Book review: Ramachandra Guha,Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World,1914–1948

Ramachandra Guha, the author of Gandhi Before India, the first volume of the monumental biography that this book concludes, approaches Gandhi on his own terms while trying not to gloss over his flaws. The previous volume had described Gandhi’s years in South Africa. This volume picks up the story from Gandhi’s return to India till his assassination by a Hindu fanatic in January 1948, just months after India achieved independence. The coverage encompasses both World Wars and the struggle for India’s independence, providing a portrait of a man whose commitment to human values, truth, non-violence, civil liberties and democratic functioning remained constant, while his opinions on the caste system, inter-caste and inter-religious dining and marriages, doctrine of trusteeship, landlord–peasant relations, capitalism, socialism, the parliamentary system, relationship between religion and politics, use of machinery and other issues underwent changes, sometimes drastic and, invariably, in more radical directions.

Guha scoured numerous archives and libraries to search out fascinating nuggets and skilfully marshals the details. Knowing much has been written on Gandhi, Guha authored this weighty biography because he wants to narrate Gandhi’s life for today’s generation. This is a courageous and worthwhile endeavour, even if Guha admits in the epilogue that we have forgotten the lessons Gandhi sought to teach, especially the value of religious pluralism and the virtues of non-violence and civil disobedience.

The volume is divided into five parts. The first (1915–22) focuses on Gandhi’s efforts to absorb the reality of India, his experimentation with satyagraha and his ascent to political leadership. The second (1922–31) is dedicated to Gandhi’s moral and political engagements in his ashram, in India and beyond. The third part (1931–37) highlights Gandhi’s crusade against untouchability and the fourth (1937–44) anatomises Gandhi’s political conflicts and his confrontations with the British. Finally, the fifth part documents his last 4 years (1944–48), consumed as they were by demands for partition, the resultant violence and the loss of some of his closest aides.

The book comprises of three elements. First, there is a summary of Gandhi’s political career, a narrative interrupted now and then by the second element, stories from his private life. Of these, Gandhi’s platonic relationship with a married woman, Sarala Devi Chaudhrani, takes pride of place. The more salacious story about Gandhi involves his experiments, late in life, of sleeping naked with Manu Gandhi in order to test his celibacy. The views of Gandhi’s contemporaries make up the final element. Most important seem to be the impressions of westerners, an audience both represented in the book and addressed by it. However, there is no serious consideration by Guha of Gandhi’s reception in other colonised countries.

Written in engaging prose, the book takes the reader on a step-by-step journey, episode by engrossing episode. Guha guides us through Gandhi’s speeches and travels, his daily chores, his conversations and correspondences, his decisions and choices, the impression he made on people and the impressions they made on him, his worldview and the world’s view of him. A significant feature of the book is its chronicling of Gandhi’s daily routine, with all its peculiarities, including his ability to fall asleep in 3 minutes, his meticulous planning and his editorial adeptness. He woke up invariably at 3.30 am and had a hot shower, followed by a breakfast of goat’s milk and boiled vegetables. His frugal diet was dominated by fruit and nuts. The details Guha presents reflect Gandhi’s obsession to keep everything about his life open and transparent. Guha also carefully follows the evolution of Gandhi’s relationship with his four sons, from tension and estrangement to paternalism and affection.

Guha as a quintessential storyteller recounts a lengthy and seamless tale. At times, this style of writing proves discomfiting. For example, on 13 April 1919, a mass murder was committed at Jallianwala Bagh. Guha narrates the tragedy in a few pages, and just as we expect to read how Gandhi reacted to this unparalleled violence, Guha rapidly moves on to the development of the journal Young India, and the art of spinning and weaving. The account returns to Jallianwala Bagh many pages later, but the thread is lost. This particular tragedy is marginalised in the voluminous tome.

Guha also details the complexity of Gandhi’s relationships with dominant political figures. The most compelling political relationship Guha reveals concerns the relationship between Gandhi and Ambedkar. The book charts the two men’s interactions over decades, along with Gandhi’s own changing views on caste. Even while Gandhi saw some value in the caste system in his early years, he opposed untouchability. Guha details Gandhi’s exhaustive campaigns to allow ‘Untouchables’ into temples, and his many attempts to persuade other Hindus of his caste to accept them. Indeed, Gandhi did much brave and important work. But to Guha, he still characterised ‘Untouchables’ as ‘helpless men and women’ (p. 433) who required a ‘caste Hindu’ saviour. Gandhi’s rhetoric, Guha says, ‘sounded patronising, robbing “Untouchables” of agency, of being able to articulate their own demands and grievances’ (p. 433). The facts do not substantiate Guha’s assessments. For example, Gandhi agreed with Ambedkar that there should be ‘no repetition of the old method when the reformer claimed to know more of the requirements of his victims than the victims themselves’ (Gandhi, 1956–94, Vol. 51: 347–8), and he wanted that workers should ‘ascertain from the representatives of Harijans what their first need is and how they would like it to be satisfied’ (Gandhi, 1956–94, Vol. 51: 348). Gandhi repeatedly emphasised that it was necessary to know the ‘Harijan’ mind in any programme of work that may be taken up. The Constitution of the Harijan Sevak Sangh also laid down that every Board or Committee shall have as many Harijan members as possible (Gandhi, 1935: 8, 16), giving them a direct voice in its management.

The saddest part of the story is told in the penultimate chapter, titled ‘Martyrdom’. Guha chronicles the vicious insistence of the Hindu Right that all Muslims should leave India after Partition. But there was Gandhi, agonising over the safety of Muslims in independent India, fasting for communal harmony and speaking of love and brotherhood. Lord Mountbatten, India’s last British viceroy, wrote to Gandhi expressing amazement at how the Mahatma’s mere presence in Bengal significantly reduced the communal violence there, while a force of 50,000 soldiers was unable to achieve anything similar in the Punjab. On 18 January 1948, Jawaharlal Nehru remarked aptly at a large public meeting in Subzi Mandi, Delhi, that ‘there is only one frail old man in our country who has all along stuck to the right path’ (p. 873).

On 20 January 1948, the General Secretary of the Hindu Mahasabha declared that his organisation would never accept Gandhi’s insistence that the Muslim minority in India should be treated equally, whatever be the treatment meted out to Hindus in Pakistan. Disregarding such statements, Gandhi made preparations to visit Pakistan. This was not to be, however, as he was killed by a rabid Hindu fundamentalist on 30 January 1948. Guha cites a tribute appearing in the News Chronicle: ‘The hand that killed the Mahatma is the same hand that nailed the Cross […]. It is your hand and mine’ (p. 889). The author of the tribute proved prescient. Are we not complicit in making Gandhi irrelevant for our day and age? Violence no longer seems to affect us. We lead lives without sufficient thought or care for the disadvantaged. Guha enables us to understand that once there was a man in India who motivated people not only to change their own lives but also the lives of others. We would do well to remember this man and his mission. For the same hands that assassinated Gandhi continue to maim and brutalise our own people.