INTRODUCTION

This chapter deals with Gandhi’s life and work in India, from 1915, when he returned from South Africa, to his assassination in January 1948. This was the phase in his life when he became of central importance to the Indian nationalist movement, and a truly global political and moral figure. The chapter also provides readers with much of the historical evidence they need to know in order to progress to the following thematic chapters on aspects of his life and thought. One of the main messages of this collection of discussions about Gandhi is that, in his life, thinking and action were inseparable; this chapter considers both, alternating its vision between what Gandhi thought about his life and role and about the nature of the Indian nation for which he worked, and his specific activities. At the outset, it is helpful to consider the sources for this chapter, and also the broad chronological outline of Gandhi’s activities in these years.

SOURCES

The student of Gandhi’s life and thought has access to a wealth of published primary sources. Some of these are the books and pamphlets that Gandhi wrote himself. These are discussed in the following chapter on his key writings. Amongst them are his Autobiography, his original pamphlet on what he meant by home rule for India (Hind Swaraj: 1909), and his exposition of his so-called constructive programme (1941). We also have access to many of his letters, speeches, and articles in newspapers, as well as comments by his contemporaries in their written accounts of their times and their private papers, and the discussions on Gandhi’s role in politics and how to deal with him by the British rulers of India, now accessible in the archives of the imperial government in India and the UK.