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M. K. Gandhi, Attorney at Law
The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the General Endowment Fund of the University of California Press Foundation.
M. K. Gandhi,
Attorney at Law
THE MAN BEFORE THE MAHATMA
Charles R. DiSalvo
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
BERKELEYLOS ANGELESLONDON
University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu.
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2013 by Charles R. DiSalvo
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
DiSalvo, Charles R., 1948–.
M.K. Gandhi, attorney at law : the man before the Mahatma / Charles R. DiSalvo.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-520-28015-1 (cloth : alk. paper)
eISBN 978-0-520-95662-9
1. Gandhi, Mahatma, 1869–1948.2. Lawyers—India—Biography.3. Gandhi, Mahatma, 1869–1948—Travel—South Africa.4. South Africa—Politics and government—1836–1909.I. Title.
DS481.G3D4732013
340.092—dc23
[B]2013021967
Manufactured in the United States of America
22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In keeping with a commitment to support environmentally responsible and sustainable printing practices, UC Press has printed this book on Natures Natural, a fiber that contains 30% post-consumer waste and meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO z39.48-1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper).
To Kathleen
CONTENTS
Introduction
1 • Dispatched to London
2 • The Barrister Who Couldn’t Speak
3 • An Abundant and Regular Supply of Labour
4 • Dada Abdulla’s White Elephant
5 • Not a White Barrister
6 • Formation Lessons
7 • Waller’s Question
8 • A Public Man
9 • To Maritzburg
10 • Moth and Flame
11 • Sacrifice
12 • Transition and the Transvaal
13 • No Bed of Roses
14 • Disobedience
15 • Courthouse to Jailhouse
16 • Malpractice
17 • Courtroom as Laboratory
18 • Closing Arguments
Mohandas K. Gandhi Chronology
Abbreviations
Notes
Sources
Acknowledgments
Index
Illustrations
South Africa in Gandhi’s time. Courtesy of Cornell University Press.
INTRODUCTION
To other countries I may go as a tourist, but to India I come as a pilgrim.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., on the occasion of his visit to India, 1959
THE IMAGE THE WORLD HAS of Mohandas Gandhi is a stark one. Say the name “Gandhi,” and the listener invariably conjures up a vision of an elderly, unassuming, bald-headed man. He peers at us through well-worn wire-rimmed glasses, notable because they constitute one of the few items owned by one who has stripped himself of virtually all material possessions. As we see him, he wears not manufactured clothing from England’s factories, but plain, white, homespun cotton from India’s fields—and a minimum of that, too. He is an ascetic man: he prays, he keeps silence, he fasts, he refrains from wine, meat, and sexual relations. He knows the strength he has in the political arena is derived from decidedly higher sources: his clear and unswerving devotion to the cause of Indian freedom and a view of life that sees the spiritual as the underpinning of the political.
There is, however, another Gandhi. We find a photograph of him in the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, India. The place is Johannesburg, the year about 1905. In this picture a tie, a starched shirt, and a three-piece suit replace the homespun. A younger Gandhi, with a head of hair and a striking mustache, sits with authority in an office chair placed outdoors for the occasion of this photograph. Surrounding him are four members of his staff, including, on his immediate left, the smiling Sonja Schlesin, his longtime secretary, and, on his immediate right, H. S. L. Polak, his trusted associate. Dominating the picture, and found slightly above Gandhi’s head, is a large opaque window in the center of a brick wall with these words carefully arranged on it: “M. K. Gandhi. Attorney.”
Despite his having studied and practiced law for twenty-three years (1888–1911), this is the Gandhi about whom the world knows little.
My own image of Gandhi had always been that of the ascetic—until 1978, when I encountered a small volume entitled The Law and Lawyers. Gandhi was named as the author, but I quickly noted it was not a monograph by Gandhi but rather a collection of statements he made over the course of his life about the law and lawyers, ably compiled and edited by S. B. Kher. In it I learned for the first time that Gandhi himself had practiced law—for a short time in India, but chiefly in South Africa, where he
