Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 29.djvu/6



This volume covers the period from November 22, 1925 to February 10, 1926. It commences with Gandhiji’s book Satyagraha in South Africa, the serial publication of which was concluded in Navajivan, 22-11-1925. Satyagraha in South Africa constitutes a basic document for understanding the genesis and progress of an epic struggle which Gandhiji has recollected in tranquillity and recorded with scrupulous care for the benefit of those who “would follow in all its detail the working out of the search for Truth”. Besides the vivid narrative of events and portraits of persons, there are reflections (like those on the value of account-keeping, pp. 102-3) which explain the simplicity and strength of Gandhiji’s practical philosophy.

The short period of less than three months covered by this volume is marked, at the outset, by a 7 days’ fast by Gandhiji due to moral lapses in the Ashram. On December 1, he addressed the students before breaking the fast and issued a statement to the Press after it. Arriving at Wardha on December 10, he rested there for 11 days, and left on December 22 for the Congress session at Kanpur where, on December 26, he made a powerful speech on the resolution on South Africa.

On January 3, in Navajivan, Gandhiji announced his decision to voluntarily retire for one year from public work and rest within the confines of the Ashram. Tours were cut out; the period was thus uneventful and offered few occasions for public speaking. In his speech at Wardha on December 21, he dwells movingly on the beauty of life in the Ashram.

The problem of Indians in South Africa features prominently in this volume. This was due to Dr. Malan’s Bill which, Gandhiji said, “breathes through every line of it, the racial spirit” and is “a clear breach” of the Gandhi-Smuts Agreement of 1914. In “Indians in South Africa”, “The South African Deputation”, and particularly in “South African Puzzle”, Gandhiji deals with this problem of “highly racial legislation”. The last of these items stands out as a vigorous and well-reasoned piece of writing,