Burnett Britton, Gandhi Arrives in South Africa (Greenleaf Books: Canton, Maine, 1999), p. 29.
181 Dr. Albert E.J. Krause was the attorney general. He obtained his law degree from Göttingen University where he wrote a dissertation titled ‘Über die “Transmissio ex capite in integrum restitutionis”’. I am grateful to Andrew Mussell, the archivist of the Hon. Society of Gray’s Inn, for this information.
182 Dr. Krause was not called to the Bar from the Inns of Court in England.
183 Dr. Krause’s brother Hon’ble F.E.T. Krause recalled in 1948, ‘I remember an incident which occurred when my brother had invited him to dinner one night. The natives serving at the table, protested at being called upon to attend to an Indian, and it had been explained to them that Gandhiji was a great man, just like a native chief, that they were prepared to continue their service.’ In Chandrashankar Shukla (ed.), Reminiscences of Gandhiji (Bombay: Vora and Co., 1951), p. 160.
184 Frederick Edward Trangott Krause of the Middle Temple, joined 5 June 1890, called to the Bar 14 June 1893, described in the Inn’s records as ‘5th son of Dr. Carl Johann Gottlieb’.