Mr. Gandhi : the Man

Mr. Gandhi : The Man By : Milie Graham Polak Compiled by : C. F. Andrews Mr. Gandhi : The Man FOREWORD Some seventeen years ago, in Durban, it was my privilege first to meet Mrs. Polak, who has written these reminiscences of Mr. Gandhi. The picture that she draws, by means of a series of incidents, brings back vividly to my own mind the strain, mingled with a buoyant happiness that was felt by all those who took part, under Mr. Gandhi's leadership, in the Passive Resistance struggle, then at its height. It was clear to me how greatly Mrs. Polak had suffered. Yet there was a brightness in her face as she welcomed me to her home which told of radiant happiness within. Owing to her husband's imprisonment a few weeks earlier, just when he was leaving for India, at Mr. Gokhale's request, to help to place the South African Indian cause once again before the Motherland, she had been urged by the Indian community to go in his stead to the Indian National Congress, then about to meet; but, when already on her journey, she had been recalled to South Africa by Mr. Gokhale with the news that I was on my way there. Just before my arrival, her husband, Henry Polak , whom I had already known for some years, had been released from prison with Mr. Gandhi. He, too, was looking worn on account of recent hardships cheerfully endured. But he was enthusiastic about the Indian cause. It was a gay and gallant spirit with which they both, with their children, had confronted innumerable difficulties and overcome them. There was a certainty of victory in the very air which they and their fellow-workers breathed. Of Henry Polak, in those South African days, the Rev. J. J. Doke, of Johannesburg, who knew him intimately, wrote as follows: "In the law courts he had been the British Indians' advocate; in the office he had been their adviser, and always their friend. At the same time he had devoted himself to their general interests throughout South Africa by pen and www.mkgandhi.org Page 2 Mr. Gandhi : The Man speech with wonderful persistence. Like all great leaders of men, Mr. Gandhi had the magic power of attracting and attaching to himself the passionate devotion of such characters as Henry Polak." Concerning Mrs. Polak, Mr. Gandhi, in Satyagraha in South Africa, wrote these words: "People in India are familiar with Mrs. Polak, who not only never came in her husband's way, but was a perfect help-meet to him during the struggle." Among the tiny group of European helpers that had gathered round Mr. Gandhi, Mr. and Mrs. Polak not only became his fellow-workers, but shared his own home with him and joined in the intimacy of family life. Their elder son, Waldo, who, as will be seen from this book, was peculiarly dear to Mr. Gandhi, died suddenly a few years ago. I was in Durban when the unexpected news came. It was most touching and revealing to me to witness the deep affection for and sympathy with the bereaved parents among those Indians who had known them all in earlier years. It seemed well to explain at some length these simple relationships, because they form the best introduction to the narrative itself and help to bring us at once in touch with the writer of this book. As she relates in a direct and life- like manner one story after another about Mr. Gandhi, in the course of his daily life of service, she at the same time gives us quite unconsciously an insight into her own independent character. The ndivet with which she does this makes it all the more effective, because it is so spontaneous. It would be impossible to find a better foil to set off the peculiar temperament of Mr. Gandhi. With a strong imagination of her own, she is yet critical and stands upon solid fact, where he soars into the sky. Though an idealist herself, she seeks by rare common sense and penetrating insight to test his theories and check what she regards as his extravagances. In this way, she clears aside all kinds of fantastic notions about him and reveals him as the most tender soul in all the world and humble in spirit as a little child. But all this the readers will find out for themselves in the narrative that follows. They will discover that Mr. Gandhi is astonishingly and delightfully human. They will find in him a character which at times will remind them of St. www.mkgandhi.org Page 3 Mr. Gandhi : The Man Francis of Assisi by its inner radiance and beauty. At other times, they will share in Mrs. Polak's own difficulties that arose in the intimacy of the daily life and the sharing of a common household with such an intractable and lovable saint, who will always insist upon discomfort. While the legendary fantasies that surround Mr. Gandhi to-day are eliminated one by one, his personality shines through her narrative all the brighter, and as a man he comes much closer to our hearts. C. F. ANDREWS www.mkgandhi.org Page 4 Mr. Gandhi : The Man PREFACE (First Edition) Often, during the past few years, since Mr. Gandhi has become a world-figure, people that my husband and I have met, knowing of our old close association with him, have questioned us concerning him. "You knew him in his home-life. What was he like as a man? How did he respond to his environment in those days? In what things was he then mainly interested? Is it possible to discover in his thoughts and activities of those days the mainsprings of his later ideas and - actions?" And in the discussions that resulted, some of the incidents related in the following pages have been recalled by me. "Why don't you write that down?" was the frequent comment. But I had always refused to do so. The sacredness of the intimate talk of friendship would, it seemed to me, have been violated by publication. Then came the Autobiography , and, with something of a shock, I realized that Mr. Gandhi himself had not hesitated to strip the veil off everything that he had thought or experienced, and that I need not have been hypersensitive about recording my own recollections of those days. About a year ago, in reading through some old papers and letters, I came across a few of Mr. Gandhi's letters to me and found some note-book jottings of events that had happened in earlier years. I put some of them together, and let the thought of writing about them sink in. Later on, in more talks of the Mahatma with some American friends, I was again urged to put into print some of my reminiscences of one who was not to me, first, a Mahatma or a saint or a "subtle politician", but a great and loving man, who had shown to me and mine an affection that transcended race and sex and time. I replied eventually that I was thinking over the suggestion. "Do," was the answer. "I can promise you a great interest in what you may recall about him." www.mkgandhi.org Page 5 Mr. Gandhi : The Man Hence this small book. The conversations recorded here are not word for word precisely as, or in the order in which, they happened. The significant passages, however, in every conversation are exactly as they were spoken by Mr. Gandhi, and the others are as nearly so as can now be reproduced; true in the spirit, if not quite exact in the letter. All kinds of things, of course, besides those touched upon in these pages were discussed between us. The incidents themselves are actual happenings; but in a few instances, where others than Mr. Gandhi are also concerned, I have slightly altered the names and the setting, so that no pain should be given to those that played a part in them and now figure in the episodes without their knowledge and consent. It only remains to add that whilst there will, in the following pages, be found many references to the Indian Passive Resistance movement in South Africa, I have especially sought to avoid the political controversies surrounding it, in order the better to focus the reader's attention upon the great central human figure. M. G. P. London, July, 1931. www.mkgandhi.org Page 6 Mr. Gandhi : The Man MR. GANDHI: THE MAN CHAPTER I It was in 1905 that I had my first contact with Mahatma Gandhi. I was in London and expecting to be able to go out shortly to South Africa to marry my fiance, Mr. Henry S. L. Polak. He was at that time articled to Mr. Gandhi, of the Inner Temple, London, who was then practising as an attorney or solicitor in Johannesburg. I had not been in robust health for some time, and my fiance's father, on hearing that I was preparing to join his son, had written to Mr. Gandhi begging him to use his influence to postpone the marriage indefinitely, as he did not consider that I was physically strong enough for the strenuous life of the Colonies. Mr. Gandhi's reply to this and his subsequent letter to me, the first that I had had from him, set the tone to the whole of my relationship with him, establishing him in my life as a loving and understanding elder brother, and showed the human tenderness of the man.

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