G ANDHI NEVER despaired behind bars.

Adversity only cheered his

passionate nature and intensified his resolve. The 1932-33 prison
interlude brought the purifying rays of his inner light to focus on
Hinduism's gravest injustice, the crime of untouchability.
On March 11,1932, Gandhi wrote to India's new secretary of state, Sir
Samuel Hoare, to remind him of a warning he had issued in the closing
days of the Round Table Conference "that I should resist with my life the
grant of separate electorate to the Depressed Classes."1 Now he explained
at length why he opposed Britain's announced intention of awarding separate
electoral status, which would grant a bloc of separate seats on all the
new councils to candidates born only in untouchable communities. Gandhi
insisted that untouchable castes remain integral parts of Hinduism's body
politic. So strong was his opposition to any political vivisection of his faith
that Gandhi informed Sir Samuel, "I must fast unto death" if Britain went
ahead and created separately elected representation of untouchables.
When Nehru in his own distant prison cell later learned of Gandhi's decision,
he felt "annoyed with him for choosing a side issue for his final sacrifice."
2 Jawaharlal was angry with Bapu for taking this religious, sentimental
approach to a political question. "And his frequent references to
God—God has made him do this—God even indicated the date of the fast.
. . . What a terrible example to set!" the agnostic Nehru noted. Hoare,
however, was neither annoyed nor angry. "The dogs bark," he said, "the
caravan moves on." His reply to Gandhi was that realizing "fully the
strength of your feeling upon the question we intend to give any decision
that may be necessary solely and only upon the merits of the case."3
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Gandhi's Passion
As soon as Charlie Andrews learned of Gandhi's resolve to fast unto
death, he wrote to try to dissuade his friend. "I understand and even appreciate
the moral repulsion against 'fasting unto death,'" Gandhi replied.
"I will make myself as certain as it is humanly possible to be, that the will
that appears to me to be God's is really His, and not the Devil's."4
To Mira, who was at this time also jailed far away, he wrote more intimate
details: "Had I learnt to use the body merely as an instrument of service
and His temple, old age would have been like a beautiful ripe fruit.
. . . My only consolation in thinking over the past is that in all I did I was
guided by nothing else than the deepest love for you."5
To son Devdas, also then in another prison, he wrote of the daily routine
he and Mahadev and Vallabhbhai followed: "We are happy here. . . .
All three of us get up at 3.45 A.M. After we have prayed together, Mahadev
goes back to sleep and we two take honey and water and then have a walk.
Afterwards I sleep for about a quarter of an hour. At 6.30 all the three have
our breakfast."6 Gandhi's only other daily meal was at 4 P.M. In between,
however, he ate dates and almonds. He spun more cotton than either of his
prison mates. Mahadev went through proofs of his book, being published
by Oxford University Press, and took dictation from Gandhi daily for
about two hours. Gandhi learned Urdu, read Ruskin [Fors Clavigera], and
taught himself astronomy. Vallabhbhai "remains content with reading
newspapers mostly," Gandhi reported, the Sardar sometimes reading aloud
to them when he came across an interesting or amusing article.
From his prison "temple" Gandhi continued to offer sage medical advice
to all who sought his help. To one supplicant he offered a remedy for

1
constipation. "You may try it for two or three days and, if it does not work,
give it up. Eat twice or thrice a day cooked tandalja [Amaranth] or palak
[Spinach] leaves—eat nothing else."7 To another he gave his "immediate,
and unfailing, remedy for migraine": to bind a mud-pack around one's
head before retiring.
On August 17, 1932, Ramsay MacDonald announced his Communal
Award, reserving seats for "Depressed Classes" as well as Muslims and
Sikhs. "In pursuance of my letter to Sir Samuel Hoare," Gandhi wrote
"Dear Friend" MacDonald next day, "I have to resist your decision with
my life."8 He declared a fast unto death against the reservation of separate
seats for untouchables, to begin in one month, on September 20, 1932.
"What do you think these people will do?" Vallabhbhai asked his cell
mate on September 6, 1932. "I still feel that they will release me on or before
the 19th," Gandhi replied. "It will be the limit of wickedness if they let
me fast, let no one know about it and then say that I did what I as a prisoner
ought not to have done, and that they could do nothing."9
Three days later MacDonald replied, arguing that his award, having
doubled the number of Depressed Class votes, should have met with
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Imprisoned Soul of India
Gandhi's approval, rather than eliciting his threat to fast. "What I am
against is their statutory separation, even in a limited form, from [the]
Hindu fold," Gandhi explained. "Do you not realize that if your decision
stands and constitution comes into being, you arrest the marvellous growth
of work of Hindu reformers who have dedicated themselves to the uplift of
their suppressed brethren in every walk of life?"10
Gandhi considered his fast a "unique opportunity" for self-purification,
urging all his ashram family and others close to him to shed "tears of
joy," rather than sorrow on his behalf.11 "It is both a privilege and a duty,"
he explained. "In non-violence it is the crowning act."12 "If the Hindu mass
mind is not yet prepared to banish untouchability root and branch, it must
sacrifice me without the slightest hesitation,"13 he told the press. Untouchables
were an integral part of Hinduism's "indivisible family." Removal of
the "infliction" of separate electorate privileges on Depressed Classes
would end his fast, Gandhi added, though not the struggle against untouchability,
which would then move into "high gear."