Shri Pyarelal, who for the better part of his life lived with Gandhiji, has already brought out in two volumes Mahatma Gandhi – The Last Phase. He is now bringing out a volume Mahatma Gandhi – The Early Phase. The present volume gives an account of Gandhiji’s life from his birth and childhood till his first brief visit to India from South Africa in 1896. In South Africa, Gandhiji struggled to remove race discrimination….. Large parts of Africa are now in a position to shape their future according to their own States, the Civil Rights Bill has been passed into Law. American Negroes are getting into their own. Gandhiji’s influence has been, to some extent, responsible for this increasing recognition of equality of races. Gandhiji was essentially a man of religion. For him politics was religion in action. His religion was broad, non-sectarian and non-dogmatic. He believed in the ultimate Supreme Being and he says that for thirty years he struggled to see God face to face. An authentically religious man is one who has this personal insight into the nature of God. When once we have this insight, we do not quarrel over the names we give to Him or the approaches we adopt to reach Him…. Sarva Dharma Samanatva (equality of all religions) was an essential part of his faith. His universality of outlook showed itself in his dealings with others. Those who read Shri Pyarelal’s writings on Gandhiji will be struck by the prophetic quality of Gandhiji’s genius, his practical good sense and his love for humanity. Gokhale’s memorable words, which he said in 1912, have been confirmed by a lifetime of devotion, dedication and sacrifice: A purer, a nobler, a braver and a more exalted spirit has never moved on this earth….. He is a man who may well be described a man among men, a hero among heroes, a patriot among patriots, and we may well say that in him Indian humanity at the present time has really reached its high-water mark.
Vo;l. 2 : In the Discovery of Satyagraha – On the Threshold, chronologically the second volume of Shri Pyarelal’s multi-volume biography of Mahatma Gandhi, the author presents an in-depth study of the growth of the Mahatma’s mind, personality and political outlook, but especially of the gradual emergence of his philosophy of Satyagraha. The book begins with the dramatic and moving story of Gandhiji’s landing at Durban in 1896 in the teeth of hysterical anti-Indian propaganda and violent opposition of the Durbaite whites. It covers the period of the Boer War and the work of the Indian Ambulance Contingent under Gandhiji’s leadership, the postwar development of the Indian question in the four British colonies in South Africa ad Gandhiji’s visit to India in the last quarter of 1901. It ends with the close of 1902 when in answer to the call of duty Gandhiji returned to South Africa to lead the Indian Deputation to Chamberlain. In a series of vivid pen-pictures, the author recreates through meticulous research and insight the figure of Gandhiji, the man, at the centre of significant episodes. These passages are compulsive reading, and reveal the labour of love which has built them up out of half-forgotten contemporary records and other firsthand sources. Equally conscientious labour has been expended on the circumstances in which Gandhiji worked, the characters and motives of the men of all races with whom he had to deal and the development of the political climate which influenced them all. We are taken through the intricate maze of historical events that filled the turbulent close of the nineteenth century in South Africa was being repainted and redrawn and the imperial doctrine was taking birth. We see Gandhiji gradually being moulded by history which he would himself in his turn later mould. We are shown the inner springs of this process of change and the elements it introduced in the character of the Mahatma-to-be which made him what he was.
Vol. 3 : Like many other young men of that time, Pyarelal had been greatly upset by the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of innocent men, women and children, who had gathered at Jallianwala Bagh to hold a public meeting General Dyer ordered his soldiers to fire at them without a warning. Later, he admitted before the Hunter Committee that the firing had continued till the ammunition was exhausted. He said he wanted to teach the Indians a lesson which they would never forget. Bad as the tragedy of Jallianwala Bagh massacre had been, the British rulers had added insult to injury by clamping martial law, and inflicting untold humiliations on the people in the Punjab. Heads of educational institutions were ordered to rusticate a certain percentage of students, whether guilty of any offence or not, in order to instil a healthy respect for, and a fear of, authority in their hearts. What was worse, these heads of educational institutions were too frightened to resist the unjust orders of their white masters and did what they were told to do. This oppressed and suffocate the youth of the Punjab. Pyarelal went to attend the Congress Session at Amristar in 1919, where he saw and heard Mahatma Gandhi. The very first contact with Gandhiji convinced him that here was the master he would like to serve. But Gandhiji at first advised him to go back and complete his studies. But later when he launched the Non-cooperation movement, which included boycott of Government Educational institutions, he allowed Pyarelal to leave his studies before he could appear for his M.A. examination. Pyarelal joined Gandhiji’s Ashram at Sabarmati and became a member of his entourage. Gandhiji trained Pyarelal to serve him in various capacities, including secretarial work, writing for Young India and Harijan, meeting people on his master’s behalf, guiding youth in Satyagraha as well as taking up spinning, sanitation and kitchen work. Offering Satyagraha and going to prison was a part of every one’s life in the Ashram. Pyarelal went to jail in every Satyagraha movement. He was 20 when he joined Gandhiji and he served him for 28 years as a close associate till the master fell to the assassin’s bullet on 30th January 1948 at Birla House in New Delhi.
Vol. 4 : Ames are crucial. They could be named the real history of the “Birth and Coming of Age of Satyagraha”. The sowing of its seed, its nascent sprouting and its successful use by a random mass of oppressed and suffering Indians in a foreign Land ruled by heartless Whites, blinded by racial pride and unscrupulous in the use of violence are all here. Along with it is the emergence of the sponsor, inspirer, and the unerring guide of Satyagraha, Gandhi. He was slowly but surely rising to eminence leading the helpless to victory through Ahimsa and self-suffering of almost super-human dimensions on the strength of their own Soul-force. Like mercy, does Satyagraha blesseth him that gives and him that takes! Be it so!!! – from preface by R.R. Dewakar. The narrative moves between the personal life of Gandhiji and the great figures and forces of the British Empire which were his antagonists, but at every stage the author is concerned to examine each significant action as a manifestation of the philosophy of Satyagraha. Indeed, it may not be an exaggeration to say that the true subject of the volume is not Gandhiji the person but his gift of Satyagraha to the world. If so, I would think that he would agree that her priorities are in the right order. – from Editor’s foreword by JAMES D. HUNT.
Vol. 5 : The present volume, India Awakened, records the events from the time Gandhiji left South Africa for England, to meet Sri G.K. Gokhale and his return to India in January 1915. This book deals with Satyagraha in Champaran, Kheda, and among the textile workers of Ahmedabad, demonstrating Gandhiji’s unique qualities of improvisation and leadership. His steadfast adherence to non-violent Satyagraha has been ably presented by Sushila Nayar. The book carries the story to the momentous years when Gandhiji assumed the leadership of the Indian National Congress. The Story of the Khilafat Movement and the national upsurge against the Rowlatt legislation called the Non-Cooperation Movement, are faithfully narrated. It shows the wide-based response that Gandhiji’s moral leadership evoked all over this land. The core of this book deals with Gandhiji’s setting India on the path of non-violent non-cooperation. Gandhiji discovered that the constructive programme was an essential national discipline and without it no success could be gained on the path of Satyagraha. Khadi, Hindu-Muslim unity, removal of untouchability and prohibition were the major planks of his constructive programme.
Vol. 6 : The Salt Satyagraha in the north and the south, in the east and the west of India was truly a watershed of India’s history. The British rulers scoffed at the very idea of the Salt March. A favourite saying the barracks was: “Let them make all the salt they want and eat it too. The Empire will not move an inch.” But as the Salt Satyagraha movement reached every town and village and millions of people rose in open rebellion, the Empire began to shake. Gandhiji stood like a giant in command of the political storm. It was not however only a political storm. It was a moral and cultural storm that rose from the inmost depths of the soul of India. The power of non-violence came like a great sunrise of history….. It was clear as crystal that British rule must give way before the rising tide of the will of the people. For me and perhaps for innumerable others also this was at the same time the discovery of Gandhiji and our determination to follow him whatever the cost.
Vol. 7 : This book is aptly captioned “Preparing for Swaraj”. It was indeed a trying period but also a period when great things like rejection of separate electorate for Depressed Classes, founding of Harijan Sevak Sangh, establishment of Gram Udyog and the Tamil Sangh were achieved. These served to prepare the people for their democratic rights and responsibilities. Dr. Sushila Nayar has spared no pains to make this volume informative and educative. She has made us feel as if we were living in those days. She richly deserves the thanks of the nation for giving such wealth of information to us and to the posterity. This volume, Volume VII, of Bapu’s multi-volume biography, covers one of the most important periods of India’s freedom struggle. It narrates the momentous events from December 28, 1931, when Gandhiji returned from London after attending the Round Table Conference, to October 1939, when the Congress ministries in the Provinces resigned because the British Government had, without consulting either the Indian political parties or the Indian legislature, declared India a belligerent country in the war against Germany.
Vol. 8 : To Gandhiji his arrest came as a surprise. He had believed that if the Government was genuinely anxious to avert a serious crisis in that critical phase of the war, he would be allowed to present his reading of the situation to the Viceroy for a detailed consideration and discussion. This did not happen. The Viceroy instead unleashed a campaign of terror and repression. The country was almost leaderless after the countrywide arrests of the Congress leadership on August 9, 1942. India’s especially young India’s answer to the savage repression was the heroic struggle that followed. The present volume is much more than an account of what happened during the Quit India Movement. It gives in considerable detail the political and international background of the struggle. It needed to be explained how Gandhiji, who had offered full moral sympathy and support to Britain and the Allied nations at the beginning of the war, came to the conclusion, as the war progressed, that Britain should quit India immediately both for her own good and the good of the cSountry and the Allied cause, including that of China and Russia.
Vol. 9 : The author of these pages, for a long time Mahatma Gandhi’s private secretary and, after Mahadev Desai’s death, editor of the Harijan weeklies, which Gandhiji was conducting, needs no introduction. His writings in Young India and Harijan and several works by him on Mahatma Gandhi published in Gandhiji’s lifetime and after have well established him as a faithful and authoritative chronicler and interpreter of Gandhiji’s life and philosophy. The present book deals with the last phase of Mahatma Gandhi’s career. It is thus a continuation of My Experiments with Truth written by the Mahatma himself. That book deals largely with what may be called the formative period of his life, when he was preparing himself of the great work that lay ahead of him. The present book covers the story of the past years of his life in which the results of all the experiments that he carried out throughout his career were put to their severest and final test. India achieved independence but at the cost of her unity. This was not the independence that Gandhiji or Congress had set out to achieve. But Gandhiji saw in it no reason for despair; it was not non-violence or rather his technique in inculcating the non-violence of his conception on the people. He set about to remedy the flaw. Some of the most fascinating pages of the book are devoted to describing the working of his mind in search of new techniques and the plans that had begun to form in his mind for setting India on the road to the realization of the new social order of his dreams in the changed circumstances – an order based upon unity and peace, equality and universal brotherhood and maximum freedom for all. The time had arrived when with all the experience gained and prestige acquired in the course of the Indian struggle for freedom which he had conducted for more than thirty years, Mahatma Gandhi could extend the ambit of his activities and take up causes in even more inauspicious circumstances and hostile conditions and thus prove that Ahimsa could work wonders even in the most adverse of circumstances. At this stage he was taken away. But the horoscope of his experiment is not yet exhausted and the ideas and forces that he has released may yet accomplish after his death things undreamt of and even more marvelous than were witnessed in his lifetime.
Vol. 10 : My Experiments with truth written by the Mahatma himself.... deals largely with.... the formative period of his life. the present books covers the story of the ! As, years of this life in which the results of all the experiments that he carried out through his career were put to their severest and final test. Satyagraha is a living principle; it cannot be summed up in inflexible set formulas.... it calls for correct understanding of the principles, but more than that their correct application to different situation and problems... This calls for a comprehensive, authentic and detailed record of what he did, how he did it and why he did it. It is only such a record of the variegated panorama in which small deeds and great fall in their true perspective that a true, faithful and soul-string, life-giving and enchanting picture of Mahatma Gandhi's life and teaching can be found to be contemplated, absorbed and enjoyed. The present work presents such an attempt... by one who had the opportunity to observe and know at first-hand the incidents and events which he has described and has the acumen and insight to interpret them correctly.