Inhalt: | "Gandhi's letter-writing was a non-stop pre-occupation verging on an obsession. He wrote them by day, he wrote them by night, he wrote them from aboard trains, steamers, both right and left hands being pressed into service to rest one when tired out. And when both had to be rested, he dictated the letters. A great many of those letters were to his family, written in Gujarati. This volume contains translations into English of letters, mostly unpublished, that he wrote to his youngest son, Devadas. The letters span over three decades - during which the writer grew from being a fighter for the rights of Indians in South Africa to being hailed as Father of the Nation by millions in India and - opposed by many as well. They hold his aspirations for his son and for his nation. They bear great love and they scorch. Gandhi emerges from these letters as a man who was so preoccupied with his public work as to seem utterly neglectful of family. And at the same time as a father so conscious of his duties to his sons and daughters in law as to burn public time for home care. And we see Devadas, the recipient of the letters, move from compliant childhood and youth to adulthood, questioning and remonstrating with his father and being just the independent son his father wants him to be. And all this, under the gentle yet firm gaze of his hugely influential mother, Kasturba"-- |
