An Autobiography or the Story of My Experiments with Truth
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344 Louis Kuhne (1835–1901), German naturopath and vegetarian, devised methods of cold water hydropathy to detoxify the body, author of The New Science of Healing (1899).
345 ‘if I were to lose the child’ to add.
346 ‘faith’ added in the 1940 edition.
347 ‘in cold water’ to add.
348 ‘the’ added in the 1940 edition.
349 ‘Bhai’ in the original.
350 ‘So reassured’ to add at the beginning.
351 ‘was thus’ in the first edition.
352 ‘moot’ in the original. The original has charcha (‘debate’) within brackets. The word ‘moot’ has Scandinavian origins, meaning a meeting. The present usage is derived from the practice instituted by the Inns of Court in the sixteenth century where ‘pupils’ would present legal arguments on a given set of factual circumstances or legal points before senior lawyers or judges.
353 ‘a little snooze and’ to add.
354 ‘fashion’ English word in the original.
355 ‘and I’ in the first edition.
356 The first message was received before 3 November 1902. ‘Yes, I received a cablegram from Natal asking me if I could go to London and thence to the Transvaal. I replied “No” unless it was absolutely necessary . . . I have not heard in reply to the cable from me.’ CWMG, vol. 3, p. 314. By 8 November a reply had been received with remittance of funds. On 14 November MKG conveyed his decision to Gokhale: ‘When I was just feeling that I had settled down in Bombay, I received a message from Natal asking me to go there . . . I propose to leave by the first steamer available. That would be probably the 20th instant.’ CWMG, vol. 3, p. 316.
357 Maganlal Gandhi (1883–1928), son of Khushalchand Gandhi; the other person was Anandlal Amrutlal Gandhi, a solicitor. The two of them initially opened a shop at Tongat.
358 ‘Not that I could secure other service for them, I would not even if I could.’ In the first edition.
359 ‘(so I presume)’ to add.
360 ‘wife and’ added in the English translation.
361 MKG sailed from Bombay on 25 November 1902, reaching Durban on Christmas day.
362 The date fixed was 26 December 1902, Friday—a day of prayer for many members of the delegation. MKG wrote to the mayor of Durban, expressing this difficulty and seeking a time for Saturday. The delegation waited upon Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, the Secretary of State for Colonies on Saturday 27 December.
363 For the memorial, see CWMG, vol. 3, pp. 317–22.
1 The main purpose of the visit was to obtain from South Africa a substantial contribution towards the ruinous cost of the war, which would have been levied as war indemnity. Given the policy of assimilation, the British did not wish to impose war indemnity. The British Imperial Government obtained a loan of £35,000,000 at 3 per cent rate of interest from British Transvaalers as an equitable return for the benefits they had obtained from the war.
2 ‘, if possible,’ to add.
3 In the original a colloquial expression, ekda ghuntva, literally, to write and rewrite numerical 1.
4 ‘the rule of might being right or’ added in the English translation.
5 ‘it was’ in the first edition.
6 ‘an army of intermediaries or’ added in the English translation.
7 MKG probably left on 31 December 1902.
8 For the text of the memorial, see CWMG, vol. 3, pp. 325–29.
9 ‘so they were’ in the first edition.
10 On 6 January 1903 Sheth Tyeb Haji Khan Muhammad under his signature sent two representations drafted by MKG, one to the colonial secretary, Transvaal, and the other to the private secretary to the governor, urging them to permit ‘Mr. Advocate M.K. Gandhi’ on whose advice the Indians were being guided.
11 ‘Autocrats’ translates ‘nawabshahi’, the rule/manners of the nawab.
12 E.J. Burgess, earlier supervisor of Indian Immigrants, was now supervisor of Asiatics and Captain Hamilton Fowles was the chief secretary of permits and registrar of Asiatics.
13 According to Pyarelal, one Sardar Ladha Singh was appointed as a secret agent to shadow MKG. See Pyarelal, Mahatma Gandhi: The Birth of Satyagraha (Ahmedabad: Navajivan, 1986), p. 10.
14 ‘for a short time’ to add.
15 Peace Preservation Ordinance No. 38 of 1902.
16 ‘one clause of’ to add before ‘which’.
17 There was no provision to interrogate a person on mere suspicion under the Ordinance.
18 ‘between devil and the deep sea’: In the original, there is the idiomatic expression sudi vacche sopari, literally, ‘like a betel nut in a nutcracker’.
19 Assistant colonial secretary, W.H. Moor, formerly of the Ceylon Civil Service.
20 ‘would’ in the first edition.
21 ‘I liked the spirited reply, but I also knew that the spirit was of no avail.’ In the first edition.
22 ‘the late’ to add.
23 The deputation waited upon Mr. Chamberlain on 7 January 1903.
24 ‘reaping the reward’ in the first edition.
25 MKG was uncertain about his plans at least till 6 February 1903. He wrote to Chhaganlal Gandhi, ‘There is a great uncertainty about me. Despite my best efforts, I am not in a position to give you more satisfactory news . . . It is no bed of roses here. I cannot offer more definite news.’ CWMG, vol. 3, p. 336.
26 ‘set the ball rolling,’ added in the English translation.
27 MKG enrolled as an attorney and not as an advocate. Under the Administration of Justice Proclamation, a legal practitioner had to make this choice; advocates had ‘right to audience’ in all courts, while attorneys had a limited right to audience. The attorneys were like solicitors. MKG filed the petition to be admitted to the Supreme Court of Transvaal on 31 March 1903, which was granted on 14 April 1903. He was administered the oath as an attorney by Mr. Justice Wessels. See DiSalvo, M.K. Gandhi, Attorney at Law, p. 162. The Law Society did scrutinize MKG’s application but under the provisions could not bring itself to oppose it. Their minutes bear this out: ‘re-Admission: M.K. Gandhi. It was reported that this gentleman, who is an Indian, has been admitted as an Attorney of the Supreme Court of this Colony, but as his qualifications were sufficient and as there was nothing in the Administration of Justice Proclamation against admission of such persons, the Council did not think anything could be done in the matter’. Ibid., p. 163.
28 Lewis Walter Ritch, articled clerk under MKG, in 1902 manager of a commercial firm, later passed his Bar examinations in London, Hon. Secretary of the South African British Committee set up in 1906, was solicitor in MKG’s office from 1911.
29 Lewis Ritch and estate agent C.H. Kew found Court Chambers on 15, Rissik Street, adjacent to the High Court and the magistrate’s court located in Government Square. Eric Itzkin, in Gandhi’s Johannesburg: Birthplace of Satyagraha, has shown that till 1904 MKG occupied Nos. 25 and 26 Court Chambers, in 1908 he occupied 21 to 24 Court Chambers (p. 13). MKG lived in rented rooms behind the chambers at the southern end of Rissik Street. Joseph Doke describes the interiors of the chambers: ‘The office, at the corner of Rissik and Anderson streets, I found to be like any other offices . . . The first room was given up to a lady-typist; the second, into which I was ushered, was the Sanctum Sanctorum. It was meagerly furnished and dusty. A few pictures were scattered along the walls. They were chiefly photographs of no great merit. The Indian Stretcher Bearers Corps was in evidence—photographs of Mrs. Besant, Sir William Wilson Hunter, and Justice Ranade—several separate Indian portraits—and a beautiful picture of Jesus Christ. Some indifferent chairs, and shelves filled with law books completed the inventory.’ Doke, Gandhi: A Patriot in South Africa, p. 10.
30 ‘Before I proceed with my narrative of’ in the first edition.
31 ‘and of the dealings’ in the first edition.
32 ‘discussed with me matters for’ in the first edition.
33 ‘policy’ English word in the original.
34 �
�But the changed mode of my life in South Africa altered my outlook.’ In the first edition.
35 ‘wife and’ added in the English translation.
36 ‘. . . India and so I had decided that I should have . . . with me and no longer impose separation upon them, and that I should earn enough to support them.’ In the first edition.
37 ‘This train of reasoning’ in the first edition.
38 ‘such’ added in the 1940 edition.
39 ‘had been’ in the first edition.
40 The group of theosophists included Miss Bissicks (who ran the Alexandra Tea Room), Lewis Ritch, Herbert Kitchin, an engineer who settled at the Phoenix, Lewis Playford, the chief magistrate of Johannesburg, and William Wyberg, the commissioner of mines. Itzkin, Gandhi’s Johannesburg, p. 21.
41 MKG lectured on Hinduism to the Johannesburg Lodge of the Theosophical Society on 18 August 1903; the meeting took place at the Masonic Hall on 95, Jeppe Street (ibid.). In March 1905 MKG gave four lectures on religion at the invitation of the Theosophical Society. The lectures were held at the Masonic Temple, then located at 80, Plein Street. The Star of 10 March 1905 reported on the speech (ibid., p. 25).
42 ‘self-introspection’ in the first edition.
43 ‘were trying hard’ in the first edition.
44 ‘very helpful’ in the first edition.
45 ‘ancient’ to add.
46 ‘them through translations’ in the first edition.
47 ‘being believers as they were’ in the first edition.
48 ‘impressions of’ in the first edition.
49 ‘Triton among the minnows’ is a line from Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, Act III, scene 1. It translates the original idiomatic expression ‘in a land bereft of trees, a castor-bean plant is the prime minister’.
50 Interpretation of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra, first published in 1896.
51 Manibhai Nabhubhai Dwivedi (1858–98), philosopher, poet, for some time professor of philosophy at Samaldas College, Bhavnagar. His Rajyoga was published in 1885.
52 ‘had with me’ in the first edition.
53 ‘The operation took me thirty-five minutes’ added in the English translation.
54 ‘I repeated them during the bath.’ To add.
55 ‘the increase of other work’ in the first edition.
56 ‘birth and nursing of satyagraha’ in the first edition.
57 ‘Gita had on the friends with whom I read it,’ in the first edition.
58 ‘the meanings of’ added in the 1940 edition.
59 ‘What was the meaning of making no distinction between’ in the first edition.
60 ‘Was I to burn my boats, give up all’ in the first edition.
61 ‘trustee’ English word in the original. The Gujarati language does not have a word for trustee.
62 ‘always offered’ in the first edition.
63 ‘all future savings’ in the first edition.
64 See CWMG, vol. 6, pp. 430–35.
65 ‘It only needed that the meaning of’ in the first edition.
66 ‘communication with me’ in the first edition.
67 ‘my brother’ in the first edition.
68 ‘excessive’ in the first edition.
69 ‘cabled to me’ in the first edition.
70 ‘indelible impressions’ in the first edition.
71 ‘missionary’ translates ‘prachar’, literally, propaganda.
72 This restaurant was run by Adolf Ziegler. Pyarelal, The Birth of Satyagraha, vol. III, p. 358.
73 ‘began visiting’ in the first edition.
74 ‘could not last for any length of time as’ in the first edition.
75 Miss Ada Bissicks. The restaurant, located on the first floor of Livingstone Building, 18 Rissik Street, was named The Alexandra Tea Room. Eric Itzkin, Gandhi’s Johannesburg, p. 11. H.S.L. Polak met MKG in this tea room. For MKG’s letter to Miss Bissicks, see CWMG, vol. 5, p. 33.
76 ‘knew little’ in the first edition.
77 This was Budree Ahir, originally from Bihar, arrived as an indentured labourer in 1881; after completion of his indenture amassed considerable property in the Transvaal, was part of the deputation that saw Mr. Chamberlain; a satyagrahi, arrested on 25 September 1913 and again on 30 September 1913; sentenced to three months of hard labour.
78 These lines are in Hindustani in the original.
79 ‘client friends’ in the original.
80 ‘and sit at home’ to add.
81 ‘able to find another thousand pounds for any similar loss’ in the first edition.
82 Dr. P.J. Mehta visited MKG in 1898.
83 This association probably owes its origins to Dr. Edward Hooker Dewey (1837–1904) who in 1900 published The No-Breakfast Plan and the Fasting Cure (London: L.N. Fowler and Co., 1900).
84 Adolf Just (1859–1936), Return to Nature: Paradise Regained, translated into English in 1903.
85 ‘, wet’ to add.
86 ‘For one thing,’ added in the English translation.
87 This chapter appeared in Navajivan on 26 June 1927, when MKG was suffering from high blood pressure.
88 In Gujarati, Mari jindagi na karano hu janu chu. MD’s translation brings clarity, but a literal translation would be ‘I know the reasons of my life.’
89 ‘gospel truth’ translates veda vakya, literally, ‘a statement from the Veda’.
90 ‘and my views on the subject’ to add.
91 ‘General Knowledge about Health’, a series of thirty-four articles spread over CWMG, vols 11 and 12. These were later translated into Hindi and based on the Hindi version was A Guide to Health, an English adaption by A. Rama Iyer, published by S. Ganesan, Madras, in July 1921. In August–December 1942, during his imprisonment at the Aga Khan Palace, Poona, MKG wrote in Gujarati what became in Dr. Sushila Nayar’s translation A Key to Health, published by Navajivan in 1948. This book, according to MKG, though not based on Indian Opinion articles, did not fundamentally differ from them.
92 ‘both in the East and in the West, who have never seen Indian Opinion’ added in the English translation.
93 ‘and shame’ to add.
94 In the original there are two proverbs, the other translates as ‘a man burps as he eats.’
95 This was in August 1918; in a letter of 12 August he wrote, ‘Nor did I exercise self-restraint in deciding what to eat; I ate ghens. If I had taken vegetable soup only, the painful result would certainly not have followed. Today I am too weak to get up or walk.’ CWMG, vol. 15, p. 18.
96 ‘chemical’ to add.
97 The Charaka Samhita, a foundational text of Ayurveda, consists of eight books and 120 chapters. Its date of composition is uncertain, dated between the fourth century BC and second century AD.
98 ‘beef-tea’ and ‘brandy’, English words in the original.
99 This was a suggestion made by Kasturba. MKG wrote in a letter; ‘Only four days ago, she was making herself miserable about milk, and, on the impulse of the moment, asked me why, if I might not take cow’s milk, I would not take goat’s milk. This went home.’ CWMG, vol. 15, pp. 70–71.
100 The Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act, 1919—based on Justice S.A.T. Rowlatt Committee’s (1918) recommendation and passed by the Imperial Legislative Council—extended indefinitely measures of preventive detention, incarceration without trial and judicial review enacted under the Defence of India Act, 1915.
101 In the original there is a play between rakshan (protection) and bhakshan (devouring). ‘Instead of being protected they were being devoured.’
102 ‘kind and’ to add.
103 ‘jury’ English word in the original. In the earlier instance jury translates the word panch.
104 The two officials were Cecil Price Jackson, supervisor of Asiatics in the Asiatic Permit Department, and Charles Walton, a clerk in the same department.
105 The case was tried in the court of Judge H.H. Jordan.
106 Mr. Stellard appeared for the defence.
107 This phrase was introduced by MD in the English translation. Its source is St. Augustine’s Letter 211 (c. 424 AD) that contains the phrase cum dilectione hominum et odio vitiorum, which translates roughly to ‘With love for mankind and hatred of sins’.
108 ‘Creator’ translates ‘Brahma’.
109 ‘Indians of other faiths, whether’ added in the English translation.
110 Vincent Lawrence.
111 Panchama means the fifth. The earliest references to the fifth caste or panchama castes ‘are, in the Madras Census Report, 1871, summed up as being “that great division of the people, spoken of by themselves as the fifth caste”’. In the Madras Presidency ‘the Panchamas were, in the Department of Public Instruction, called “Paraiyas and kindred classes” till 1893. From Edgar Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India (Madras: Government Press, 1909). The communities classified as panchama were outside the pale of caste and hence considered ‘untouchable’.
112 ‘also’ to add.
113 ‘with the intention of pushing her out’ added in the English translation.
114 ‘Mrs. Gandhi’ in the first edition.
115 ‘the practice of’ to add.
116 ‘or that there is no blemish in my wife,’ to add.
117 ‘Mrs. Gandhi’ in the first edition, and Kasturbai in Gujarati.
118 ‘spiritual’ to add.
119 ‘of Experiments with Truth’ to add.
120 ‘books,’ to add.
121 ‘It is perhaps now somewhat easy to understand why’ added in the English translation.
122 ‘and difficulty’ to add.
123 ‘being tendered by me of certain events in my life’ added in the English translation.
124 ‘hostile’ added in the English translation.
125 ‘and food for reflection’ added in the English translation.
126 In the original the order is Swami Anand and Jairamdas.
127 ‘in Durban’ added in the English translation.