The Mahatma Writes to His Son

NEW DELHI, (IANS) – ‘Scorching Love: Letters from Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi to his son, Devadas’ reveals — for the most part, for the first time — Gandhi’s letters to his youngest son, Devadas from 1914, when father and son were both in South Africa to 1948, when they were both in Delhi, the capital of free India where within hours of the last letter Gandhi was assassinated.

Gandhi wrote these letters by day, he wrote them by night, and he wrote them from aboard trains, and steamers, both right and left hands being pressed into service to rest one when tired out.

The letters, collated by Gopal Krishna Gandhi and Tridip Suhrud, span 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.

The letters hold his aspirations for his son and for his nation. They bear great love, and they also scorch. And we see Devadas, the recipient of the letters, move in them 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.

The book is in five parts: South Africa 1893-1914 Deva! O Deva; Home to Home; 1920-1929 Nothing is Certain About Me; The 1930s; and the 1940s

Gopal Krishna Gandhi is a Distinguished Professor of History and Politics, Ashoka University, Sonipat. Tridip Suhrud is a scholar, writer, and translator working on the intellectual and cultural history of modern Gujarat and the Gandhian intellectual tradition. As the Director and Chief Editor of the Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust, he was responsible for creating the world’s largest digital archive on Gandhi – the Gandhi Heritage Portal.