Mahatma Gandhi, page 57
28 The name of Sri Rama brings all of life’s demands to final fulfilment—Tulsidas.
29 I have tried to summarise here the Hind Swaraj. All quotes are from this book. The book is conceived, as many books of Indian philosophical doctrine are, as questions and answers.
30 Tolstoy and Gandhi, p. 89.
31 Louis Fischer. Life of Mahatma Gandhi.
32 Tolstoy and Gandhi, p. 98.
33 25-12-1909, 1-1-1910, 8-1-1910.
34 C.W., Vol. X, p. 3-4.
35 An ancient Indian text in Tamil.
1 Indian Opinion, 18 June 1910.
2 Obviously Indian converts to Christianity.
3 South African Union came into being on 1 June 1910. And the Tolstoy Farm, significantly enough, was offered by Kallenbach and accepted by Gandhiji on 30 May 1910.
4 S.S.A., p.252.
5 Tolstoy and Gandhi, p. 71-76. The English version had Tolstoy’s approval.
6 Indian Opinion, Gujarati edition 26-11-1910. C.W., X, p. 369-70.
7 S., p. 340.
8 The Union of South Africa Government Gazette, February 1911.
9 C.W., Vol 10., p. 494-496.
10 The most senior ruler of a state in India, being the head of a territory as large as France, called the Dominion of His Exalted Highness the Nizam of Hyderabad.
11 The famous Native question—‘the apple of discord’—was left out of discussion. The future alone could resolve it.
12 Cape Town, 19 April 1911.
13 C.W., Vol. XI, p. 31-34.
14 Should be A.M.
15 That it should not be a Bill covering the whole of the Union, but just that the Transvaal Act of 1907 be repealed.
16 Hind Swaraj.
17 Smuts.
18 S.S.P., Vol. III, p. 119.
19 ‘Right through Johannesburg City runs the gold reef on whose product is largely based the economic system of the world.’ P.S.A., p. 75.
20 Ibid., p.79.
21 S.S.A., p. 264-65.
22 C.W., Vol. XI, p. 367.
23 C.W., Vol. XI, pp, 357-60.
24 The Indian Opinion Pocket Diary published by International Printing Press, Phoenix, Natal.
25 The Settlement is the Provisional Settlement with Smuts.
26 ‘As one studies the unfolding conflict from 1908 until 1914, one has the feeling that Gandhi could see in advance what course it would follow, where Smuts again and again, was taken by surprise.’ S., p. 338.
27 Later this became the basis for the famous ‘Gandhi-tea’.
28 And Kasturba would at least have learnt Gujarati alphabets by now.
29 This mission was sent so as to see if Britain could grow more food here for her own needs—the war had ruined her economy.
30 Laurens Van der Post’s father was one of the elders among the Boers with Smuts and Botha. A Free-Stater, he was later to become a faithful British subject. Van der Post himself seems so Gandhian in his understanding compassion, as prisoner of war of the Japanese, or as visitor to ‘All the Russians’ under the Soviet Rule.
31 C.W., Vol. XII, p. 132-35.
32 C.W., Vol. XII, p. 133.
33 S., p. 366.
34 C.W., Vol. XII, p. 187-188.
35 Mahabharata, Bhishma Parva.
36 ‘It is quite clear . . . that Smuts and his colleagues in their interview with Gokhale, aroused expectations which they failed subsequently to fulfil.’ S., p. 342.
37 Mahabharata, Santi Parva.
38 Speeches and Writings of Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Vol. II, pp. 444-45.
39 Laurens Van der Post, Venture to the Interior.
40 The Mahabharata.
1 An honorific in the Tamil country.
2 Songs from Prison, p. 95.
3 The auspicious moment, according to astrological calculations, for any religious ceremony.
4 The end of their pilgrimage.
5 When the brothers and husbands went to war, they cut their fingers a little and put the blood as kumkum on the forehead of their women.
6 C.F. Andrews.
7 W.W. Pearson.
8 1The Ego—Soul.
1 An Indian tribe, probably the original inhabitants of India.
2 A famous statement by Jawaharlal Nehru.
3 For soon, be it remembered when Stalin entered the War, they too, the communists upheld Churchill!
4 The author was present at this meeting.
5 The Land of Righteousness.
1 Mahatma Gandhi read the Gita as a symbolic poem, and said the war spoken of here, is a war within oneself only. There is also such a tradition, one among other traditions.
Chronology
1757 Battle of Plassey. Beginning of the establishment of British rule in the subcontinent of India.
1795 Cape (South Africa) occupied by the British because of its strategic position, being on the route to India.
1806 Cape taken over by the British, completely.
1847 Karamchand Gandhi becomes Prime Minister of Porbandar.
1869 (2 October) Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi born in Porbandar.
1874 Karamchand Gandhi appointed Karbari of Rajkot with limited powers.
1876 Karamchand Gandhi becomes Dewan of Rajkot, with full powers.
1879 Mohandas Gandhi enters Taluk School, Rajkot.
1880 Becomes a student at Alfred High School.
1882 Marries Kasturba Makanji, daughter of Gokaldas Makanji of Porbandar.
1885 Death of Karamchand Gandhi.
1888 Birth of Gandhiji’s eldest son, Harilal.
Gandhiji sails for London.
Is admitted to the Inner Temple.
1889 Meets Madame Blavatsky and Annie Besant.
1890 Member of the Executive Society of the London Vegetarian Society.
Starts living on £1 a week.
1891 Called to the Bar.
Leaves for India.
(12 June) Meets Rajachandra in Bombay.
1892 Starts working as a barrister in Kathiawar.
Birth of Manilal, the second son.
1893 Sails for South Africa.
The dramatic experience of Pietermaritzburg.
Experiments on Vital Foods.
Writes to Rajachandra.
1894 Decides to stay back in South Africa, and to fight for the cause of the Indians settled there.
Founds the Natal Indian Congress.
1895 Argues in the press, and in public, on behalf of the Indians in South Africa.
1896 Returns to India.
Publishes the ‘Green Pamphlet’.
Addresses meetings all over India.
Called back to South Africa. The family accompanies him.
1897 Landing in Durban. A mob attacks him.
Presents Petition to the Natal Legislature against anti-Indian Bills.
Birth of his third son, Ramdas.
1898 Fights against Indians being confined to ‘Locations’.
1899 The Boer War breaks out.
Organises the Indian Ambulance Corps.
1900 Indian Ambulance Corps on the battlefield.
Devadas Gandhi, the fourth son, born.
1901 Death of Queen Victoria. Gandhiji addresses a Memorial meeting. Congratulates the British Government on its victory in the Boer War.
Felicitates the Sultan of Turkey on the Silver Jubilee of his reign. Attends Indian National Congress Session in Calcutta.
1902 Practices law in Rajkot.
Moves on to Bombay to set up practice there.
Returns to South Africa, without his family.
1903 Settles in Johannesburg, opening a law office.
Indian Opinion founded.
1904 Plague in Johannesburg.
Reads Ruskin, Unto This Last.
Presents Address to Lord Roberts.
Phoenix Settlement founded.
1905 Lectures on Hindu religion.
Tries to learn Tamil.
Sails for England on Deputation. Meets the Prime Minister.
Talks with Winston Churchill.
1907 Asiatic Registration Bill passed by the Transvaal Parliament.
Mass meetings held against the Bill.
Voluntary Registration offered.
1908 Sentenced to two months’ imprisonment.
Released on coming to an understanding with Smuts about voluntary registration.
Wounded by Mir Alam.
Burning of Registration Cards.
Arrested and sentenced to two months’ hard labour.
1909 Arrested and sentenced to three months’ imprisonment.
Released.
1909 Sails for England.
Meets ministers in London.
Returns to South Africa and writes Hind Swaraj on board the ship.
1910 Death of Edward VII.
Tolstoy declares the importance of passive resistance for all humanity.
Kallenbach offers his farm near Lawley, which becomes the Tolstoy Farm.
Passive resisters deported back to India.
Smuts promises a liberal immigration policy for the Indians in the whole of South Africa.
1911 Smuts talks of Indian civilisation to the Parliament.
New Immigration Bill presented.
Government of India prohibits further recruitment of indentured labour for South Africa.
Provisional Settlement arrived at between Smuts and Gandhiji.
Coronation of King George V at Westminster Abbey.
1912 Gokhale in South Africa.
1913 Supreme Court decision against the validity of Indian marriages.
Immigration Restrictions Bill published in Gazette Extraordinary.
Kasturba decides to join the struggle.
Immigration Regulation Bill passed.
Railway strike in South Africa. ‘In accordance with Smuts’ wish refrained from taking action because of the unexpected troubles of the Government.’
Decision finally to resume passive resistance.
Women join the movement. Workers strike in Natal coalfields.
Gandhiji leads the Pilgrims on the Great March, from Natal to the Transvaal.
General uprising of workers all over Transvaal and Natal.
Government of India intervenes. Sends negotiator.
Andrews and Pearson arrive.
1914 Passive resistance suspended.
Kasturba ill.
Passing of Indian Relief Bill.
Leaves South Africa for England.
1915 Returns to India.
1917 Champaran Inquiry.
1919 Amritsar Massacre at Jallianwala Bagh.
1921 Visit of the Prince of Wales to India.
1922 Chauri Chaura.
1922 Arrested and given six years’ imprisonment.
1924 Released and fasts for Hindu-Muslim unity.
1928 Bardoli no-tax campaign.
1930 (26 January) Declaration of Indian Independence.
The Salt March to Dandi.
Arrested and jailed.
1931 Released.
1932 Arrested. Fasts unto death if untouchables given separate electorates by the British Government.
1933 Self-purification fast.
1937 Congress accepts office under the system of Dyarchy.
1939 Gandhiji writes to Hitler. Letter not delivered.
1940 Personal Disobedience campaign.
1942 ‘Quit India’ resolution passed by the Congress.
Arrested and imprisoned.
1943 Twenty-one-day fast.
1944 Death of Kasturba.
Released from jail.
1945 British willingness to talk.
The Simla Conference.
1946 Calcutta riots.
1947 Mountbatten appointed Viceroy of India.
(15 August) India and Pakistan declared independent Dominions.
Fasts to stop riots.
1948 Fast for communal unity.
(30 January) Shot and killed by Godse.
Glossary and Notes
A
Ahuramazda. The Illuminated One or the Principle of Light in (Parsi) Zoroastrian religion.
anekatwa. A Jaina philosophic concept which believes that manynesses of an object that is seen from many points of view, and at least six according to some texts, does not prove the existence of an object.
arathi. The sacred adoration of a god or of a sanctified person or persons—the ritual consisting of offering kumkum-water, flowers, and a sacred lamp.
B
Banias, Modhi. A community of Gujarat belonging to the merchant (or business) caste.
bhajans. Devotional songs.
Bhakthi Marga. The way of devotion through the worship of a personal God.
Bharata. The founder of one of the first Aryan tribes settled in India. India in the ancient texts is called Bharata Varsha or the Land of Bharata.
Birdwood, Sir George (1832-1917). Served first in the Indian Medical Service. Later worked in the India Office in London and published various works of historical importance, like The Miscellaneous Records of the India Office. He also published the famous, almost encyclopaedic, work, The Industrial Arts of India.
Bose, Subhas Chandra. The most famous Indian leader after Gandhi and Nehru. More traditional in his perspective than Nehru—he was more a nationalist than a socialist—he was also more revolutionary, in the sense that he did not accept either the philosophy or the technique of nonviolence. He left India during the early years of the Second World War, for Germany first and then to Japan, so as to be able to organise a National Liberation Army of Indians to conquer India. He died in a plane crash towards the end of the hostilities.
brahmacharya. The vow of celibacy. It is also the name given to the first stage among the four stages of human existence—it being the stage of the adolescent. Literally, brahmacharya, the path to Brahman.
C
chaturmas. Literally ‘Four Months’. A sort of Lent which might include one day—or several days—fasting.
D
dasyus. Men of the darker inhabitants of India before the Aryan invasion. Perhaps the Dasyus were the Dravidians. This was anywhere before 1200 BC and 4500 BC.
dharma-patni. Wife; sharer of the dharma with her husband.
darshan. Vision of a holy or dear one. The look of a holy one (or looking at a holy being) is supposed to have the power to transform the life of ordinary men radically.
Devaki. Mother of Sri Krishna. She is the wife of Vasudeva and daughter of Devaka.
Dharma. The Law or the Principle that upholds, sustains, the universe—hence applies universally to each class of its constituents.
Doukhobors. A Christian sect in Russia which believed in non-violence. They were persecuted by the Tzars and Tolstoy took their defence. They finally migrated to Canada.
E
ekadashi. The eleventh day of the lunar fortnight on which Hindus usually fast.
F
fakir. A Muslim mendicant.
G
Gandhi, Chhaganlal. A nephew of Mahatma Gandhi.
Gandhi, Jamnalal. A nephew of Mahatma Gandhi.
H
Hunter, Sir William (1840-1900). A very distinguished member of the British Civil Service in India for almost twenty-five years. He is famous for editing The Imperial Gazetteer of India, an incomparable encyclopaedia of information on the country from geology and fauna and flora to history, and then the various castes and communities, their peculiar traditions etc., etc. He also wrote a standard book of history: Indian Empire. He influenced Indian policy by writing on Indian affairs for the Times (London).
J
Jameson Raid. An abortive attempt, in December 1895, led from the Cape Colony by Dr. Jameson, Administrator of British South Africa company, to annex the Transvaal by taking advantage of a projected Uitlander uprising which did not materialise. Jameson was captured, tried and convicted. The Raid, and the failure of the British Government to repudiate it unequivocally, were among the causes that led to the Boer War.
Joshiji. Usually a family chaplain and astrologer who fixes the horoscope of important events as births, initiation-ceremonies, death, and anniversaries. He often gives advice to people on what line of action has to be in a certain situation from the point of view of the stars or of the dharma shastras, the laws that bind the community according to a particular text.
jowar. A form of Indian corn.
K
Kaffirs. A generic name given to the native population of South Africa. In Arabic it means the unbelievers, the heathens.
katha. The story of some god or goddess told in extempore composition, often in verse form, with prose explanations. Generally it may go on for several hours in the evening, and often late into the night.
M
Mahabharata.
The great epic consisting of over 90,000 verses thus making it perhaps the longest poem of the world. Like the Ramayana, it also is of unknown date and is believed to have been composed by the sage, Vyasa.
The Mahabharata, like all Indian epics, is a story within a story, and this story again placed in another tale, so that they go from one episode to the other, containing not only descriptions of births, initiation ceremonies, family quarrels, marriages, battles, and the peace after war, but also great expositions of philosophy which explain each episode, its origins and ends, and its ultimate meaning. The great Indian scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, is one of the famous chapters of the Mahabharata, where Sri Krishna, the Guru, the Prince, gives metaphysical and moral advice to his friend and cousin Arjuna about the ways of liberation (moksha).
The main theme of the Mahabharata, as of the Ramayana, is to tell people how each one should perform his dharma, his vocation. Action is natural to man, and the dharma of each caste is according to its own place in a composite society. Thus a warrior has to make war and kill if necessary, after having tried every other means of achieving peace without violence, but if violence is the only way, the violence must be. A war thus fought could not be for the ego but rather for the performance of one’s dharma. One who is established in the Truth—and here Sri Krishna, the Guru, gave Arjuna an exposition of, and initiation to, the Truth—well, one who knows there is no ego can kill and be killed knowing the ego is only Maya, a phantasmagoria. Thus the Mahabharata describes a battle where in fact there was no battle—who can go to war against whom1 when there is no one, for all is the Truth. Action is a means to actionlessness. Rather to see ‘action in inaction and inaction in action’ is the true meaning of the Bhagavad Gita, and so of the Mahabharata.
29 I have tried to summarise here the Hind Swaraj. All quotes are from this book. The book is conceived, as many books of Indian philosophical doctrine are, as questions and answers.
30 Tolstoy and Gandhi, p. 89.
31 Louis Fischer. Life of Mahatma Gandhi.
32 Tolstoy and Gandhi, p. 98.
33 25-12-1909, 1-1-1910, 8-1-1910.
34 C.W., Vol. X, p. 3-4.
35 An ancient Indian text in Tamil.
1 Indian Opinion, 18 June 1910.
2 Obviously Indian converts to Christianity.
3 South African Union came into being on 1 June 1910. And the Tolstoy Farm, significantly enough, was offered by Kallenbach and accepted by Gandhiji on 30 May 1910.
4 S.S.A., p.252.
5 Tolstoy and Gandhi, p. 71-76. The English version had Tolstoy’s approval.
6 Indian Opinion, Gujarati edition 26-11-1910. C.W., X, p. 369-70.
7 S., p. 340.
8 The Union of South Africa Government Gazette, February 1911.
9 C.W., Vol 10., p. 494-496.
10 The most senior ruler of a state in India, being the head of a territory as large as France, called the Dominion of His Exalted Highness the Nizam of Hyderabad.
11 The famous Native question—‘the apple of discord’—was left out of discussion. The future alone could resolve it.
12 Cape Town, 19 April 1911.
13 C.W., Vol. XI, p. 31-34.
14 Should be A.M.
15 That it should not be a Bill covering the whole of the Union, but just that the Transvaal Act of 1907 be repealed.
16 Hind Swaraj.
17 Smuts.
18 S.S.P., Vol. III, p. 119.
19 ‘Right through Johannesburg City runs the gold reef on whose product is largely based the economic system of the world.’ P.S.A., p. 75.
20 Ibid., p.79.
21 S.S.A., p. 264-65.
22 C.W., Vol. XI, p. 367.
23 C.W., Vol. XI, pp, 357-60.
24 The Indian Opinion Pocket Diary published by International Printing Press, Phoenix, Natal.
25 The Settlement is the Provisional Settlement with Smuts.
26 ‘As one studies the unfolding conflict from 1908 until 1914, one has the feeling that Gandhi could see in advance what course it would follow, where Smuts again and again, was taken by surprise.’ S., p. 338.
27 Later this became the basis for the famous ‘Gandhi-tea’.
28 And Kasturba would at least have learnt Gujarati alphabets by now.
29 This mission was sent so as to see if Britain could grow more food here for her own needs—the war had ruined her economy.
30 Laurens Van der Post’s father was one of the elders among the Boers with Smuts and Botha. A Free-Stater, he was later to become a faithful British subject. Van der Post himself seems so Gandhian in his understanding compassion, as prisoner of war of the Japanese, or as visitor to ‘All the Russians’ under the Soviet Rule.
31 C.W., Vol. XII, p. 132-35.
32 C.W., Vol. XII, p. 133.
33 S., p. 366.
34 C.W., Vol. XII, p. 187-188.
35 Mahabharata, Bhishma Parva.
36 ‘It is quite clear . . . that Smuts and his colleagues in their interview with Gokhale, aroused expectations which they failed subsequently to fulfil.’ S., p. 342.
37 Mahabharata, Santi Parva.
38 Speeches and Writings of Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Vol. II, pp. 444-45.
39 Laurens Van der Post, Venture to the Interior.
40 The Mahabharata.
1 An honorific in the Tamil country.
2 Songs from Prison, p. 95.
3 The auspicious moment, according to astrological calculations, for any religious ceremony.
4 The end of their pilgrimage.
5 When the brothers and husbands went to war, they cut their fingers a little and put the blood as kumkum on the forehead of their women.
6 C.F. Andrews.
7 W.W. Pearson.
8 1The Ego—Soul.
1 An Indian tribe, probably the original inhabitants of India.
2 A famous statement by Jawaharlal Nehru.
3 For soon, be it remembered when Stalin entered the War, they too, the communists upheld Churchill!
4 The author was present at this meeting.
5 The Land of Righteousness.
1 Mahatma Gandhi read the Gita as a symbolic poem, and said the war spoken of here, is a war within oneself only. There is also such a tradition, one among other traditions.
Chronology
1757 Battle of Plassey. Beginning of the establishment of British rule in the subcontinent of India.
1795 Cape (South Africa) occupied by the British because of its strategic position, being on the route to India.
1806 Cape taken over by the British, completely.
1847 Karamchand Gandhi becomes Prime Minister of Porbandar.
1869 (2 October) Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi born in Porbandar.
1874 Karamchand Gandhi appointed Karbari of Rajkot with limited powers.
1876 Karamchand Gandhi becomes Dewan of Rajkot, with full powers.
1879 Mohandas Gandhi enters Taluk School, Rajkot.
1880 Becomes a student at Alfred High School.
1882 Marries Kasturba Makanji, daughter of Gokaldas Makanji of Porbandar.
1885 Death of Karamchand Gandhi.
1888 Birth of Gandhiji’s eldest son, Harilal.
Gandhiji sails for London.
Is admitted to the Inner Temple.
1889 Meets Madame Blavatsky and Annie Besant.
1890 Member of the Executive Society of the London Vegetarian Society.
Starts living on £1 a week.
1891 Called to the Bar.
Leaves for India.
(12 June) Meets Rajachandra in Bombay.
1892 Starts working as a barrister in Kathiawar.
Birth of Manilal, the second son.
1893 Sails for South Africa.
The dramatic experience of Pietermaritzburg.
Experiments on Vital Foods.
Writes to Rajachandra.
1894 Decides to stay back in South Africa, and to fight for the cause of the Indians settled there.
Founds the Natal Indian Congress.
1895 Argues in the press, and in public, on behalf of the Indians in South Africa.
1896 Returns to India.
Publishes the ‘Green Pamphlet’.
Addresses meetings all over India.
Called back to South Africa. The family accompanies him.
1897 Landing in Durban. A mob attacks him.
Presents Petition to the Natal Legislature against anti-Indian Bills.
Birth of his third son, Ramdas.
1898 Fights against Indians being confined to ‘Locations’.
1899 The Boer War breaks out.
Organises the Indian Ambulance Corps.
1900 Indian Ambulance Corps on the battlefield.
Devadas Gandhi, the fourth son, born.
1901 Death of Queen Victoria. Gandhiji addresses a Memorial meeting. Congratulates the British Government on its victory in the Boer War.
Felicitates the Sultan of Turkey on the Silver Jubilee of his reign. Attends Indian National Congress Session in Calcutta.
1902 Practices law in Rajkot.
Moves on to Bombay to set up practice there.
Returns to South Africa, without his family.
1903 Settles in Johannesburg, opening a law office.
Indian Opinion founded.
1904 Plague in Johannesburg.
Reads Ruskin, Unto This Last.
Presents Address to Lord Roberts.
Phoenix Settlement founded.
1905 Lectures on Hindu religion.
Tries to learn Tamil.
Sails for England on Deputation. Meets the Prime Minister.
Talks with Winston Churchill.
1907 Asiatic Registration Bill passed by the Transvaal Parliament.
Mass meetings held against the Bill.
Voluntary Registration offered.
1908 Sentenced to two months’ imprisonment.
Released on coming to an understanding with Smuts about voluntary registration.
Wounded by Mir Alam.
Burning of Registration Cards.
Arrested and sentenced to two months’ hard labour.
1909 Arrested and sentenced to three months’ imprisonment.
Released.
1909 Sails for England.
Meets ministers in London.
Returns to South Africa and writes Hind Swaraj on board the ship.
1910 Death of Edward VII.
Tolstoy declares the importance of passive resistance for all humanity.
Kallenbach offers his farm near Lawley, which becomes the Tolstoy Farm.
Passive resisters deported back to India.
Smuts promises a liberal immigration policy for the Indians in the whole of South Africa.
1911 Smuts talks of Indian civilisation to the Parliament.
New Immigration Bill presented.
Government of India prohibits further recruitment of indentured labour for South Africa.
Provisional Settlement arrived at between Smuts and Gandhiji.
Coronation of King George V at Westminster Abbey.
1912 Gokhale in South Africa.
1913 Supreme Court decision against the validity of Indian marriages.
Immigration Restrictions Bill published in Gazette Extraordinary.
Kasturba decides to join the struggle.
Immigration Regulation Bill passed.
Railway strike in South Africa. ‘In accordance with Smuts’ wish refrained from taking action because of the unexpected troubles of the Government.’
Decision finally to resume passive resistance.
Women join the movement. Workers strike in Natal coalfields.
Gandhiji leads the Pilgrims on the Great March, from Natal to the Transvaal.
General uprising of workers all over Transvaal and Natal.
Government of India intervenes. Sends negotiator.
Andrews and Pearson arrive.
1914 Passive resistance suspended.
Kasturba ill.
Passing of Indian Relief Bill.
Leaves South Africa for England.
1915 Returns to India.
1917 Champaran Inquiry.
1919 Amritsar Massacre at Jallianwala Bagh.
1921 Visit of the Prince of Wales to India.
1922 Chauri Chaura.
1922 Arrested and given six years’ imprisonment.
1924 Released and fasts for Hindu-Muslim unity.
1928 Bardoli no-tax campaign.
1930 (26 January) Declaration of Indian Independence.
The Salt March to Dandi.
Arrested and jailed.
1931 Released.
1932 Arrested. Fasts unto death if untouchables given separate electorates by the British Government.
1933 Self-purification fast.
1937 Congress accepts office under the system of Dyarchy.
1939 Gandhiji writes to Hitler. Letter not delivered.
1940 Personal Disobedience campaign.
1942 ‘Quit India’ resolution passed by the Congress.
Arrested and imprisoned.
1943 Twenty-one-day fast.
1944 Death of Kasturba.
Released from jail.
1945 British willingness to talk.
The Simla Conference.
1946 Calcutta riots.
1947 Mountbatten appointed Viceroy of India.
(15 August) India and Pakistan declared independent Dominions.
Fasts to stop riots.
1948 Fast for communal unity.
(30 January) Shot and killed by Godse.
Glossary and Notes
A
Ahuramazda. The Illuminated One or the Principle of Light in (Parsi) Zoroastrian religion.
anekatwa. A Jaina philosophic concept which believes that manynesses of an object that is seen from many points of view, and at least six according to some texts, does not prove the existence of an object.
arathi. The sacred adoration of a god or of a sanctified person or persons—the ritual consisting of offering kumkum-water, flowers, and a sacred lamp.
B
Banias, Modhi. A community of Gujarat belonging to the merchant (or business) caste.
bhajans. Devotional songs.
Bhakthi Marga. The way of devotion through the worship of a personal God.
Bharata. The founder of one of the first Aryan tribes settled in India. India in the ancient texts is called Bharata Varsha or the Land of Bharata.
Birdwood, Sir George (1832-1917). Served first in the Indian Medical Service. Later worked in the India Office in London and published various works of historical importance, like The Miscellaneous Records of the India Office. He also published the famous, almost encyclopaedic, work, The Industrial Arts of India.
Bose, Subhas Chandra. The most famous Indian leader after Gandhi and Nehru. More traditional in his perspective than Nehru—he was more a nationalist than a socialist—he was also more revolutionary, in the sense that he did not accept either the philosophy or the technique of nonviolence. He left India during the early years of the Second World War, for Germany first and then to Japan, so as to be able to organise a National Liberation Army of Indians to conquer India. He died in a plane crash towards the end of the hostilities.
brahmacharya. The vow of celibacy. It is also the name given to the first stage among the four stages of human existence—it being the stage of the adolescent. Literally, brahmacharya, the path to Brahman.
C
chaturmas. Literally ‘Four Months’. A sort of Lent which might include one day—or several days—fasting.
D
dasyus. Men of the darker inhabitants of India before the Aryan invasion. Perhaps the Dasyus were the Dravidians. This was anywhere before 1200 BC and 4500 BC.
dharma-patni. Wife; sharer of the dharma with her husband.
darshan. Vision of a holy or dear one. The look of a holy one (or looking at a holy being) is supposed to have the power to transform the life of ordinary men radically.
Devaki. Mother of Sri Krishna. She is the wife of Vasudeva and daughter of Devaka.
Dharma. The Law or the Principle that upholds, sustains, the universe—hence applies universally to each class of its constituents.
Doukhobors. A Christian sect in Russia which believed in non-violence. They were persecuted by the Tzars and Tolstoy took their defence. They finally migrated to Canada.
E
ekadashi. The eleventh day of the lunar fortnight on which Hindus usually fast.
F
fakir. A Muslim mendicant.
G
Gandhi, Chhaganlal. A nephew of Mahatma Gandhi.
Gandhi, Jamnalal. A nephew of Mahatma Gandhi.
H
Hunter, Sir William (1840-1900). A very distinguished member of the British Civil Service in India for almost twenty-five years. He is famous for editing The Imperial Gazetteer of India, an incomparable encyclopaedia of information on the country from geology and fauna and flora to history, and then the various castes and communities, their peculiar traditions etc., etc. He also wrote a standard book of history: Indian Empire. He influenced Indian policy by writing on Indian affairs for the Times (London).
J
Jameson Raid. An abortive attempt, in December 1895, led from the Cape Colony by Dr. Jameson, Administrator of British South Africa company, to annex the Transvaal by taking advantage of a projected Uitlander uprising which did not materialise. Jameson was captured, tried and convicted. The Raid, and the failure of the British Government to repudiate it unequivocally, were among the causes that led to the Boer War.
Joshiji. Usually a family chaplain and astrologer who fixes the horoscope of important events as births, initiation-ceremonies, death, and anniversaries. He often gives advice to people on what line of action has to be in a certain situation from the point of view of the stars or of the dharma shastras, the laws that bind the community according to a particular text.
jowar. A form of Indian corn.
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Kaffirs. A generic name given to the native population of South Africa. In Arabic it means the unbelievers, the heathens.
katha. The story of some god or goddess told in extempore composition, often in verse form, with prose explanations. Generally it may go on for several hours in the evening, and often late into the night.
M
Mahabharata.
The great epic consisting of over 90,000 verses thus making it perhaps the longest poem of the world. Like the Ramayana, it also is of unknown date and is believed to have been composed by the sage, Vyasa.
The Mahabharata, like all Indian epics, is a story within a story, and this story again placed in another tale, so that they go from one episode to the other, containing not only descriptions of births, initiation ceremonies, family quarrels, marriages, battles, and the peace after war, but also great expositions of philosophy which explain each episode, its origins and ends, and its ultimate meaning. The great Indian scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, is one of the famous chapters of the Mahabharata, where Sri Krishna, the Guru, the Prince, gives metaphysical and moral advice to his friend and cousin Arjuna about the ways of liberation (moksha).
The main theme of the Mahabharata, as of the Ramayana, is to tell people how each one should perform his dharma, his vocation. Action is natural to man, and the dharma of each caste is according to its own place in a composite society. Thus a warrior has to make war and kill if necessary, after having tried every other means of achieving peace without violence, but if violence is the only way, the violence must be. A war thus fought could not be for the ego but rather for the performance of one’s dharma. One who is established in the Truth—and here Sri Krishna, the Guru, gave Arjuna an exposition of, and initiation to, the Truth—well, one who knows there is no ego can kill and be killed knowing the ego is only Maya, a phantasmagoria. Thus the Mahabharata describes a battle where in fact there was no battle—who can go to war against whom1 when there is no one, for all is the Truth. Action is a means to actionlessness. Rather to see ‘action in inaction and inaction in action’ is the true meaning of the Bhagavad Gita, and so of the Mahabharata.
