Do we need another biography of Gandhi? Yes, according to Dr Ramachandra Guha

Guha, Ramachandra

LSE Research Online

2013-11-19Gandhi before Indiablogs.lse.ac.uk /southasia/2013/11/19/gandhi-before-india/Do we need another biography of Gandhi? Yes, according to Dr Ramachandra Guha .Do we need another biography of Gandhi? This is the question with which Dr Ramachandra Guha launched GandhiBefore India, the first volume of his two-part biography of Mohandas K. Gandhi, at LSE last week ( click here for anaudio recording of the event). The biography spans Gandhi’s life from his birth in 1869 to 1914, when he returned toIndia after living in South Africa for two decades.Mahatma Gandhi when he was practising as anattorney in South Africa. He is seated in front of awindow bearing his name, on the left is Henry Polak,and on the right is his secretary Sonja Schlesin.Speaking at LSE, Guha explained why he felt anothertelling of Gandhi’s time in South Africa was necessary.He pointed out that Gandhi’s time outside Indiacomprised half his life, but receives about one-fifth ofthe attention from his many biographers. Moreover,Gandhi’s early years are often viewed teleologically,interpreted to inform what came later.But for Guha, Gandhi’s years in South Africa are trulyformative, essential to understanding his personal andprofessional trajectory. It was through his relationshipsin South Africa with people of other religions thatGandhi became a religious pluralist; it was through hisexposure in the diaspora to a variety of Indians – Hindi-speakers, Muslims, Tamils, Bengalis – that Gandhiunderstood his country’s heterogeneity and diversityand became a true Indian; it was in South Africa thatGandhi became critical of the Indian patriarchalapproach to women, and where he started to practicecivil disobedience and non-violence, or satyagraha.Without his time in South Africa, Guha suggested, Gandhi may not have emerged as a person of rare moralcourage.Guha also explained that the reliance of recent biographers on the 97 volumes of The Collected Works of MahatmaGandhi gave impetus to his new book project. Rather than reinterpret Gandhi’s oeuvre, Guha’s book seeks tounderstand the lawyer-turned-activist from multiple angles—Gandhi’s writings; his friends and followers’perspectives; and the point of view of adversaries and critics.To this end, Guha described how he collected information from multiple sources to encapsulate Gandhi’scontroversial life. The sources include letters by and to Gandhi stored in archives around the world, police andgovernment records, news clippings from both the Indian and international press, and even a rare collection ofmaterials in the Israeli port of Haifa.During the book launch, Guha was willing to point out Gandhi’s shortcomings – he was a second-class student inhis youth, and failed to establish a legal career for himself in either Rajkot or (then) Bombay – but also highlight how1/2these led to his successes in South Africa. For example, on failing to establish himself as a lawyer in Rajkot, Gandhitook up an invitation to travel to South Africa to settle a dispute between Gujarati businessmen. Once there, heestablished a successful practice, and eventually became drawn into racial politics, mediating between the Indiandiaspora and the Natal and Transvaal governments to champion Indian rights.Another reason why Guha felt compelled to write this biography was to increase the profile of Gandhi’s mentors,followers, and friends from his time abroad, first in London, and then in South Africa. For, as Guha puts it, a goodbiography needs a good cast of secondary characters. And while the ‘supporting cast’ of Gandhi’s life from his yearsof involvement in India’s Independence movement is well known, the cast from South Africa remains largelyanonymous.Guha’s audience at LSE was therefore regaled with tales about the odd couple Henry Polak, a Jewish journalist,and Millie Graham, a Christian socialist, with whom Gandhi shared a home in Johannesburg. This period ofGandhi’s life was defined by feisty arguments about language, food, religion, politics, and patriarchy. Others whoseimpact on Gandhi was worth learning about included Sonja Schlesin, his secretary, and Pranjivan Mehta, “theEngels to Gandhi’s Marx”, his oldest friend, confidant, patron, and the first person to call him ‘mahatama’.Clearly, Guha is correct in thinking that the world could do with another biography of Gandhi.Dr Ramachandra Guha is author of Gandhi Before India and was Philippe Roman Chair in History and InternationalAffairs at LSE IDEAS for 2011-2012.Photo credit: DNACopyright © 2016 London School of Economics2/2

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