Gandhi & Churchill (108 page)
Read Gandhi & Churchill Online
Authors: Arthur Herman
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
ahimsa | nonviolence (opposite of himsa) |
ashram | religious or semi-monastic community, usually centered around a guru or holy man |
Bhagavad Gita | important Hindu religious text, part of the epic poem |
bania | Hindu commercial caste |
Bapu | “Father,” a nickname for Gandhi |
brahmacharya | celibacy |
Brahmin | the highest Hindu caste |
charkha | spinning wheel |
chukka | one of the six timed periods in a polo match |
dalit | outcaste or untouchable |
darshan | the sighting or viewing of a holy man or site |
dhoti | folded loincloth worn by Indian men |
feringhi | derogative term for Europeans |
guru | holy man, teacher |
Harijan | “Children of God,” Gandhi’s term for dalits or untouchables |
hartal | strike or work stoppage |
jati | subcaste |
khadi | homespun cotton cloth |
kusan | peasant or farmer cultivator |
Khilafat | movement that supported the claims of the Turkish sultan as Caliph or protector of Muslim holy places |
Krishna or Krshna | legendary Hindu hero, believed to be an incarnation of the god Vishnu; the central character in the Bhagavad Gita |
lathi | long iron-tipped cane used by Indian police |
lakh | one hundred thousand |
Mahasabha | ultra-orthodox Hindu brotherhood, sometimes allied with Gandhi |
Mahatma | “Great Soul,” honorific title given to Mohandas Gandhi |
moksha | “release,” or spiritual salvation in Hindu religious philosophy |
Mughals | Muslim rulers of India until 1858 |
nabob | wealthy man, used to describe Europeans who made great fortunes in India in the eighteenth century (from |
Parsi | India’s Zoroastrian minority, largely centered in Bombay |
purdah | custom of veiling women, common among Muslims but also some Hindu castes |
raj | “rule,” as in “British Raj” |
Ram or Rama | character in Hindu legend who appears as an incarnation of the god Vishnu; hence a name for God |
Ramanama | recitation of the name of Rama as religious rite |
ramraj (ya) | “the rule of Rama,” usually projected in the future |
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS | ultra-orthodox Hindu organization |
sadhu | Hindu ascetic or wandering holy man |
satyagraha | literally “soul force,” Gandhi’s term for his program of nonviolent resistance |
sepoy | Indian Army soldier, especially before and during the Great Mutiny of 1857 |
Shiva | one of the oldest and most important Hindu gods |
sowar | Indian Army cavalry trooper |
swadeshi | “belonging to one’s country,” used to describe goods produced in India; hence a symbol of Indian independence and self-sufficiency |
swaraj | “self-rule,” hence Indian Home Rule |
varna | caste |
varnashramadharma | Gandhi’s term for an ideal Hindu society, in which caste would serve as the basis for a division of labor rather than social hierarchy |
Vaishnava | Hindus who practice particular religious devotions to the god Vishnu rather than Shiva |
Vishnu | important Hindu God |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I was in high school when I helped my father to correct proofs of his translation of the
Bhagavad Gita
. The experience fixed Arjuna and Krishna and terms like
bakhti yoga
and Mahatma, in my consciousness for the first time. Since then, my father, A.L. Herman, has been my reliable and patient mentor in all things relating to India and Indian thought. His books on Hinduism, Buddhism, and his own writings on Gandhi have been a guide and inspiration, just as his library has been a steady resource for my reading and research for more than thirty years.
Without him this book would have been inconceivable. He not only read drafts of the manuscript, and answered specific questions on fine points in Gandhi’s thought and pre-Vedic and Vedic Indian history, he also laughed at all (or nearly all) my jokes. No one else makes writing a book feel more like fun than hard work.
I also owe a huge debt to the University of Virginia, and the incomparable collection of books and materials on India and Gandhi built up by the Center for South Asian Studies and its librarian at Alderman Library, Philip McEldowney. Phil also graciously agreed to read chapters of the manuscript, and gave expert advice on consulting Indian sources online. Pramit Pal Chaudhuri also read the book in manuscript form, and I owe him much for his insights into the nature and direction of contemporary India, and its legacy from the past.
Peter Rühe at the GandhiServe Foundation was patient and helpful in procuring images. Every modern Gandhi scholar owes him a debt of gratitude for his dedicated scholarship, and the wonderful Gandhi resources he has made available online.
Warm thanks also go to the Ames Library of South Asia at the University of Minnesota for allowing me to consult its wonderful collection of photographs and maps and where, as a boy, I absorbed my first lessons in the history of British India. It was at the University of Minnesota’s James F. Bell Library that I did my first research on the geography of European penetration of India. The book’s opening chapters also owe a great deal to the rich collection and the patient and reliable staff of the New York Public Library.
John Pocock’s masterly seminar on the concept of empire held at the Folger Institute in Washington, D.C., had a decisive impact on my thinking in this book, including the place of Gibbon in Churchill’s thought. Professor Will Hay of Mississippi State University provided timely and invaluable help as did conversations with Professor Iain Smith of the University of Warwick on the Boer War.
On the Churchill side, writing this book would have been impossible without Sir Martin Gilbert. His biography of Churchill and its companion volumes remain monuments of modern historical scholarship—and indispensable tools for any Churchill researcher. Sir Martin graciously agreed to read the manuscript, and although our work together on the book was necessarily limited, his cheers from the sidelines were always a morale booster when things got frustrating.
Carlo d’Este graciously and unselfishly gave me the fruits of his own research on Churchill and kindly read the manuscript, as did Richard Langworth, editor of
Finest Hour
at the Churchill Centre in Washington, D.C., who steered me clear of some early mistakes. As with other readers—my father, Philip McEldowney, Pramit Chaudhuri, Carlo d’Este, and the rest—whatever errors remain are my own.
Thanks are also due to the staff of the Churchill Archives Centre and the Chartwell Papers at Churchill College, Cambridge; Hulton Getty Images; the British Library; and the Imperial War Museum. Special thanks go to the late Russell Blackwood, Jeanne Gerbus, Greg Lindsay of the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney, Robert Matheson, John J. Miller, Wendy Doniger, Alice Pappas, Nick Phillipson of the University of Edinburgh, Ivor Tiefenbrun of Linn Technologies in Glasgow, and Muhammed Sajjad Yussef, who all provided help in making this a better book. Apologies go to those who also helped in a myriad of ways, but whose names I’ve left out.
Conversations with Charles T. Matheson, Tom Veblen, and Paul Koda gave shape to the book in its early stages, and their intelligent insights, as always, appear in almost every chapter. My agents, Glen Hartley and Lynn Chu, were enthusiastic backers of the project from the beginning. My mother, Barbara Herman, read the book manuscript with her usual discerning eye and her comments had a decisive impact, starting with the opening sentence.
Thanks also go to my editor, John Flicker, for his warm and uncompromising support for the project, and his brilliant ability to bring out the book’s strengths and trim its weaknesses. His team at Bantam, particularly his assistant, Noor Zaidi, and the book’s designer, Glen Edelstein, showed forbearance and patience when it helped, and skill and expertise where it counted. A special debt of gratitude goes to my copy editor, Janet Biehl. Again, whatever errors that remain are my responsibility.
My wife Beth is, as she knows, the perfect wife for a writer and an historian. She sees everything with fresh eyes, asks the inconvenient but penetrating questions, and never lets me fall back on just “good enough.” She fell in love with the project even before I did, and always showed interest and enthusiasm even when my own occasionally flagged. This is her book in so many ways. I hope it is a fitting tribute to her twenty years of patience, support, and love.
NOTES
PROLOGUE
1. Shepherd,
Personal Narrative
2.
2. Ibid., 11.
3. Captain Fletcher Hayes, quoted in Collier,
Sound of Fury,
72.
4. Quoted in Hibbert,
Great Mutiny,
168.
5. Duberly,
Suppression of Mutiny,
156.
6. Shepherd,
Personal Narrative,
15–17, 32–33.
7. Hibbert,
Mutiny,
180; Shepherd,
Personal Narrative,
47.
8. Trevelyan,
Cawnpore,
202.
9. Thomson,
Story of Cawnpore,
160–61.
10. Hibbert,
Mutiny,
192.
11. Amelia Horne, “Narrative,” quoted in Ward,
Bones Are Scattered,
329.
12. Hibbert,
Mutiny,
203.
13. Quoted in Chunder,
Travels of a Hindu,
2:104.
14. Quoted in Kaye,
History of Sepoy War,
2:269.
15. Pollock,
Way to Glory,
176.
16. Hibbert,
Mutiny,
195.
17. Ibid., 207.
18. Trevelyan,
Cawnpore,
312–13.
19. Hibbert,
Mutiny,
209.
20. Ward,
Bones Are Scattered,
438–39; Bruehl,
Crisis of the Raj,
141–43.
21. Quoted in Kaye,
History of Sepoy War,
2:399.
22. Quoted in Ward,
Bones Are Scattered,
455.
23. Duberly,
Suppression of Mutiny,
25.
