Knowing Gandhi

How do historians know about Gandhi and the national movement? They use many sources, each with its own point of view.

• Speeches give us the public voice of a leader.
• Private letters give a glimpse of private thoughts and feelings. But many leaders knew their letters might be published one day, so even letters could be written with that in mind.

Letters from 1936 show Gandhi mediating between Nehru, who was enthusiastic about socialism, and older leaders like Rajendra Prasad and Vallabhbhai Patel, who were unhappy with it.

Autobiographies are retrospective: written later, from memory, they give a picture of the past as the writer wished to present it. We must also notice their silences: what they leave out.

Government records are another source. The Fortnightly Reports of the Home Department, prepared by the police and sent to London, tended to play down the importance of the Salt March, while still recording the defiance it inspired. And newspapers reflect the politics of their publishers. Every source has a point of view.