by M K Gandhi
240 ‘When the main building was ready,’ to add.
241 ‘thirteen’ in the original.
242 The Phoenix Settlement was established on 26 June 1904. For the announcement of the scheme, see CWMG, vol. 4, pp. 319–21.
243 ‘my way of thinking and’ to add.
244 Maganlal Khushalchand Gandhi (1883–1928), nephew of MKG, described as ‘the soul of the Ashram’. He went to South Africa in December 1902 and lived as a trader in Tongat. He and his wife, Santok, joined the Phoenix Settlement and became central to the life of the community and the International Printing Press. He led the ‘Phoenix Party’ of about forty-five boys to India in 1914 and lived at various places, including Shantiniketan. He was the manager of the Satyagraha Ashram and led the technical experiments in weaving and spinning. At his untimely death in 1928 MKG expressed his grief: ‘I am more widowed the she.’ A bunch of his letters have recently been edited for publication: Tridip Suhrud and Uma Gohil (eds), Tongat Thi Patro (1903–1904) (Ahmedabad: Navajivan, forthcoming).
245 ‘having stayed at Phoenix for longer or shorter duration’ to add.
246 ‘matchless’ to add.
247 For aims of the Phoenix Settlement, see CWMG, vol. 11, pp. 321–22.
248 ‘published at the Settlement’ in the first edition. The last issue of Indian Opinion was published on 4 August 1961.
249 ‘the changes made’ added in the English translation.
250 ‘engine’ English word in the original.
251 ‘But as it had’ in the first edition.
252 ‘oil-engine’ in the original.
253 ‘from Durban’ added in the English translation.
254 ‘but to no avail’ in the first edition.
255 ‘But it is no use shedding tears over it.’ In the first edition.
256 ‘it is’ in the first edition.
257 ‘possible to do’ in the first edition.
258 ‘and seek their help’ to add.
259 ‘And lo and behold!’ added in the English translation.
260 ‘I forgot which’ added in the English translation.
261 ‘to the station’ to add.
262 ‘intervals’ in the first edition.
263 ‘by manual work’ added in the English translation.
264 ‘but I have also found that’ in the first edition.
265 ‘inspite of ourselves’ in the first edition.
266 The last line of this paragraph, ‘I have always thought that he was not conscious of his own capacity,’ appears here in the original.
267 ‘On return from Johannesburg’ in the original, which is an apparent mistake, corrected in the translation.
268 ‘with enthusiasm’ to add.
269 ‘notice’ English word in the original.
270 A farewell was organized for him on 9 March 1905.
271 William J. MacIntyre. He was to play an important role in the first test case of a non-European riding the newly inaugurated electric tramcars in Johannesburg. He and a wealthy Indian merchant, Ebrahim Saleji Coovadia, boarded a tramcar and since Coovadia was not a servant of MacIntyre’s, he was refused a ride. See DiSalvo, M.K. Gandhi, Attorney at Law, pp. 181–85, for the details of this test case.
272 ‘it will take a few more chapters before I describe’ in the first edition.
273 In the original, Jene Ram Rakhe. This is from a poem by medieval Gujarati saint-poet Dhiro Bhagat (1753–1825). The poem also forms part of the Ashram Bhajanavali, a book of hymns that formed part of the daily Ashram prayers.
274 ‘and settling there’ to add.
275 ‘and so’ in the first edition.
276 ‘her and’ added in the English translation. They reached South Africa in the last quarter of 1904.
277 ‘had looked after him’ in the first edition.
278 ‘had had him’ in the first edition.
279 ‘therefore landed’ in the first edition. ‘in Johannesburg’ to add.
280 ‘as soon as we reached home’ added in the English translation.
281 ‘would do’ in the first edition.
282 ‘and other’ added in the English translation.
283 ‘on women and men, young and old’ to add.
284 ‘about’ in the first edition.
285 ‘for their experiments’ added in the English translation.
286 ‘honest’ added in the English translation.
287 The house was at 11, Albermarle Street on the eastern limit of the city. The majority of Indians lived in western Johannesburg. The rental was arranged by Charles Kew, the agent who had secured for MKG his chambers in Rissik Street. Polak’s wife, Millie Graham Polak, describes the house: ‘The house was situated in a fairly good middle-class neighbourhood, on the outskirts of town. It was a double-storied, detached, eight-roomed building of the modern villa type, surrounded by a garden, and having in the front, open spaces of the Kopies. The upstairs verandah was roomy enough to sleep on, if one wished to do so, and, indeed, in warm weather, it was often so used.’ In Mr. Gandhi: The Man (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1931), p. 18. This arrangement was not done without any opposition though. In October 1947 Charles Kew wrote to MKG, recalling how the residents had tried to keep him out of the whites-only suburb. Displaying ‘considerable indignation they tried before you took possession to offset the tenancy but the owner of the house supported me, and in a few weeks the agitation died down’ Itzkin, Gandhi’s Johannesburg, p. 61. On 5 June 1905 MKG wrote to the owner M.H. Thurston to seek reduction in the rent and to have the chimney in the dining room repaired. See CWMG, vol. 4, p. 462.
288 ‘The lady who was soon to be’ added in the 1940 edition.
289 ‘future’ to add.
290 She reached Johannesburg on 30 December 1905.
291 ‘Christmas Day’ in the original, an apparent error.
292 ‘The day following was New Year’s Day, a public holiday.’ Added in the English translation.
293 ‘who hitherto did not have much experience of such kind’ to add.
294 ‘And let it be remembered that mine would be considered an essentially heterogeneous family, where people of all kinds and temperaments were freely admitted.’ Added in the English translation.
295 Ada West, née Pywell. They had two children, Hilda and Harry. Albert West’s sister was also called Ada, known to Phoenix community as ‘Devi Behn’.
296 ‘Indian’ to add.
297 These included Maganlal and Santok Gandhi, Chhaganlal and Kashi Gandhi, Sam Govindasaami Raju’s family, Anandlal Gandhi and his family and Purshottamdas Desai and Ani.
298 ‘iron’ added in the English translation.
299 ‘because of the deficiency in this regard’ to add.
300 The reference is to Harilal Gandhi’s ‘semi-public’ letter of 31 March 1915. He wrote, ‘In 1906, at the age of nineteen, I implored and beseeched you, I made innumerable arguments and pleaded that I should be allowed to chart the course of my life. I wanted to study, to gain knowledge; I had no other desire. I demanded that I should be sent to England. I wept and wandered aimlessly for a year but you paid no heed. You told me that character building should precede everything else.’ Chandubhai Bhagubhai Dalal, Harilal Gandhi: A Life, translated from the original Gujarati by Tridip Suhrud (Delhi: Orient Blackswan, 2007), p. 131. The full text of the letter is in Appendix 1, pp. 127–45.
301 Uma Dhupelia-Mesthrie writes of Manilal, ‘As Manilal approached his seventeenth year, he began a dialogue with his father about his education. He was full of questions: What class must I tell people I am in? People ask me—what are you going to do with your life? What is the purpose of all the activity at Phoenix? Should not one be learning a skill to earn a living? Gandhi had answers to all the boy’s queries. “You are in Bapu’s class,” he was told.’ Gandhi’s Prisoner?, p. 75.
302 ‘not want of care on my part, but’ added in the English translation.
303 ‘purity being’ added in the English translation.
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304 ‘It is its uniqueness.’ To add.
305 ‘the desirability or otherwise of’ added in the English translation.
306 ‘and the world’ to add.
307 ‘advance’ in the first edition.
308 ‘In mid-1906, the Natal colonialist in the face of rising Zulu resentment against the imposition of a “Poll Tax” unleashed one of the most brutal and bloody armed campaign to suppression the challenge to British colonial rule. The protest and subsequent armed rebellion against the tax has become popularly known as the Bambatha Rebellion after Chief Bambatha kaMancinza, head of the Zondi, a Zulu clan . . . Chief Bambatha, with the support of other chiefs in the area, refused to accept a new tax that was being implemented by the colonial administration. Together with a small group of supporters, he launched a series of attacks against the colonial forces, using the Nkandla Forest as a base. The campaign . . . culminated in a battle . . . at Mome Gorge, where Bambatha and his followers were finally defeated.
‘In 1887 Zululand was annexed by the colony of Natal and the Zulu were gradually stripped of most of their arable land. There was widespread poverty, made worse by a series of natural disasters. In 1903 an epidemic of East Coast fever decimated the cattle, there were swarms of locusts and enormous damage was caused by a severe hailstorm in 1905. All these factors led to a serious economic depression. Africans had to pay a Hut Tax and a Dog Tax, and were subjected to a system of forced labour called isibalo, which caused widespread hardship and resentment. White farmers occupied more and more land, establishing farms and sugar plantations. After the South African War there was a shortage of agricultural labour. Rather than work for the white farmers, the black workforce was increasingly attracted to the gold mines of the Witwatersrand, where they could earn better wages. In 1905, in an attempt to increase the supply of labour and force more black men into becoming agricultural labourers, the Natal government under Charles Smythe, imposed a Poll Tax of £1 on all men over the age of eighteen. To pay the tax, African men would have to work for cash.
‘The Bambatha Rebellion claimed the lives of 4000 Zulu. More than 7000 people were imprisoned and 4000 were flogged. [This] was the last armed resistance against white rule before the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910.’ Source: http://www.sahistory.org.za.
309 ‘correctness of the term’ to add.
310 ‘in times of crisis’ to add.
311 ‘He sent immediately an affirmative reply.’ In the first edition. In a meeting held on 24 April 1906 the Natal Indian Congress resolved to offer to raise an ambulance corps, which was communicated to the colonial secretary on 25 April; see CWMG, vol. 5, p. 292. The offer was accepted on 30 May 1906, see ibid., p. 348.
312 ‘acceptance of my offer’ in the first edition.
313 ‘her full co-operation in’ in the first edition.
314 The Indian Opinion of 16 June 1916 gave the following list: M.K. Gandhi (Sgt. Major), U.M. Shetlat (Sgt.), H.I. Joshi (Sgt.), S.B. Medh (Sgt.), Khan Mahomed, Mahomed, Sheikh Dada Mian, Pooti Naiken, Appalsamy, Kunjee, Sheikh Madar, Mahomed, Alwar, Muthusamy Copoosamy, Ajadhyasing, Kistana, Ali, Bhailal, Jamaluddin. See Indian Opinion, vol. IV, no. 24, p. 398. CWMG, vol. 5, p. 368, adds the name of Prabhu Hari (Corporal). The photograph of the Indian Ambulance Corps on the page facing p. 368 has twenty men and not twenty-four as mentioned in the Autobiography. Of these, thirteen were ex-indentured, two were engine drivers, one goldsmith, three agents and bookkeepers and one a barrister.
315 ‘Sergeant Major’, ‘sergeant’ and ‘corporal’ English words in the original.
316 ‘unspeakable abuse’ translates kan na kida khare, literally, abuse such that ‘worms would fall from the ears’.
317 Harry Sparks was among the main organizers of the demonstration against the landing of the passengers of S.S. Courland and S.S. Naderi in 1896 that had led to the assault on MKG. Apart from being the biggest butcher in the Colony he was also a captain in the Natal Mounted Rifles in the Volunteer Force.
318 James Scott Wylie, attorney of Wylie and Binns, member of the protest committee.
319 ‘Durban’ added in the English translation.
320 ‘gentlemen’ added in the English translation.
321 For MKG’s report from the ‘front’, see CWMG, vol. 5, pp. 368–78.
322 ‘But there was much else to set one thinking.’ Added in the English translation.
323 ‘miles after miles’ to add.
324 ‘family’ added in the English translation.
325 The Ambulance Corps returned to Durban on 20 July 1906.
326 ‘the plunge’ added in the English translation.
327 This was in July 1906. C.B. Dalal gives the date as 20 July 1906, the day he returned to Durban.
328 ‘but does not end there’ added in the English translation.
329 ‘fairly’ added in the English translation.
330 ‘no doubt that man possesses the key’ in the first edition.
331 ‘for the present I have come to the conclusion that’ to add.
332 ‘or freedom from error’ added in the English translation.
333 The advent of satyagraha was in a historic mass meeting of more than 3000 persons (including a delegation of persons of Chinese origin), which took place to oppose the Transvaal Asiatic Law Amendment Ordinance. The Ordinance was published in the Transvaal Government Gazette Extraordinary of 22 August 1906. MKG described the impact of the Ordinance on him: ‘I went up a hill near the house in company of a friend and began to translate the draft Ordinance into Gujarati for Indian Opinion. I shuddered as I read the sections of the Ordinance one after another. I saw nothing in it except hatred of Indians . . . I clearly saw that this was a question of life and death for them. I further saw that even in case of memorials and representations proving fruitless, the community must not sit with folded hands. Better to die than submit to such a law.’ Satyagraha in South Africa, CWMG, vol. 29, p. 83. The Ordinance required every Asiatic of eight years of age or above to register before the Registrar of Asiatics; further they were required as identification to give finger and thumb impressions and produce such registration permits whenever asked for. Failure to register was a punishable offence, and the sentence included deportation.
The meeting of the Asiatics was called by the Transvaal British Indian Association under the chairmanship of Abdul Gani. The meeting took place at the Empire Theatre on 11 September 1906. During the course of this meeting, one of the speakers, Sheth Haji Habib, proposed to administer an oath in the name of God and with God as witness. MKG explained the nature of an oath made in the name of God and with Him as witness and ordinary resolution, however deliberately made. The meeting resolved to oppose the Ordinance, if it became law, in the name of God. The origins of satyagraha are in this event.
The Resolution 4 adopted by the assembly reads: ‘British Indians here assembled solemnly and regretfully resolve that, rather than submit to the galling, tyrannous, and un-British requirements laid down in the above Draft Ordinance, every British Indian in the Transvaal shall submit himself to imprisonment and shall continue so to do until it shall please His Most Gracious Majesty the King–Emperor to grant relief.’ CWMG, vol. 5, p. 423.
The Empire Theatre was destroyed in an accidental fire the day the satyagraha pledge was taken.
334 This meeting took place on 7 July 1909 at Germiston. MKG was invited to speak on ‘The Ethics of Passive Resistance’ by the Germiston Literary and Debating Society. The meeting, attended by leading citizens of Germiston, took place at the council chamber and the president of the society, Linton Jones, presided. See CWMG, vol. 9, pp. 243–44.
335 ‘, unencumbered’ to add.
336 For the offer of the prize, see CWMG, vol. 7, p. 435, and for the announcement of the result, see CWMG, vol. 8, pp. 22–23.
337 ‘in that sub-continent’ added in the English translation.
338 ‘with the title History of Satyagraha in South Africa’ to add.
339
It was published by S. Ganesan of Madras in 1928.
340 ‘Gujarati’ to add.
341 ‘and I was equally’ in the first edition.
342 ‘utmost possible’ to add.
343 ‘holiday’ translates the original term tithi, which is indicative of lunar movements—each movement of twelve degrees indicating a tithi—here, a day of observance.
344 ‘I began with a fruit diet’ added in the English translation.
345 ‘by having only one meal’ to add.
346 ‘startling’ added in the English translation.
347 ‘than its predecessor’ added in the English translation.
348 ‘will not therefore go over’ in the first edition.
349 Kallenbach’s house in Pine Road, designed by Kallenbach and Reynolds, was called The Kraal. Building plans were approved on 28 June 1907. On the back of a photograph of the house Kallenbach wrote in German, ‘The Kraal, our first house, where Gandhi lived with me for several years. In this house the Rev. J. Doke came many times while writing the book about Gandhi, “An Indian Patriot.” 18 September 1928. H.K.’ See Itzkin, Gandhi’s Johannesburg, p. 70. MKG began to live in this house with Kallenbach in March 1908. During his visit to India in 1937 Kallenbach recalled in a conversation with Mahadev Desai, ‘Though we worked in our own offices, we lived in the same rooms—almost in the same bed—and whilst he cooked for us I did the cleaning.’ Harijan, vol. 5, no. 16.
350 ‘are not ashamed to’ added in the English translation.
351 ‘for a few fleeting moments’ added in the English translation.
352 ‘in trying to enjoy the pleasures of sense’ added in the English translation.