Scorching Love : Letters From Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi to His Son, Devadas

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 This volume contains translations into English of letters, mostly unpublished, that he wrote to his youngest son, Devadas.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. This book publishes - 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, he wrote them from aboard trains, steamers, both right and left hands being pressed into service to rest one when tired out. The letters 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 and - opposed by many as well including the man who felled him by three bullets fired at point blank range on 30 January, 1948. 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. 'Scorching Love' publishes - 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, India.-- Provided by publisher