An Autobiography or the Story of My Experiments with Truth
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353 The three illnesses referred to here were in November 1908, January 1909 and February–March 1914.
354 ‘or was about to commence’ added in the English translation. MKG was in Volkrust prison at this time.
355 ‘chloroform’, English word in the original.
356 The operation was performed by Dr. Nanji, a Parsi doctor, on 10 January 1909. His wife was a trained nurse.
357 ‘After two or three days’ to add before next sentence.
358 ‘about the patient’ added in the English translation.
359 ‘either in medicine or as food’ to add.
360 ‘beef tea’ in English in the original.
361 ‘denial’ added in the 1940 edition, ‘it’ in the first edition.
362 Probably Manilal Gandhi. See MKG’s letter to him, CWMG, vol. 9, pp. 417–18. ‘I would have preferred Ba’s passing away without the soup, but would not have allowed it to be given to her without her consent.’
363 ‘I consulted him.’ To add.
364 mansa, meat, in the original. In Gujarati meat is often used to indicate all types of non-vegetarian food.
365 ‘with such abominations’ added in the English translation.
366 ‘So we decided to leave the place at once.’ Added in the English translation.
367 ‘My second and third sons’ added in the English translation.
368 ‘my mind has been made up.’ In the first edition.
369 On 27 December 1907 H.F. Papenfus, acting commissioner of police, Transvaal, called MKG for a meeting and informed him that the order of his arrest along with twenty-two others had been received. MKG assured Papenfus that he along with the other defendants would voluntarily appear before the court the next day, 28 December. In the case of Rex vs. Mohandas K. Gandhi, P.J. Schuurman appeared for the prosecution in magistrate H.H. Jordan’s court. MKG represented himself. He was given a notice to leave the Transvaal within forty-eight hours or face arrest under the Asiatic Registration Act. MKG was arrested on 10 January 1908 for defying the court’s orders. During the trial MKG requested the court to give him the maximum penalty, £500 fine and six months’ hard labour. MKG was taken to the Fort Prison Complex on Hospital Hill and lodged in section 4 of the ‘Native Prison’. Their ward could accommodate fifty-one prisoners, but the number increased to 151, and tents had to be pitched in the prison yard. See DiSalvo, M.K. Gandhi, Attorney at Law, pp. 202–13, for the details of the trial.
In what was to become a lifelong pattern, something that MKG looked forward to and often meticulously planned, he used the jail time to read. He records, ‘I borrowed some of Carlyle’s work and the Bible. From a Chinese interpreter who used to visit the place I borrowed a copy of the Koran in English, Huxley’s lectures, biographies of Burns, Johnson and Scott, and Bacon’s essays on civil and moral counsel. I also had some books of my own, those included an edition of the Gita with a commentary by Manilal Nabhubhai, some Tamil books, an Urdu book presented by Maulvi Sahib, the writings of Tolstoy, Ruskin and Socrates.’ CWMG, vol. 8, p. 159.
Following an agreement with General Jan Christian Smuts (1870–1950), then the colonial secretary, MKG was released on 30 January 1908; but his release papers were given to him on 31 January. MKG wrote a series of essays in Indian Opinion on his ‘Gaol Experience’. See CWMG, vol. 8.
370 Navajivan of 4 December 1928 has the following two footnotes:
(a) ‘My jail experiences have also been published in a book form. They were originally written in Gujarati and have been published in English as well. So far as I know both are available. M K Gandhi’
(b) ‘These books are not available in Navajivan office, it is likely that they are available with Bombay book sellers. Manager, Navajivan.’
The English translation in the 8 December 1928 Young India did not carry these, and are absent from subsequent English editions.
371 ‘by 5 o’clock’ to add.
372 On 21 January 1908 MKG petitioned the director of prisons about diet. The prisoners were served ‘mealie meal’, which was found ‘totally unsuitable’. MKG wrote, ‘The Petitioners, therefore, humbly pray that the diet according to European scale with the exception of mealie meal may be prescribed for them, or such other diet as may be considered suitable to keep body and soul together and may be consistent with their national habits, or habits formed by prolonged residence in South Africa.’ CWMG, vol. 8, p. 39.
373 ‘also’ to add.
374 ‘from experience’ to add.
375 ‘But I had not been able to give them up immediately.’ To add.
376 ‘other’ to add.
377 ‘Without any medical advice’ added in the English translation.
378 ‘seriously’ added in the English translation.
379 This incident is from February 1911. In July MKG wrote, ‘I am still on saltless diet. I personally feel better for it and as for Ba, it appears her very life has been saved. So far as I can see, she is a new woman altogether.’ CWMG, vol. 11, p. 130. MKG also wrote at length on saltless diet in his essay ‘General Knowledge About Health’. CWMG, vol. 11, pp. 507–08.
380 ‘after my return to India’ to add.
381 Rahimkhan Karimkhan, Bar-at-law. See n. 113 in Chapter VI, Part III.
382 MKG addressed Kallenbach as ‘Lower House’, while Kallenbach called MKG ‘Upper House’. Both shared lodgings first at Kallenbach’s home in Johannesburg, ‘The Kraal’, on Pine Road for nearly one and a half years and then ‘tent’ in Mountain View on Linksfield Ridge near Johannesburg for nearly seven months. The two later founded Tolstoy Farm. Under MKG’s influence, Kallenbach had given up meat and experimented with celibacy. He reported to his brother in 1908 that ‘for the last 18 months I have given up my sex life’. Guha, Gandhi Before India, p. 287.
383 Kallenbach bought about 1100 acres at Lawley near Johannesburg and pledged it for the satyagrahis on 30 May 1910.
384 ‘purely’ in the first edition.
385 ‘, fasting’ to add.
386 ‘Such foods and luxuries in turn affect the mind.’ To add.
387 ‘fasting’ translates the word upvas, literally, ‘to dwell closer to God’. There are five recorded instances of fasting in South Africa and twenty-nine such instances in India. A fast includes a one-meal-a-day diet as well. After April 1919 MKG fasted on every 13 and 16 April, and after 28 November 1921, on each Monday.
388 In the original ‘vrata’, vow or an observance, often used as a synonym for fasting.
389 ‘with benefit’ added in the English translation.
390 ‘visited the Vaishnava as also the Shaivite temples’ in the first edition.
391 MD’s footnote: ‘Fasting until evening.’
392 ‘Tolstoy Ashram’ in the original.
393 ‘youngsters’ added in the English translation.
394 ‘youngsters’ added in the English translation.
395 ‘participate’ in the first edition.
396 ‘youngsters’ added in the English translation.
397 ‘during the day’ to add.
398 ‘youngsters’ added in the English translation.
399 ‘as a means of self-restraint’ added in the English translation.
400 ‘on other occasions’ to add.
401 ‘It is a mistake to think that mere physical fasting can by itself effect self-restraint.’ This sentence deleted in the 1940 edition.
402 ‘famous’ added in the English translation.
403 Verse 59, Discourse II. Sir Edwin Arnold’s translation.
404 ‘consequent disaster’ in the first edition.
405 ‘easily be able to see’ in the first edition.
406 ‘As the Farm grew’ added in the English translation.
407 ‘Durban’ in the original. Corrected in the English translation.
408 ‘when they got the opportunity’ to add.
409 ‘some measure’ to add.
410 Pragji Khandubhai Desai, arrived in South Africa in 1906 at the age o
f twenty-two, for some time the editor of the Gujarati section of Indian Opinion, arrested twice in 1910 (March, July) and sentenced to three months’ hard labour, jailed six times during various phases of the Satyagraha Movement, pioneer settler on Tolstoy Farm in 1910 and later lived at the Phoenix Settlement.
411 In the original the order is ‘from scavenging to cooking’.
412 ‘and often’ in the first edition.
413 This Trappist monastery is on marianhill, on the outskirts of Pinetown near Durban. It was founded in 1882 by Abbot Francis Pfanner.
414 While MKG was his prisoner General Jan Christian Smuts sent him two books on religion (CWMG, vol. 9, pp. 238–39); MKG had in response sent him a ‘stout pair of leather sandals’ made at Tolstoy Farm. J.C. Smuts, Jan Christian Smuts: By His Son (London: Cassell and Company, 1952), p. 107.
415 ‘for them’ in the first edition.
416 The ‘three R’s’ refer to ‘reading, writing, arithmetic’, so called because of the strong R phoneme at the beginning of each word. This first gained currency in the 1830s, and since then has been used to describe other trifecta (e.g., reduce, reuse, recycle).
417 ‘we’ to add.
418 ‘Literary Training’ translates akshar kelavani, literally, ‘training of letters’.
419 ‘necessary resources, nor the literary equipment besides which I had’ in the first edition.
420 ‘soon’ to add.
421 ‘and all with a little Hindi’ to add.
422 George Uglow Pope, see n. 349 in Chapter XXIV, Part II.
423 ‘making them read by themselves’ to add.
424 ‘immediately’ to add.
425 ‘failing’ in the first edition.
426 ‘make’ in the first edition.
427 ‘Spirit’ translates aatmik, literally, of the atman.
428 ‘i.e., sannyasa (renunciation)’ added in the English translation.
429 ‘though possibly I should’ in the first edition.
430 ‘memorize and’ added in the English translation.
431 ‘miles away’ translates ‘Lanka’; in Gujarati, Lanka indicates both the Lanka of Ravana in the Ramayana, as also any island.
432 ‘his pupils’ in the first edition.
433 ‘my boys’ in the first edition.
434 ‘eternal’ added in the English translation.
435 ‘I went up to him.’ To add.
436 ‘set me thinking and’ added in the English translation.
437 ‘how’ in the first edition.
438 ‘similar’ to add.
439 ‘Mixture of Good and Bad’ in the original.
440 ‘As I have already said,’ added in the English translation.
441 ‘Ashram’ in the original.
442 ‘for the present’ to add.
443 ‘To tell you the truth’ added in the English translation.
444 ‘In fact’ in the first edition.
445 ‘and guardians’ added in the English translation.
446 ‘It does not necessarily follow that children’ in the first edition.
447 ‘real’ added in the English translation.
448 The Tolstoy Farm was closed on 9 January 1913.
449 The two persons involved in the incident were Manilal Gandhi and Jaykuvar (Jeki) Doctor, daughter of P.J. Mehta, married to Manilal Doctor. For a compassionate account of the incident, see Dhupelia-Mesthrie, Gandhi’s Prisoner?, pp. 106–10.
450 ‘seemed to become clear to me’ in the first edition. ‘or one could say that it seemed to me to have become clear’ to add.
451 ‘cautioning’ in the first edition.
452 The fast commenced on 12 July 1913 and was completed on 11 November 1913. MKG’s one-meal-a-day fast did not end here. From 12 November 1913 to 1 May 1914 he did a one-meal-a-day fast for removal of the £3 tax on Asiatics and from 2 May 1914 to 15 May 1914 he observed complete fast due to a moral lapse at Phoenix and continued the one-meal-a-day fast until 26 June 1914.
453 ‘I believe’ to add.
454 On 22 April 1914, several days before undertaking this fast, MKG described his condition: ‘Never perhaps have I spent such days of agony as I am doing now. I talk and smile, I walk and eat and work, all mechanically these days. I can do no writing whatever. The heart seems to have gone dry. The agony that I am going through is unspeakable.’ CWMG, vol. 12, p. 410.
455 ‘to a lesser or greater degree’ to add.
456 ‘It may be recalled that’ added in the English translation.
457 ‘of penance’ added in the English translation.
458 ‘however distasteful or nauseating it might be’ added in the English translation.
459 The satyagraha could be considered to have concluded with the passage of the Indians’ Relief Act of 26 June 1914.
460 On 27 February 1914 MKG wrote to Gokhale, ‘My present ambition you know. It is to be by your side as your nurse and attendant.’ CWMG, vol. 12, p. 361. On 6 May MKG wrote to Gokhale that he and Kasturba wished to return to India via London. On 5 June MKG informed Gokhale that he would be accompanied by Kasturba and Kallenbach.
461 They sailed from Cape Town on 18 July 1914 on board S.S Kinfaus Castle.
462 ‘equal cleanliness’ in the first edition.
463 On board MKG explained the Gita and read the Ramayana to Kasturba and gave Gujarati lessons to Kallenbach.
464 ‘But’ in the first edition.
465 ‘similar’ to add.
466 ‘unsullied’ to add.
467 ‘successful’ added in the English translation.
468 ‘pure’ to add.
469 ‘happiness and misery’ added in the English translation.
470 Jivraj Narayan Mehta (1887–1978), studied medicine in Bombay and London (1909–15) and obtained FRCS, participated in the movement for national independence and was twice incarcerated (1938, 1942) and held various public offices in post-Independence India, including those of the first chief minister of Gujarat (1960–63) and high commissioner to UK (1963–66).
471 Several months of prolonged fasting with one meal a day, consisting of a diet of fruits and nuts, had caused a deficiency of vitamin B.
472 A Portuguese archipelago situated in the north Atlantic Sea. The only port of call on this journey.
473 Gokhale had gone to Vichy in France to take healing waters.
474 The party first took rooms with Deepchand Zaveri, a Gujarati diamond merchant, at 60, Talbot Road, Bayswater, and in early October moved to the hostel of M.M. Gandevia at 16, Trebovir Road, West Kensington.
475 Sorabji Shapurji (Adajania) (1883–1918), born in Adajan, near Surat; a cousin of Parsi Rustomji, worked as a bookkeeper and manager in a store in Natal. Joined the satyagraha in 1908 and served several sentences with hard labour. In 1911 he attended the Indian National Congress, chosen by MKG for a scholarship offered by P.J. Mehta to study in England and qualify for the Bar. He died on 13 July 1918. In his obituary MKG wrote, ‘He was a prince among passive resisters.’ CWMG, vol. 14, p. 507.
476 ‘one of’ added in the English translation. In a farewell meeting organized on 16 June 1911 to mark Sorabji’s departure for India to participate in the Indian National Congress MKG said, ‘As a satyagrahi Mr. Sorabji has displayed many fine qualities. He has rightly been described as the greatest of satyagrahis.’ CWMG, vol. 11, p. 107.
477 ‘finding’ in the first edition.
478 P.J. Mehta had offered this scholarship with a view that one of MKG’s sons would benefit from it. One of Harilal Gandhi’s grievances was that his father first chose Chhaganlal Gandhi and later Sorabji for this scholarship. Chhaganlal could not complete the envisaged course of study.
479 On 8 August 1914 a reception was held for MKG, Kasturba and Kallenbach at Hotel Cecil by Indian and British friends. Among those present were Sarojini Naidu, Satchidanand Sinha, Lala Lajpat Rai, M.A. Jinnah and Albert Cartwright, with Bhupendranath Basu presiding. In this reception MKG asked the question as to what was his duty
and that of other Indians given the ‘tremendous crisis that has overwhelmed the Empire’. CWMG, vol. 12, p. 523.
480 ‘a world of difference’ translates ‘the difference between an elephant and a horse’ in the original.
481 ‘voluntarily’ to add.
482 ‘Indians’ status’ in the first edition.
483 On 13 August 1914 the following circular was prepared with signatures of MKG, Kasturbai, Sarojini Naidu and fifty others: ‘We, the undersigned have, after mature deliberation, decided for the sake of the Motherland and the Empire to place our services unconditionally, during this crisis, at the disposal of the authorities. We advisedly used the word “unconditionally” as we believe that, at a moment like this, no service that can be assigned to us can be considered to be beneath our dignity or inconsistent with our self-respect.’ CWMG, vol. 12, p. 527.
484 Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crew (1858–1945), Secretary of State for India (1910–11, 1911–15).
485 For the letter to Lord Crewe, see CWMG, vol. 12, pp. 527–28.
486 Sir (Dr.) James Cantlie (1851–1926), pioneered first aid, wrote the Red Cross First Aid Manual, helped set up the Journal of Tropical Medicine and the London School of Tropical Medicine.
487 Lt. Col. Richard J. Baker, formerly of the Indian Medical Service. The unit was officially recognized at a ceremony on 1 October 1914, attended by the Aga Khan.
488 ‘and was appointed Corps Commandant’ to add.
489 The Lyceum Club, founded in 1904 by writer and suffragist Constance Smedly (1876–1941) at 138, Piccadilly, for ladies interested in literature, journalism, art, science and medicine.
490 Sarojini Naidu (1879–1949), poet and nationalist, president of the Indian National Congress (1925), Governor, Uttar Pradesh (1947–49).
491 In a letter to Maganlal Gandhi of 18 September 1914, MKG explained his attitude towards war and his duty: ‘When thousands have come forward to lay down their lives only because they thought it their duty to do so, how could I sit still? A rifle this hand will never fire. And so there only remained nursing the wounded and I took it up. This is how I communed to myself.’ CWMG, vol. 12, p. 531. MKG invoked the Gita in a letter to Pragji Desai: ‘The Gita says that he who eats without performing Yajna is a thief. In the present situation here sacrifice meant, and means, self-sacrifice. I saw, therefore, that I too must perform Yajna. I myself could not shoot, but could nurse the wounded.’ CWMG, vol. 12, pp. 554–55.