Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India (66 page)

1
   “
The caste system supported
”: Ajoy Bose,
Behenji
, p. 83.

2
   
Eventually he concluded
: Tendulkar,
Mahatma
, vol. 7, p. 154.

3
   
honor killings of daughters and sisters
: Jim Yardley, “In India, Caste Honor and Killings Intertwine,”
The New York Times
, July 9, 2010, p. 1.

4
   “
I agree that Bapu
”: Narayan Desai,
My Life Is My Message
, vol. 3,
Satyapath
, p. 179.

5
   “
My life is one indivisible whole
”:
CWMG
, vol. 55, p. 199.

6
   
This from the man
: “The Removal of Untouchability,”
Young India
, Oct. 13, 1921.

7
   
The man he addressed
:
CWMG
, vol. 19, p. 289.

8
   
a status he’d sometimes compared
: Gandhi,
Removal of Untouchability
, p. 11.

9
   
By the time the award
: Tendulkar,
Mahatma
, vol. 3, pp. 159–60.

10
   
Gandhi assumed but wasn’t sure
: Mahadev Desai,
Diary of Mahadev Desai
, p. 295.

11
   “
prepared to go
”: “Suicide Threat,”
Times of India
, Sept. 14, 1932.

12
   “
Our own men will be critical
”: Mahadev Desai,
Diary of Mahadev Desai
, pp. 293–94, 302. Nehru, who was in jail in this period, admitted in a note in his diary after the conclusion of Gandhi’s fast, “I am afraid I am drifting further and further away from him mentally, in spite of my strong emotional attachment to him. His continual references to God irritate me exceedingly. His political actions are often enough guided by an unerring instinct but he does not encourage others to think.” Cited in Brown,
Gandhi
, p. 270.

13
   “
What if I am taken
”: Mahadev Desai,
Diary of Mahadev Desai
, p. 4.

14
   “
Sudden shock is the treatment
”: Ibid., p. 301.

15
   “
Untouchable hooligans
”: Ibid.

16
   “
What does MacDonald know
”: Verma,
Crusade Against Untouchability
, pp. 38–39.

17
   
Then he thought temple entry
: Ravindran,
Eight Furlongs of Freedom
, p. 79.

18
   
William L. Shirer
: Shirer,
Gandhi
, pp. 208–10.

19
   “
With the Hindus and Musalmans
”: Pyarelal,
Epic Fast
, p. 6.

20
   “
Do not believe for one moment
”: Verma,
Crusade Against Untouchability
, p. 27.

21
   
Patel regularly speculated
: Narayan Desai,
The Fire and the Rose
, pp. 568–69; Rajmohan Gandhi,
Patel
, pp. 226–28.

22
   “
He would not be satisfied
”: Pyarelal,
Epic Fast
, p. 30.

23
   “
If God has more work
”: Narayan Desai,
The Fire and the Rose
, p. 569.

24
   “
If we cheaply dismiss
”: Tagore,
Mahatmaji and the Depressed Humanity
, pp. 11, 18.

25
   
Tagore arrived
: Ibid., p. 22.

26
   “
Mahatmaji, you have been
”: Pyarelal,
Epic Fast
, p. 59; Narayan Desai,
The Fire and the Rose
, p. 575; Verma,
Crusade Against Untouchability
, pp. 43–44.

27
   “
No one shall be regarded”:
Verma,
Crusade Against Untouchability
, p. 44.

28
   
A parallel gathering
: Pyarelal,
Epic Fast
, p. 239.

29
   
Even Nehru, who acknowledged
: Nehru,
Toward Freedom
, p. 237.

30
   “
I will never be moved
”:
Times of India
, Sept. 14, 1932.

31
   
He’d been in a fix
: Pyarelal,
Epic Fast
, pp. 188–89.

32
   
Kasturba raised the glass
: Ibid., pp. 79–80.

33
   “
The entire audience
”: Tagore,
Mahatmaji and the Depressed Humanity
, p. 29.

34
   
The idea that untouchability
: Pyarelal,
Epic Fast
, pp. 79–81.

35
   
In his speeches to untouchable
: Keer,
Dr. Ambedkar
, pp. 234, 221.

36
   “
the one thing that alone
”:
CWMG
, vol. 53, p. 131.

37
   “
To open or not to open
”: Keer,
Dr. Ambedkar
, p. 229.

38
   “
not necessary for him
”:
The Times
(London), Nov. 7, 1932.

39
   
Eventually, they would both reject
: Tendulkar,
Mahatma
, vol. 7, p. 151.

40
   “
The Congress sucked the juice
”: Mankar,
Denunciation of Poona-Pact
, p. 109.

41
   
When they met in February 1933
: Ibid., p. 160.

42
   
Ambedkar had agreed to join
: Verma,
Crusade Against Untouchability
, pp. 62–63.

43
   
But within a year
: B. R. Ambedkar,
What Congress and Gandhi Have Done to the Untouchables
, p. 135.

44
   “
Sin and immorality
”: Keer,
Dr. Ambedkar
, p. 229.

45
   
As late as 1958
: Verma,
Crusade Against Untouchability
, p. 196.

46
   
In May 1933
: Tendulkar,
Mahatma
, vol. 3, p. 201.

47
   
The time had come
: Omvedt,
Ambedkar
, p. 61.

48
   
If any admiration
: B. R. Ambedkar,
Annihilation of Caste
, pp. 84–86.

49
   “
Obviously, he would like
”: B. R. Ambedkar,
What Congress and Gandhi Have Done to the Untouchables
, p. 277.

50
   
But there’s suggestive
: Rajmohan Gandhi,
Gandhi
, p. 597.

51
   “
a flair for action
”: Nehru,
Toward Freedom
, p. 240.

52
   
He also knew that
: This is made clear in a discussion between Nehru and Mahadev Desai, on August 23, 1934, summarized in an as-yet-unpublished English translation of a portion of Mahadev Desai’s diary on file at the Gandhi Memorial Library, pp. 121–24.

53
   
This provoked the Bengali
: Tendulkar,
Mahatma
, vol. 3, p. 205.

54
   “
Life ceases to interest me
”: Ibid., p. 215.

55
   “
If Mr. Gandhi now feels
”: Ibid., pp. 215, 217.

56
   
He was thus maneuvered
: Ibid., p. 216.

57
   
An early conclusion
: The reports by colonial officials on the Gandhi tour are on file in the archive of the Nehru Memorial Museum. Many but not all of these reports have been excerpted in Ray,
Gandhi’s Campaign Against Untouchability
.

58
   “
I am quite sure
”: Tendulkar,
Mahatma
, vol. 3, p. 281.

59
   “
We can’t even say
”: Unpublished English translation of a portion of Mahadev Desai’s diary, for autumn 1934, on file at the Gandhi Memorial Library. See p. 162.

60
   “
The only way we can
”: Tendulkar,
Mahatma
, vol. 3, p. 280.

61
   
Near the end of the tour
: Ray,
Gandhi’s Campaign Against Untouchability
, p. 220.

62
   
It so preoccupied him
: Rajmohan Gandhi,
Gandhi
, p. 362.

63
   “
Anything more opposed
”: Nehru,
Toward Freedom
, p. 301.

64
   
Tagore said Gandhi’s logic
: Rajmohan Gandhi,
Gandhi
, pp. 362–63.

65
   “
Our sins and errors
”: Tendulkar,
Mahatma
, vol. 3, p. 250.

66
   “
I would be untruthful
”: Ibid., p. 251.

67
   
The sanatanists were
: Nayar,
Preparing for Swaraj
, pp. 207–8.

68
   
In Poona, near the end
: Ray,
Gandhi’s Campaign against Untouchability
, p. 178.

69
   “
Dr. Ambedkar complained
”: Ibid., pp. 46–47.

70
   “
the growing pauperism
”:
CWMG
, 2nd ed., vol. 65, pp. 178–79.

71
   “
I have lost the power
”:
CWMG
, vol. 59, p. 218.

72
   
He ended the tour at Wardha
: Tendulkar,
Mahatma
, vol. 3, p. 282.

73
   “
The sanatanists are now
”: Ibid., p. 283.

74
   “
a profound error for me
”: Ibid., p. 297.

75
   
He was going in the opposite
: Ibid., pp. 280, 296.

76
   “
None of them knows
”:
CWMG
, vol. 61, p. 403, cited in Brown,
Gandhi
, p. 292.

77
   “
What I am aiming for
”: Tendulkar,
Mahatma
, vol. 4, p. 304.

1
   “
The villagers have a lifeless life
”: Nayar,
Preparing for Swaraj
, p. 301.

2
   “
a mechanical performance
”:
Harijan
, Aug. 17, 1934.

3
   
Later he allowed himself
:
CWMG
, vol. 60, p. 58.

4
   “
We have to work away
”: Tendulkar,
Mahatma
, vol. 5, p. 245.

5
   “
We have to become speechless
”:
CWMG
, 2nd ed., vol. 65, p. 432.

6
   
Now, by working again
:
CWMG
, vol. 59, p. 179.

7
   
Once he resolved
: Ibid, p. 312.

8
   “
Wardha became the de facto
”: Weber,
Gandhi as Disciple and Mentor
, p. 104.

9
   
By the end of the decade
: Tendulkar,
Mahatma
, vol. 5, pp. 17–18.

10
   “
shame some Japanese
”: Ibid., p. 14.

11
   “
You must not
”: Ibid., p. 15. It’s not clear whether a translator, editor, or Gandhi himself was responsible for this odd misuse of the word “clout” for what might have been termed a codpiece, breechcloth, cup, or even “jewel case.” In one of its more obscure definitions, “clout” can refer to a leather or iron patch.

12
   “
Who knows
”: Ibid., p. 347.

13
   
As might have been expected
: Payne,
Life and Death of Mahatma Gandhi
, pp. 464–65. Also see Rajmohan Gandhi,
Gandhi
, pp. 406–7.

14
   “
The people are completely shameless
”: Narayan Desai,
The Fire and the Rose
, pp. 601–2.

15
   
No road, as yet
: Slade,
Spirit’s Pilgrimage
, pp. 202–3.

16
   “
If you will cooperate
”:
CWMG
, vol. 62, p. 332.

17
   “
a very charming
”: Slade,
Spirit’s Pilgrimage
, p. 203.

18
   
The hut that he was to occupy
: Nayar,
Preparing for Swaraj
, p. 366.

19
   
Ashram and village
: Rajmohan Gandhi,
Gandhi
, pp. 380–81.

20
   “
Oh God
”:
CWMG
, vol. 59, p. 402.

21
   
Gandhi’s letters were full
:
CWMG
, 2nd ed., vol. 65, p. 371.

22
   
A Christian, he was known
: Kumarappa had studied economics at Columbia University with Edwin Seligman, who also taught Ambedkar.

23
   
the last Western economist
: See reference in E. F. Schumacher, who quotes Kumarappa briefly.
Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered
(Point Roberts, Wash., reprint, 1999), p. 39.

24
   “
The Association
”:
CWMG
, vol. 59, p. 452.

25
   “
Full-timers, whole-hoggers
”: Ibid., p. 411.

26
   “
necessary adjustment
”: Ibid., vol. 62, p. 319.

27
   “
So! You are already tired!
”: Narayan Desai,
The Fire and the Rose
, pp. 602–3.

28
   “
If this does not work
”:
CWMG
, vol. 62, p. 239.

29
   
When one of his workers
: Tendulkar,
Mahatma
, vol. 4, p. 96.

30
   “
The only way is to sit
”:
CWMG
, vol. 62, p. 379.

31
   “
Our ambition is to make
”: Ibid., p. 378.

32
   
Soon he came down
: Slade,
Spirit’s Pilgrimage
, p. 207.

33
   
A United Nations survey
: Malise Ruthven, “Excremental India,”
New York Review of Books
, May 13, 2010.

34
   
What such latter-day
:
Muhammad Yunus, the
Nobel Peace Prize laureate who leads the
Grameen Bank in neighboring Bangladesh, is aware of similarities between his approach to rural poverty and Gandhi’s, but does not cite the Mahatma as an influence on the development of his thinking in his book
Banker to the Poor
(New Delhi, 2007). The same is true of
Fazle Hasan Abed, the leader of the even larger
BRAC Bank, also in Bangladesh, another pioneer in what is called “social entrepreneurship.” See Ian Smillie,
Freedom from Want
(Sterling, Va., 2009).

35
   
According to one of the untouchable
: Keer,
Dr. Ambedkar
, p. 268.

36
   
The observation had provoked
: Narayan Desai,
My Life Is My Message
, vol. 3,
Satyapath
, p. 172.

37
   
Within a few months
: “Caste Has to Go,”
Harijan
, Nov. 16, 1935;
CWMG
, vol. 62, pp. 121–22.

38
   
Actually, their deepest difference
:
CWMG
, vol. 67, p. 359.

39
   
As interpreted by D. R. Nagaraj
: Nagaraj,
Flaming Feet
, p. 39.

40
   
From the standpoint
: Ibid., pp. 24–25.

41
   
The impatience of the Ezhavas
: Tendulkar,
Mahatma
, vol. 4, p. 97.

42
   “
Would you preach the Gospel
”: Ibid., p. 101.

43
   
In his weekly
:
CWMG
, vol. 65, p. 296.

44
   
Indignant over the foreigner’s
:
Harijan
, June 12, 1937.

45
   “
None of our Hindu subjects
”: Mahadev Desai,
Epic of Travancore
, p. 40.

46
   
So the old man now recalled
: Interview with the maharajah of Travancore, Jan. 15, 2009.

47
   “
truly captivating
”:
CWMG
, vol. 64, p. 255.

48
   
At nearly every stop
: Mahadev Desai,
Epic of Travancore
, pp. 218–19.

49
   “
I must tell you
”:
CWMG
, vol. 64, p. 248.

50
   
Ever since his provocative
: Ibid., p. 62.

51
   “
What a wide gap
”: Ibid., p. 132.

52
   “
No worker who has not
”: Ibid., p. 61.

53
   “
Gandhi’s asceticism
”: Parekh,
Colonialism, Tradition, and Reform
, pp. 205–6.

54
   “
I can suppress the enemy
”: Ibid., p. 207.

55
   
In Bombay, recuperating
:
CWMG
, vol. 62, pp. 428–30.

56
   
In less graphic terms
: Ibid., p. 212.

57
   “
the revolting things
”: Saint Augustine,
Confessions
, translated by Garry Wills (New York, 2006), p. 27.

58
   “
He remains the same wreck
”: Dalal,
Harilal Gandhi
, p. 105.

59
   “
That degrading, dirty
”:
CWMG
, vol. 67, p. 61.

60
   “
For the first time
”: Ibid., p. 37.

61
   “
I am after all
”: Cited by Thomson,
Gandhi and His Ashramas
, p. 228.

62
   “
Not only have I not
”:
CWMG
, vol. 64, p. 175.

63
   “
I am told that you are indifferent
”: Ibid., vol. 65, p. 301.

64
   
By speaking of failure
: Ibid., p. 240.

65
   “
There is a hiatus
”: Thomson,
Gandhi and His Ashramas
, p. 219.

66
   
an ideal he brought home
: Gandhi started advocating
spinning before he’d ever touched a spinning wheel. The idea, he later said, came to him during his 1909 trip to London “as in a flash.” He didn’t even know the difference between a spinning wheel and a handloom. In
Hind Swaraj
, written on his 1909 voyage back to South Africa, he writes of “ancient and sacred handlooms” when, so it seems, he’s thinking of the charkha. See an extended footnote on this point by
Anthony J. Parel in his edition of
Hind Swaraj
, p. 230. Narayan Desai makes the same point in the first volume of
My Life Is My Message
, p. 459.

67
   “
I am utterly helpless
”:
CWMG
, vol. 65, p. 231.

68
   “
Unfortunately the higher castes
”:
CWMG
, 2nd ed., vol. 70, p. 461.

69
   “
a strange medley
”: Slade,
Spirit’s Pilgrimage
, p. 191.

70
   “
Quite a few are only temporary
”:
CWMG
, vol. 67, p. 327.

71
   “
show the results
”: Mark Lindley,
J. C. Kumarappa: Mahatma Gandhi’s Economist
(Mumbai, 2007), p. 144.

72
   “
Whatever I do
”:
CWMG
, vol. 73, cited in Thomson,
Gandhi and His Ashramas
, p. 209.

73
   
As late as 1945
: Pyarelal,
Mahatma Gandhi: Last Phase
, vol. 1, p. 48.

74
   
It’s not difficult to feel
: Thomson,
Gandhi and His Ashramas
, p. 227.

75
   “
We cannot command
”: Tendulkar,
Mahatma
, vol. 5, p. 79.

76
   “
Let no one say”:
Ibid., p. 245.

77
   “
How I should love
”:
CWMG
, vol. 96, pp. 277, 284.

78
   “
There is something frightening
”: Pyarelal,
Mahatma Gandhi: Last Phase
, vol. 1, pp. 104–5.

79
   
The moment of reunion
:
Harijan
, May 29, 1937.

80
   
Kallenbach wore a dhoti
: Sarid and Bartolf,
Hermann Kallenbach
, p. 73.

81
   “
There are few people
”: Shimoni,
Gandhi, Satyagraha, and the Jews
, pp. 28–29.

82
   
firm position on the subject:
See
CWMG
, vol. 19, p. 472, where Gandhi, on March 23, 1921, disputes the British right to make a commitment on Palestine to the Jews.

83
   “
The sender’s name
”: Shimoni,
Gandhi, Satyagraha, and the Jews
, p. 35.

84
   “
I quite clearly see
”:
CWMG
, vol. 96, pp. 290, 292.

85
   “
In my opinion the Jews
”: Sarid and Bartolf,
Hermann Kallenbach
, pp. 75–76.

86
   
Buber writes
: Shimoni,
Gandhi, Satyagraha, and the Jews
, pp. 40–47.

87
   “
Will you listen
”: Tendulkar,
Mahatma
, vol. 5, p. 160.

88
   
The letter to Hitler began
: Rajmohan Gandhi,
Gandhi
, p. 400.

89
   “
I can’t imagine anyone
”: Mansergh and Lumby,
Transfer of Power
, vol. 5, p. 41.

90
   “
If there ever could be
”: Rajmohan Gandhi,
Gandhi
, p. 400.

91
   
However, when Britain finally
: Ibid., p. 425.

92
   “
I am in perpetual quarrel
”:
CWMG
, vol. 70, p. 162.