Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World, 1914-1948

by Ramachandra Guha

Amidst the abuse and scepticism there were a few dissonant notes. The Glasgow Herald, run by a liberal editor named Robert Bruce, printed a long and thoughtful piece called ‘Gandhi Sahib’. This began by asking ‘Who is this “egregious Mr. Gandhi”’ (the adjective favoured by some Tories and Tory papers), and then providing this answer: ‘He is the soul of India in revolt, the spirit of Indian discontent, the assertion of the East’s equality with the West, the most powerful and at the same time the most puzzling personality in India today.’ Gandhi, said the Scottish journal, ‘is not to be dismissed by the fine sarcasm of an editorial in an English newspaper nor rendered ridiculous by the foolish worship of admiring disciples’. The unsigned piece was written by someone who had travelled widely in India and spoken to many Indians. He called Gandhi a ‘patriot’, who is ‘human enough to break through the conventions of caste and custom to eat with pariahs’. While ‘a partisan in politics, Gandhi is no bigot in religion. He calls himself a Hindu but that is a term exceedingly broad, and in many matters he shares common ground with Christians and Mahomedans.’ The journalist further added that ‘he is singularly free from race prejudice’. This unusually sympathetic piece ended with a prediction: ‘When in course of time the “United States of India” come into existence, I hazard the opinion that history will regard the spectacle as an outcome of the work and worth of the “egregious Mr. Ga...