Author: Chandulal Bhagubhai Dalal
Translator(s)/ Edito: Tridip Suhrud
Publisher: Orient Longman
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 290
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8125033793
Description
Harilal Gandhi, the eldest son of Mohandas and Kasturba Gandhi, was an enigmatic and fascinating figure. Very little is known about his life and a lot that exists is rumour. This book on the life of Harilal Gandhi is the only full-length biography available. An outstanding piece of Gandhian scholarship, Dalal’s work was moved by an acute desire to undo the injustice done to Harilal and locate him firmly in history.
Tridip Suhrud’s English translation is a labour of love that goes beyond the mere act of translation. His additional annotations, appendices provide almost the complete archival material available on Harilal Gandhi. Both works invite us to go beyond the clash of father and son and explore the reciprocities that united them.
REVIEWS & COMMENTS:
Harilal Gandhi: A Life by C B Dalal in Tridip Suhrud’s fine English rendering of it is the story of a son, a husband, a brother and a father who saw and acknowledged the superiority of those he belonged to, but not their authority. A fuller biography of this figure of extraordinary human passions waits to be written. Tridip Suhrud will perhaps attempt that.
- Gopalkrishna Gandhi
Tridip Suhrud has placed us all in his debt by translating and annotating Chandulal Dalal’s Gujarati biography of Harilal Gandhi. This book is a very significant contribution to contemporary studies of Gandhi’s politics and philosophy.
- Dipesh Chakrabarty, University of Chicago
When Tridip Suhrud gave me his English translation of Harilal Gandhi: A Life, I was absolutely entrapped in it. This is a very human and moving document, which I cherish. I am waiting for the day when I will get the time to translate it in Bengali. This is a remarkable work, an excellent reading.
- Mahasweta Devi, Novelist and Human Rights Activist
Feroz Abbas Khan’s Film, Gandhi My Father is based on this book.
A ground-breaking film in its originality and boldness. No-one before in cinema has tackled like this, one of the most difficult of human emotional situations: what it means to be the son of a great man for whom the cause of freedom for his people inevitably comes before freedom of a son to choose his own way of life divergent from political urgency. A beautiful achievement combining recognition of greatness and tragedy.
- South African Noble Laureate Nadine Gordimer
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR:.
Tridip Suhrud is a political scientist and a cultural historian, currently working on Gujarat of the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. He has translated Ashis Nandy, Ganesh Devy, Paulo Freire and Suresh Joshi. He has translated Narayan Desai’s four volume biography of Gandhi into English. (forthcoming, Orient Longman.) His forthcoming projects include an English translation of Sarasvatichandra and a critical edition of Hind Swaraj. Tridip teaches at DAIICT, Gandhinagar. He also works with the Sabarmati Ashram.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword to Translation
Introduction to translation
Foreword
Preface
Childhood and Marriage
Young Gandhi of South Africa
Harilal Leaves Home
studies in Ahmedabad
Residence in Calcutta and Demise of Gulab
Gandhiji and Daughter-in-law
Merchant in Calcutta
Concern for the Children
On the Path to Addiction
A Change of Heart
Conversions
Later Years and Death
Appendices
Harilal's Semi-public Letter
My Brother by Devdas Gandhi
My Experiences with Harilalbhai by Kunvarji Parikh
Memories of my Father-in-law Shri Harilal Gandhi by Saraswati K Gandhi
Affection for Ba by Vanmala Parikh
Translator's Appendices
References
Index