Lot 129
Gandhi, Mahatma
Satyagraha
Auction: India in Ink: The Library of Dr Raj Krishna | 01 October 2026 from 10am | Lots 79 to 208
Description
Translation of the Original in Gujarati. Bombay: G. N. Kulkarni, at the Karnatak Printing Press, published by S. G. Banker, 1917. 8vo (18.6 x 12.4cm), [4] 4 pp. (comprising 2 unsigned bifolia, one laid into the other and secured with 2 small applications of adhesive, now largely perished)
Provenance
INDIA IN INK: THE LIBRARY OF DR RAJ KRISHNA
Footnote
First and only edition, one copy traced in libraries worldwide, at Senate House, University of London. This is the earliest identified work in English to contain ‘satyagraha’ in the title, dating from the year of Gandhi's first such campaign, the Champaran satyagraha, and published in response to the recent internment of pro-independence Theosophists Annie Besant, George Arundale and Bahman Wadia: ‘The internments of Mrs. Besant and Messrs Arundale and Wadia with which the Government has initiated its present repressive policy has developed a large volume of feeling in favour of Passive Resistance. We, therefore, publish a translation of a Gujarati letter written to a friend by Mr. Gandhi in the hope that the views of such a tried hand at Passive Resistance as Mr. Gandhi undoubtedly is, might help us all in coming to the right decision and taking the proper course of action’ (translators' preface).