Notes

Continued_ Part 4
> Mr. Chamberlain ignored the Indian deputation.
>A new department was created for Asiatics .
>The Indians had to apply to this department to obtain a permit to return to TRANSVAAL.
>the Govt had passed Peace Preservation Ordinance which provided that anyone entering the TRANSVAAL without a permit should be liable to arrest and imprisonment.
>Mr. George Godfrey( an Indian Barrister) now lead the deputation to see the chief of the Asiatic department.
>Gandhi decided to set up office in Johannesburg and was enrolled in the Transvaal Supreme Court .
> Gandhi came in close contact with Mr.Ritch who was aTheosophist and he put him in touch with the Theosophical Society at Johannesburg.
> Gandhi believed that the chief thing about Theosophy was to cultivate and promote the idea of brotherhood.
>Gandhi started reading Swami Vivekananda's Rajyoga with some friends and they formed a sort of a ' Seeker's Club'.
>he memorized 13 chapters from the Gita.
> the Gita became an INFALLIBLE GUIDE OF CONDUCT..It became his DICTIONARY OF DAILY REFERENCE, a ready solution for all his troubles and trials.
>detailed account of Gandhi's experiments in Dietetics were published as a series of articles in Gujarati in " Indian Opinion" and afterwards published in the form of a book popularly known in English as "A GUIDE TO HEALTH".
>Gandhi mentioned that his autobiography would not have been written if JERAMDAS and SWAMI ANAND had not persisted in their suggestion.
>Miss SCHLESIN (Introduced to Gandhi by Kallenbach) was his stenotypist. Gandhi describes her in following words- " Her courage was equal to her sacrifice. She is one of the few women I have been privileged to come across, with a character as clear as crystal and courage that would shame a warrior".
> Sjt. MADANJIT approached Gandhi with a proposal to start " INDIAN OPINION" ..it was launched in 1904. Sjt. MANSUKHLAL NAAZAR became its first editor.
>it was a WEEKLY journal and in thw beginning it used to be issued in Gujarati, Hindi, Tamil and English. ( Tamil and HINDI sections were discontinued)
> Indian Opinion - was a mirror of part of Gandhi's life. Gandhi described it as follows - " Indeed the journal became for me a training in self-restraint. Satyagraha would probably have been impossible without ' Indian Opinion'.For me it became a means for the study of human nature in all its castes and shades. I realized that the SOLE AIM OF JOURNALISM SHOULD BE SERVICE"
>Abdulla Sheth used to address Gandhi as " Bhai"
> Mr. ALBERT WEST took charge of Indian Opinion Press at Durban as pneumonic plague hit Indian locality in Johannesburg. Due to Gandhi's effort the location residents were removed by special train to KLIPSPRUIT FARM near Johannesburg where they were supplied with provisions by the Municipality at public expense.
>Gandhi made the acquaintance of Mr. HENRY. S POLAK in the vegetarian restaurant in Johannesburg. He was the sub- editor of "THE CRITIC".
> Mr.Polak gave him a book to read during the journey to Natal .it was John Ruskin's " Unto his Last" .. Gandhi's description of UNTO HIS LAST:
" The book was impossible to lay aside, once I had begun it. It gripped me. I decided to change my life in accordance with the ideals of the book.It brought an instantaneous and practical transformation in my life."
> Gandhi translated Unto His Last into GUJARATI entitling it SARVODAYA ( the Welfare of all).
>The teachings of UNTO HIS LAST I understand to be:
1. That the good of the individual is contained in the good of all.
2. The Lawyer's work has the same value as the barber's, inasmuch as all have the same right of earning their livelihood from their work.
3. That a life of labour, i.e. the life of the tiller of the soil and the handicraftsman, is the life worth living.
> After reading 'Unto his last' Gandhi proposed to Mr. West that ' Indian Opinion' should be removed to a farm, on which everyone should labour, drawing the same living wage and attending to the Press work in spare time.Mr West approved of the proposal and £3 was laid down as the monthly allowance per head, irrespective of colour or nationality.
> Among the men working in the Press was CHHAGANLAL GANDHI, one of Gandhi's cousin.
>a shed for the Press was erected in PHOENIX , 14 miles from Durban. MAGANLAL GANDHI left his business for good and came to work in the Press .He was a self-taught Handicraftsman.
> thus the PHOENIX SETTLEMENT was started in 1904 in Durban and from there Indian Opinion continued to be published.
>Gandhi sent for Kasturba and the children .On the boat bringing them to South Africa, Gandhi's 3rd son RAMDAS (8 yrs old) broke his arm while playing with the ship's captain. Gandhi treated him with Earth Treatment by applying clean earth poultice daily for a month.
>All his children, except the eldest Harilal, who had stayed away in India, were brought up in Johannesburg.
>During ZULU REBELLION in Natal Gandhi formed the Indian Ambulance Corps to provide assistance to the Government.
>During this time Gandhi also TOOK THE VOW OF BRAHMCHARYA - 1906.
> Events were so shaping themselves in Johannesburg as to make this self-purification on his part a preliminary as it were to Satyagraha.
> MAGANLAL GANDHI COINED THE WORS ' SADAGRAHA' (sat=truth, agraha= firmness) .In order to make it clearer Gandhi changed the word to "SATYAGRAHA".
>Gandhi wrote the major portion of " History of Satyagraha in South Africa" in Yeravada jail and finished it after he was released. It was published in Navjivan and subsequently issued in book form. Mr. Valji Govindji Desai translated it into English for "Current Thought"
> in Gandhi's Experiments in Dietetics his chief companion was HERMANN KALLENBACH ( German)..Kallenbach was always with him whether in fasting or in dietetic changes. Gandhi lived with him at his place when the Satyagraha struggle was at its height.
> Gandhi and Kallenbach pledged themselves to abjure milk in 1912 in Tolstoy Farm.
> Gandhi's first experience of jail was in 1908.
> Gandhi started on the experiment of a Fruit Diet .He began keeping Ekadashi fast , complete fasting and allowed himself only water. These important experiments were undertaken while they were at Tolstoy farm, where Gandhi and Kallenbach werw staying with a few SATYAGRAHi families , including young people and children.
>1911-1912- Gandhi provided literary training ( taught Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati. English. History, Geography and arithmetic was also taught at the farm) to pupils at Tolstoy farm.
>the Satyagraha struggle in South Africa ended in 1914.
> Gandhi received Gokhale's instructions to return home via England.
> July 1914- Kasturbai, Kallenbach and Gandhi sailed for England. Reached London on 6th August, 1914.
>the great War was declared on 4th Aug 1914 ( World War1)
> a meeting of Indian residents in Great Britain and Ireland was called in consultation with SORABJI ADAJANIA ( a satyagrahi and Gandhi's comrade in jail who was reading for the bar in London) Dr. Pranjivandas Mehta and Dr.Jivraj Mehta.
>《Gandhi felt that the Indians residing in England ought to do their bit in the war as he felt that they could convert the British by love. He wrote a letter to LORD CREWE expressing his readiness to be trained for ambulance work.
> The volunteers began their preliminary 6 week training in first aid. The LYCEUM, a ladies' club undertook the work of making clothes for the soldiers. SMT. SAROJINI NAIDU was a member of this club..This was Gandhi's first acquaintance with Mrs. SAROJINI NAIDU.
>Kallenbach could not accompany Gandhi to India as he was German and Germans were under strict surveillance then. Viceroy Lord Hardinge denied permission for his entry into India.
> 1915_ Gandhi returned to India after an exile of 10 yrs.