Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 1.djvu/15

 The Government of India have undertaken this project of publishing the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi not merely from a sense of requiting a nation's debt to the architect of its freedom, but from the conviction that all the writings, speeches and letters of the Mahatma need to be collected and recorded in one place for the benefit of posterity.

This series proposes to bring together all that Gandhiji said and wrote, day after day, year after year. His mission extended over half a century and influenced many other countries besides our own. Few great men have given their attention to a greater variety of life’s problems. Those who knew him in the body as he trod this earth, striving every moment to practise what he believed, owe it co those who cannot have the privilege of learning by his presence and example, that they should hand over to the coming generations the rich heritage of his teachings in its purity and, as far as possible, in its entirety.

Gandhiji’s writings, speeches and letters cover the period 1884-1948, and almost sixty years of very active public life. They are to be found scattered in various parts of the world, more especially in the three countries, India, England and South Africa.

The writings and speeches lie not only in the few books he wrote or were published during his life-time, but also in dusty files, Government records and Blue-books, and in stacks of old newspapers and journals in English, Gujarati and Hindi. His letters are with innumerable individuals, high and low, rich and poor, of every race and creed, all over the world. It is necessary to collect all such material before it perishes or is lost.

Several collections or, more correctly, compilations of his writings and speeches no doubt already exist. They have been published, notably by the Navajivan Publishing House, Ahmedabad, under a Trust established by Gandhiji himself. Valuable as these publications are, most of them are limited to the Indian period of Gandhiji’s work, and primarily to what was published in his own journals like Navajivan, Young India and the Harijan group of weeklies. Besides, they are arranged for the most part topic-wise, so that, sometimes, only extracts from a writing or speech relevant to a particular topic arc given and other portions omitted.

So far as letters arc concerned, the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi has done a great service by collecting and photostating as many