More than a hundred years after the first book on Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was published, the man who preached peace and non-violence continues to fascinate historians, journalists and his descendants alike
The life and times of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi continues to fascinate writers even 65 years after his demise. Historians, academics and authors are still looking to study his thoughts and ideas in a new perspective, even though much has already been written on the Mahatma, including several biographies. Some believe that American journalist louis Fischer’s The life of Mahatma Gandhi, which served as the basis for the Academy Award-winning film Gandhi, towers above them all.
Even if that were the case, the credit for writing the first biography on the Mahatma goes to a little known Christian missionary, Joseph Doke. He was a friend of the Mahatma’s in South Africa and deeply was impressed by him. Doke first met Gandhi in Johannesburg in 1907 and the two men hit it off right away with an extended conversation on the plight of blacks in South Africa. Interestingly, when Doke’s MK Gandhi — An Indian patriot in South Africa was published in 1909, Gandhi, only 39 years old at that time, was still decades away from becoming the Mahatma. The first Indian edition of MK Gandhi was published in April 1919 by a Madras-based publisher GA Natesan.
Doke wrote at length about Gandhi’s family background and his childhood. A chapter was also devoted to the time he had spent in london and, thereafter, his eventful tenure in South Africa. Additionally, Doke also explored Gandhi’s religious leanings and noted in his book that his friend had been deeply moved by Christ’s Sermon on the Mount from the Bible, which eventually inspired him to launch the Passive Resistance Movement against the Asiatic law Amendment ordinance passed by the Provisional Government of Transvaal. The new law required every Asian to carry an identity card at all times. Gandhi regarded this as an insult to the entire Asian community in South Africa. According to Doke, two works would always be associated with Gandhi in South Africa: The weekly journal, Indian Opinion and the Phoenix Settlement.
Apart from friends, Gandhi’s family members have also written at length about him. For instance, his second son’s daughter, Ela Gandhi, a South Africa-based activist, has written several essays on him. Similarly, all three of his grandchildren from his youngest son Devdas, have also profiled various aspects of the Mahatma. Rajmohan Gandhi, for example, is the author of Mohandas: A True Story of a Man, His People and an Empire, which received the prestigious Biennial Award from the Indian History Congress in 2007, and has since been published in several countries. His younger brother, Ramchandra Gandhi, the renowned playwright, captured the Mahatma on celluloid and on-stage though his many plays including the acclaimed dance-drama Sanmati, which was based on chapters six to 10 of The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Gandhi’s autobiography. Their third brother, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the former Governor of West Bengal, has also written a series of books on the Mahatma that includes, Gandhi is Gone: Who will Guide Us NowIJ and Gandhi and Sri lanka.
In the next generation, Mahatma Gandhi’s great-granddaughter Nilam Parikh, for example, has explored his relations with his estranged son and her grandfather Harilal Gandhi in her 2001 book, Gandhijinu Khovayelu Dhan: Harilal (Gandhi’s lost Jewel: Harilal). She writes, “There was a mutual respect between them. He was the best of Gandhi’s four sons, both in intelligence and courage, the only one who had the guts to stand up to his father. If destiny hadn’t willed otherwise, Harilal would have been Gandhi’s true successor.”
Another of the Mahatma’s great-grandchildren, Uma Dhupelia-Mesthrie, has written about his relationship with his second son and her grand-father Manilal in her book, Gandhi’s Prisoner: The life of Gandhi's Son Manilal, that was published in 2005. Ms Dhupelia-Mesthrie now teaches history at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town. Another of Manilal Gandhi’s grandchildren, Tushar Gandhi, is the author of the controversial book, let’s Kill Gandhi: A Chronicle of His last Days, the Conspiracy, Murder, Investigations and Trial. Published in 2007, this book was criticised for unfairly blaming Brahmins for the Mahatma’s assassination.
But Mr Tushar Gandhi has stressed that his claims relate only to “a certain group of Brahmins from Pune were continuously attempting on the life of my great grandfather”, rather than to Brahmins in general. It is perhaps indicative of his emotive mindset that in the title of the book, the word “kill” is printed in red.
One only hopes that more members of the Gandhi clan will write on him in the years to come. There is a lot that we need to learn from the Mahatma’s life and times, more so at this stage.
