1 “the least Indian”: Naipaul, Area of Darkness, p. 77 [my italics].
2 “the quintessence”: Nehru, Toward Freedom, p. 189.
3 “He looked at India”: Naipaul, Area of Darkness, p. 77.
4 “I was face to face”: Gandhi, Autobiography, p. 196.
5 “There were only a few”: Ibid., pp. 196–97.
6 Even as a boy: Andrews, Mahatma Gandhi, p. 113.
7 Just as racial segregation: Bayly, Caste, Society, and Politics in India, chap. 5, especially pp. 196, 210, 226.
8 “pollution barrier”: Ibid., pp. 189, 233.
9 Practices varied: The following studies have illuminating discussions on these points: Ibid., Dirks, Castes of Mind; and Mendelsohn and Vicziany, Untouchables.
10 the coinage “Hinduism”: See Pennington, Was Hinduism Invented? p. 60, also p. 168.
11 Gandhi was then warned: Jordens, Gandhi’s Religion, p. 56.
12 “It was also a problem”: Prabhudas Gandhi, My Childhood with Gandhiji, p. 59.
13 Three years later: Photostat of the certificate is on display at the Sabarmati Ashram Museum.
14 The Bania in Gandhi: Doke, M. K. Gandhi: An Indian Patriot, p. 52.
15 The prodigal son: Pyarelal, Early Phase, p. 281.
16 “I would not so much”: Gandhi, Autobiography, p. 78.
17 His standing with the Modh Banias: I am indebted to Narayan Desai, son of Mahadev, Gandhi’s secretary, for making this point in an interview in Barodi in April 2008.
18 “Wherever you see men”: O’Hanlon, Caste, Conflict, and Ideology, p. 71.
19 “We are all brothers”: Tolstoy, Kingdom of God Is Within You, p. 88. According to Professor Donald Fanger of Harvard, the literal translation would be “carries out my chamber pot.”
20 What Is to Be Done?: Although the common English title of this Tolstoy volume is the same as that of a more famous tract by Lenin, the Russian titles are different. Professor Fanger says the literal translation of the Tolstoy would be “So What Must We Do?”
21 “when men of our circle”: Tolstoy, What Is to Be Done? p. 272. I’ve here substituted “latrines” for “sewers” on the advice of Professor Fanger.
22 “Gandhi,” Aurobindo said: Aurobindo, India’s Rebirth, p. 173.
23 But an Indian scholar: Mahadevan, Year of the Phoenix, pp. 70–71.
24 In any case, by August: Swan, in Gandhi: The South African Experience, pp. 48–50, casts doubt on the assumption that the young Gandhi provided the impetus for the formation of the Natal Indian Congress. She suggests that the traders who subsequently dominated the organization are likely to have employed Gandhi to advance their goals.
25 “To inquire into the conditions”: CWMG, vol. 1, p. 132.
26 “I lived in South Africa”: Ibid., vol. 33, p. 25.
27 His wounds have been treated: Ibid., vol. 2, p. 20.
28 It takes half a year: Meer, Apprenticeship of a Mahatma, p. 36.
29 “A regular stream”: Gandhi, Autobiography, p. 135.
30 “He emerged virtually”: Sanghavi, Agony of Arrival, p. 129.
31 Gandhi himself doesn’t go on: According to the Durban lawyer Hassim Seedat, who attempted to trace Gandhi’s legal papers from this era through the successor firm that inherited them only to be told that they had been thrown out.
32 “He will cause some trouble”: Britton, Gandhi Arrives in South Africa, p. 300. The location of this document isn’t specified in the book. Responding to an e-mail query, its author explained that he did his research “on and off for thirty years,” much of it in the archives of colonial Natal, in the branch of the National Archives in Pietermaritzburg, or in British Colonial Office files, now located at the National Archives in Kew.
33 “have no wish to see”: CWMG, vol. 1, pp. 273–74, cited by Naidoo, Tracking Down Historical Myths, p. 137.
34 “If that hatred”: CWMG, vol. 1, p. 143.
35 In finely honed understatement: Ibid., pp. 142–63.
36 “The class of Hindoos”: Critic, Jan. 11, 1895, as quoted in Pyarelal, Early Phase, p. 478.
37 Or, since Pyarelal: Pyarelal and Nayar, In Gandhiji’s Mirror, p. 7.
38 “The barbed shaft penetrated”: Pyarelal, Early Phase, p. 478.
39 “Has not a just”: Fischer, Essential Gandhi, p. 251. See also M. K. Gandhi, Selected Political Writings, p. 118.
40 “During my campaigns”: CWMG, vol. 13, p. 278.
41 “dark and stinking”: Gandhi, Autobiography, p. 149.
42 He then went into: Ibid., p. 150.
43 “But to clean those used: Ibid., pp. 243–44.
44 His pique becomes: CWMG, vol. 67, p. 2.
45 “close touch with suffering Indians”: Gandhi, Autobiography, p. 177.
46 “The Indians were not entitled”: Gandhi, Satyagraha in South Africa, p. 76.
47 So while he has told us: Gandhi, Autobiography, p. 189.
48 “General Buller had no intention”: Gandhi, Satyagraha in South Africa, p. 77.
49 “For days they worked”: Fischer, Life of Mahatma Gandhi, p. 63.
50 “The agony of the General”: Pyarelal, Discovery of Satyagraha, p. 287.
51 curtained palanquin: This thought is suggested by the drawing on a French weekly magazine cover on display in the Museum Africa in Johannesburg. Showing a palanquin used for ferrying wounded officers, the drawing has a legend that describes it as an “ambulance Indienne” in the “guerre au Transvaal.” See Le Petit Journal: Supplément Illustré, Dec. 17, 1899.
52 detailed narrative of these events: Amery, “Times” History of the War in South Africa, vol. 1, pp. 245–97.
53 “Streams of wounded”: Reproduced in New York Times, March 3, 1900.
54 The recruits from the ranks: Meer, South African Gandhi, p. 751.
55 In the event, no Indians: Ibid., pp, 749–50.
56 At the time he finds: Gandhi, Satyagraha in South Africa, p. 78.
57 “Bapu had found a use”: Mehta, Mahatma Gandhi and His Apostles, p. 248.
58 In a contemporary send-up: Reprinted in African Chronicle, July 4, 1908.
59 “high-caste men married”: Uma Dhupelia-Mesthrie, From Cane Fields to Freedom: A Chronicle of Indian South African Life (Cape Town, 2000), p. 13.
60 “These two Indians”: Bhana and Pachai, Documentary History of Indian South Africans, p. 26.
61 Except for a rare academic study: Such as Ebr-Vally, Kala Pani.
62 “without first trying”: Rolland, Life of Vivekananda and the Universal Gospel, p. 23.
63 He condemned India’s: Parekh, Colonialism, Tradition, and Reform, p. 235.
64 Their suppression depresses: CWMG, vol. 18, pp. 375–76.
65 “into intimate touch”: Pyarelal, Discovery of Satyagraha, p. 396.
66 “A purer, a nobler”: Mahadevan and Ramachandran, Quest for Gandhi, p. 344.
67 “You will never know”: Shirer, Gandhi, p. 37.
68 “converted the whole carriage”: Gandhi, Autobiography, p. 212.
69 “in retrospect, Gandhi”: Pyarelal, Discovery of Satyagraha, p. 396.