An Autobiography or the Story of My Experiments with Truth

by M K Gandhi

  255 Anandibai, the police reports describe her as ‘daughter of Ramchander Devkar, reads in the 2nd class of the Kurvey Mahila Ashram, knows Hindi and Mahrathi, medium complexion; medium built, pox-pitted face; aged about 19 years’. Ibid., p. 536. Was a student when she joined the movement.

  256 In the original, ‘from South’. In Gujarati the term dakshini denotes a person or an object from Maharashtra, not including Bombay.

  257 Chhotalal worked as a weaving master, a member of the Satyagraha Ashram. The police records describe him as, ‘Bania, Jaipore, entrance passed. Allahabad University, Knows Hindi and weaving, fair complexion, medium build, short stature, age about 20’. Mishra, Select Documents, p. 544.

  258 Surendranath, taught Bhasha, arithmetic and drill, member of the Satyagraha Ashram. The police records describe him as ‘from district Gorakhpur, middle vernacular passed, knows Urdu and a little of English, medium complexion and medium build, short stature, curly hair, age about 20 years’. Ibid., p. 544.

  259 Mahadev Haribhai Desai (1892–1942), one of MKG’s closest associates, worked as his secretary, writer, translator and journalist of great eminence. Translated Autobiography into English and rendered works of Tagore and Jawaharlal Nehru in Gujarati. His ‘Diary of Mahadev Desai’ is the most authentic record of each day that he spent with MKG from 1917 to 1942.

  260 Narahari Dwarkadas Parikh (1891–1957), lawyer, member of the Satyagraha Ashram, worked as a registrar of the Gujarat Vidyapith.

  261 ‘of male and female teachers’ to add.

  262 ‘even as regards letters’ added in the English translation.

  263 ‘to some extent’ added in the English translation.

  264 See CWMG, vol. 13, p. 453.

  265 ‘at each of the schools’ to add.

  266 ‘or when the ailment could not be understood’ to add.

  267 ‘concentrated their energies on making a village ideally clean. They’ added in the English translation.

  268 ‘were so enthusiastic that they’ added in the English translation.

  269 ‘having frankly expressed’ in the first edition.

  270 ‘of women’ to add.

  271 ‘in which was one of our schools’ added in the English translation.

  272 Lt. Governor Sir Edward Gait, in his letter dated 17 June 1917 to F.G. Sly, chairman-designate of the Champaran Agrarian Inquiry Committee, stated, ‘Mr. Gandhi claims, with the aid of his assistants, to have examined 7,000 raiyats.’ Mishra, Select Documents, p. 221.

  273 Walter Maude, member of the Executive Council, had a long talk with MKG. In his note on the meeting Maude wrote, ‘I explained fully to him what we consider to be the chief danger of the situation, namely, the recording of evidence in sort of court fashion by a number of assistants and at length . . . I suggested that he must have got a very considerable amount of evidence together by now and might be in a position to make a report, he consented at once to send up a preliminary report.’ Mishra, Select Documents, p. 123. On 13 May 1917 MKG sent ‘preliminary conclusions’. See ibid., pp. 126–31, and CWMG, vol. 13, pp. 385–90.

  274 Sir Edward Albert Gait (1863–1950), joined the Indian Civil Service in 1884, served as secretary, Government of Bengal (1905–07), chief secretary, Government of Bengal (1907–08), census commissioner, Government of India (1909–11), and Lt. Governor of Bihar and Orissa (1915–20).

  275 The views of the government rapidly changed, possibly as a result of the preliminary conclusions sent by MKG and his acceptance by people as new ‘Mulk-Malik’ or ‘Guruji’. W.H. Lewis, sub-divisional officer, wrote in his report, ‘The impression that Mr. Gandhi has been sent by the king or some other high authority to hold this inquiry has been created here and he is regarded as a new Hakim or Mulk-Malik.’ See, D.G. Tendulkar, Gandhi in Champaran (New Delhi: Publications Division, 1957). A petition received by the Planters’ Association described him as ‘Gurujee’. ‘A week ago his name was unknown here. To-day he is the Gurujee of the whole district who hang upon his words, and hundreds visit him daily merely to touch his feet.’ Mishra, Select Documents, p. 111, n. 2. On 4 May the chief secretary wrote to the commissioner, ‘The Lieutenant Governor in Council takes the view that no useful purpose would be served by appointment of an official or joint commission of enquiry, as there is nothing from the Government point of view to enquire into.’ Ibid., p. 112. In a minute the Lt. Governor on 25 May wrote that he had asked MKG for a meeting on 2 June at Ranchi; in his minute he also included a note by Sir E.V. Levinge on the possible terms of reference, should a commission of inquiry be constituted. On 27 May, the chief secretary wrote to the Home Department, Government of India, that ‘Local Government adheres to view that committee at present is inexpedient’. Ibid., p. 171. On 2 June, Home Department, Government of India, wrote to the chief secretary, Government of Bihar, ‘The Government of India are of the opinion after giving fullest consideration to the views of the Lieutenant Governor in Council, that a committee of enquiry should be appointed and start investigation as early as possible.’ Ibid., pp. 190–91. Sir Edward Gait and MKG had meetings on 4, 5 and 6 June, wherein they agreed on the terms of reference and composition of the committee. On 10 June 1917, the government constituted a Committee of Enquiry with F.G. Sly, commissioner of the Central Provinces as its president, vide, Government Resolution 1890-C. Ibid., p. 213.

  276 Sir Frank George Sly joined the Indian Civil Service, served in the Central Provinces as commissioner of settlement, inspector-general of agriculture, commissioner of Berar, chief commissioner and Governor of the Central Provinces (1920–25).

  277 For the report of the Champaran Agrarian Enquiry Committee see Appendix XI, pp. 578–600, and for the Champaran Agrarian Bill, 1917, see Appendix XIII, pp. 601–04, CWMG, vol. 13.

  278 ‘in Champaran’ to add.

  279 Mohanlal Kameshwar Pandya of Kathlal village. See Chapter XXIV for his role in the Kheda Satyagraha.

  280 Shankarlal Dwarkadas Parikh, of Kathlal village.

  281 Anasuya Sarabhai (1885–1972), sister of Ambalal Sarabhai, studied at the London School of Economics, actively participated in the Ahmedabad mill strike and founded the Majdoor Mahajan Sangh, affectionately called ‘Motiben’.

  282 MKG wrote to Ambalal Sarabhai from Motihari on 21 December 1917, ‘I do not wish to interfere with your business affairs at all . . . I think you should satisfy the weavers for the sake of Shrimati Anasuyabehn at any rate . . . why should not the mill-owners feel happy paying a little more to the workers? . . . In a single letter I have meddled in your business and your family affairs.’ CWMG, vol. 14, p. 115. MKG discussed the question of the millhands on 4 and 5 December 1917 at Ahmedabad and again on 4, 5, 6 and 8 January 1918 at Ahmedabad. By 6 February MKG was back again in Gujarat addressing himself to the questions in Kheda and Ahmedabad. MKG was in the Patna and Champaran area from 20–25 May 1918.

  283 ‘that had been inaugurated there’ added in the English translation.

  284 ‘for some time’ to add.

  285 ‘(dairy)’ added in the English translation.

  286 MKG laid the foundation stone of the goshala on 7 October 1917.

  287 The question was regarding the payment of bonus. Since August 1916, Ahmedabad textile mills had begun to pay a ‘plague bonus’, an increase in wages necessitated by plague and the need of the mills to have workers despite plague. Some mills paid plague bonus as high as 70 to 80 per cent of workers’ wages and continued to pay it even after the cessation of plague. The workers demanded a wage hike and hike in dearness allowance instead of a plague bonus. The dispute was about the quantum of this hike. For a chronicle of the Ahmedabad Mill Strike, see Mahadev Desai, A Righteous Struggle, translated from the Gujarati by Somnath P. Dave and edited by Bharatan Kumarappa (Ahmedabad: Navajivan, 1951). Erik Erikson’s Gandhi’s Truth: On the Origins of Militant Non-Violence (New York: W.W. Norton & Co.: 1970, 1993), remains an unparalleled inquiry into MKG’s mind as also a deep study of the Ahmedabad mill strike.

&nb
sp; 288 Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel (1875–1950), later revered as Sardar Patel, leader of the Indian National Congress, called to the Bar from the Middle Temple, joined public life through his work in the Ahmedabad Municipality and the Gujarati Sabha. A close associate of MKG, participated in the Kheda Satyagraha, led the Nagpur Satyagraha (1923) and Bardoli Satyagraha (1928); he was imprisoned along with MKG in Yeravada Prison (1932–34). As independent India’s first deputy prime minister and home minister, he played a pioneering role in the political and administrative integration of princely India into the new republic. Married to Jhaverba, with whom he had a daughter, Manibehn, and a son, Dahyabhai.

  289 ‘peaceful’ added in the English translation.

  290 ‘and came to the meeting as one’ to add.

  291 ‘sometimes I used to pay’ in the first edition.

  292 ‘safe’ added in the English translation.

  293 ‘a merchant in Ahmedabad’ added in the English translation.

  294 ‘as soon as possible’ to add.

  295 The stamp paper on which the sale deed was to be written was purchased on 11 December 1916. On 11 May 1917 an agreement to sale was done and the deed of conveyance was signed on 31 May 1917, which was registered on 13 June 1917. The Ashram at Sabarmati was established on 17 June 1917.

  296 ‘Late’ to add. Maganlal Gandhi died on 23 April 1928 at Patna.

  297 ‘venomous reptiles’ translates hinsak jiva, literally, ‘carnivorous animals’.

  298 ‘All of them were fairly well infested with snakes.’ To add.

  299 ‘Therefore we decided to first build the weaving shed and its foundation was being laid.’ To add.

  300 The Workers’ Pledge:

  The Workers have resolved:

  (1) that they will not resume work until a 35 per cent increase on the July wage is secured;

  (2) that they will not, during the period of lock-out, cause any disturbance or resort to violence or indulge in looting, nor damage any property of the employers or abuse anyone but will remain peaceful.

  CWMG, vol. 14, p. 215.

  301 There were those in the city who also argued that the millhands should end their hardships by accepting lower increase in wages. One of them was Barrister Jivanlal Desai, whose bungalow in Kochrab was the site of the first Ashram at Ahmedabad. MKG wrote to him, ‘Considering it useless to persuade me, why do you not try to persuade the mill-owners? They do not have to humiliate themselves.’ CWMG, vol. 14, p. 247. MKG also wrote to Mangaldas Parekh, who had not joined the millowners and had kept his mills working by paying workers the same bonus as the ‘plague bonus’. ‘Why is it taken for granted that I can get the workers to accept anything I want? I claim that the workers are under my control because of the means I have adopted. Shall I now see to it that they break their pledge? . . . But why don’t you participate in this? It does not become you merely to watch this great struggle unconcernedly.’ CWMG, vol. 14, p. 248.

  302 On 12 March 1918 the millowners lifted the lockout and expressed their willingness to take back all those who would accept a 20 per cent increase, as against the 35 per cent demanded by the workers. On the day the lockout was lifted, Ambalal Sarabhai sent MKG a letter, which he destroyed after reading and did not allow MD to make a copy of the reply but permitted only a summary of it from memory. The summary of the reply suggests that Ambalal Sarabhai’s letter was about threats being issued to those workers who had decided to accept the 20 per cent raise and resume work. ‘I never wished that there should be any pressure on the workers . . . I am even ready, myself, to escort any worker who says he wants to attend the mill.’ CWMG, vol. 14, p. 250. MKG counselled the workers, ‘Workers should remember our pledge that, if they bring pressure to bear on their fellows and use threats to stop them from going to work, we shall not find it possible to help them.’ Ibid.

  303 ‘furiously’ added in the English translation.

  304 15 March 1918. MD describes the circumstances preceding the meeting: ‘One day Shri Chhaganlal Gandhi was requesting the workers of the Jugaldas Chawl to attend the morning meeting, when they confronted him with these words, “What is it to Anasuyabehn and Gandhiji? They come and go in their car; they eat sumptuous food, but we are suffering death agonies; attending meetings does not prevent starvation.” These rumours reached Gandhiji’s ears. Generally Gandhiji does not mind criticism, but these bitter words which described the situation realistically, pierced this heart.’ Desai, A Righteous Struggle, pp. 25–26.

  305 ‘or till they leave the mills altogether’ added in the English translation.

  306 ‘who were present’ to add.

  307 ‘for our lapse’ added in the English translation.

  308 ‘to the end’ added in the English translation.

  309 ‘coercion’ translates the word ‘tragu’ in the original. In Gujarat and Rajasthan, trag or tragu was widely practised almost until the end of the nineteenth century. The word does not find place in the Sanskrit dictionary of Monier Williams, collated in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. George Abraham Grierson wrote, ‘One is tempted to connect it with the Sanskrit root trai or tra “to protect”, but the termination ga presents difficulties which I cannot get over.’ See Henry Yule and A.C. Burnell, Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases (first published 1886; reprint edition: London: Curzon Press, 1995, p. 937). The practice of tragu entailed fasting unto death, and, in extreme situations, to enforce an agreement or to avenge a perceived wrong, injustice or dishonour, men and women of the Bhat and Charan communities would sacrifice their body parts and their lives.

  310 Erik Erikson has captured something of the anger and predicament of the mill-owners, particularly of Ambalal Sarabhai, given his close relations with MKG and the fact that his sister Anasuya was one of the leaders of the labourers. MKG stayed the first night of the fast at Anasuya Sarabhai’s house. ‘Ambalal’s feelings, as usual, were more complex. He felt more personally touched, and went out to sit by Gandhiji, who had reclined on his mat to preserve his strength. Ambalal felt angry, too. The fast, as he put it, was a “dirty trick”. “Look here,” he is said to have told Gandhiji, in essence, “You are changing the very premise of this whole affair. This is between owners and the workers—where does your life come in?”’ Gandhi’s Truth, p. 353.

  311 Anandshankar Bapubhai Dhruva (1859–1942), eminent littérateur, scholar and educationist, appointed vice-chancellor of the Banaras Hindu University in 1920, a position that he held for twenty years.

  312 According to the terms of settlement an increase of 35 per cent was given on the first day—in keeping with the pledge of the workers—20 per cent on the second day as determined by the millowners and 27. 5 per cent from the third day, till such time as the arbitrator’s award was made; the remaining 7.5 per cent was to be settled by either the owners or the workers, depending upon the arbitrator’s award. The arbitrator’s award was given on 10 August 1918, upholding the 35 per cent increase.

  313 ‘It happened in connection with the distribution of sweets.’ Added in the English translation.

  314 Shanti Sadan.

  315 ‘comfortably’ added in the English translation.

  316 ‘hungry’ added in the English translation.

  317 ‘and insisting on their working for bread’ added in the English translation.

  318 The last leaflet on the millstrike was issued on 19 March 1918 and on 21 March MKG in a public meeting in Ahmedabad declared the necessity of intervention in the Kheda situation. He reached Nadiad the same evening to commence the campaign. For a history of the Kheda Satyagraha, see David Hardiman, Peasant Nationalists of Gujarat: Kheda District, 1917–1934 (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1982).

  319 ‘I’ to add.

  320 Vithalbhai Patel (1873–1933), called to the Bar from the Middle Temple, one of the founders of the Swaraj Party, member of the Bombay Legislative Council, member of the Central Legislative Council, elected its president in 1925. He was the elder
brother of Sardar Patel.

  321 Sir Gokuldas Kahandas Parekh, a pleader from Bombay, member of the Bombay Legislative Council, knighted in 1921.

  322 Gujarat Sabha, a body established in 1884 to represent the grievances of people to the government. By 23 June 1917 MKG was a member of its executive committee.

  323 On 1 January 1918 the Gujarat Sabha wrote to the Government of Bombay, urging exemption in some cases, and postponement in others, of the assessment of land revenue. The Sabha also advised the farmers of Kheda to suspend payments till a reply had been received. On 10 January 1918 the Sabha delegation met F.G. Pratt, the commissioner of the Northern Division, who agreed to meet only its secretaries and also stated that he might advise the government to declare the Sabha an illegal body.

  324 ‘undignified as now to appear almost incredible’ in the first edition.

  325 Sixteen annas made a rupee; four annas equalled a quarter of a rupee. This was used to measure agricultural yield; a four-anna crop indicated one-fourth of the average yield per unit. This unit continues to be in use even for the measure of crop insurance.

  326 MKG wrote to the Governor of Bombay, ‘But if this last request of mine is ignored and properties are confiscated or sold, or land forfeited, I shall be compelled to advise the peasants openly not to pay up land revenue.’ CWMG, vol. 14, p. 259. To this the Governor replied on 17 March, ‘The Government has been kept fully informed of what has been happening in Kheda district and is satisfied that the Collector and other officers of the Revenue Department while acting strictly according to rules and regulations have the interests of the agriculturalists at heart.’ Ibid., p. 260. On 22 March MKG made one final effort at settlement before holding public meetings or launching satyagraha; that having failed, the first mass meeting was held at Nadiad on 22 March 1918.