BIOGRAPHY OF GANDHI
GANDHI - A PICTORIAL BIOGRAPHY

by Shri B. R. Nanda


GANDHI - A Pictorial Biography

GANDHI
- A PICTORIAL BIOGRAPHY

Shri B. R. Nanda


Table of Contents


About This Book


This is the first pictorial biography of Gandhi in which the narrative-concise, readable and incisive is illustrated with contemporary photographs and facsimiles of letters, newspaper reports and cartoons, adding up to a fascinating flash-back on the life of Mahatma Gandhi and the struggle for Indian freedom led by him. There is a skilful matching in this book of text and illustrations, of description and analysis and of concrete detail and large perspective. This pictorial biography will revive many memories in those who have lived through the Gandhian era; it should also be of interest to the post-independence generation.

About Author

Shri B. R. Nanda - former Director, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi. His full-scale biography of Mahatma Gandhi has been published in India, Britain and the U.S.A. and translated into French, Spanish, Italian and several other languages

Chapter-13 : Arrest And Imprisonment

Report On The Suspension of Mass Civil-Disobedience After The Chauri Chaura Incident
Report On The Suspension of Mass Civil-Disobedience After The Chauri Chaura Incident

The Government seized the opportunity for which it was waiting. On the evening of March 10, 1922, Gandhi was arrested in his ashram. The trial was held before Broomfield, District and Sessions Judge of Ahmedabad. The British judge behaved with great consideration, nodding respectfully to the accused in the dock before taking his seat. He acknowledged that Gandhi was in a different category from any person that he had ever tried or was likely to try. Gandhi made his task easy by pleading guilty. He was sentenced to six years' imprisonment.
An observer noted that Gandhi was not only serene but 'festively joyful' during the 100-minute trial. "So far as the sentence is concerned," he told the judge "I certainly consider that it is as light as any judge would inflict on me; and so far as the whole proceedings are concerned, I must say that I could not have expected greater courtesy." He was lodged in the Yeravdaprison in Poona. He was not allowed to sleep in the open. He was denied a pillow but he devised one with books and spare clothes. Among the 150 and odd books he read during this term were Henry James' The Varieties of Religious Experience, Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman, Buckle's History of Civilization, We lls' Outline of History, Goethe's Faust and Kipling's Barrack Room Ballads. He kept up his daily routine of morning and evening prayers, and spinning. His literary and religious studies which had been neglected in the midst of other activities were resumed. There is no doubt that in spite of occasional pinpricks, prison life proved for Gandhi, as Tagore once put it, "arrest cure".