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Sudhir Ghosh’s contact with the Mahatma came through the “circuitous route” of British Quakers and Pacifists. Since his first meeting in 1944 he became Gandhiji’s “regular apprentice.” Ghosh remembers how in famine-stricken Bengal from December 1, 1945 to mid-1946, Gandhiji deliberately stayed aloof from politics, insisting to be “in the midst of the people … to give them whatever comfort and succour his presence meant to them.” Much to the dislike of Viceroy Wavell, Gandhiji established a personal rapport with the Bengal Governor Cassey, whose intervention ensured the distribution of seed potatoes amongst the distressed villagers at “legitimate price”, and release of many political prisoners. Thousands lined up to meet Gandhiji in Bengal’s distant villages; between 200,000 and 300,000 attended his prayer meetings. He spent hours at Sodepur Ashram listening to the ploughing and plantation problems of villagers.

As Gandhiji’s emissary Ghosh had first-hand knowledge of the “India-Britain negotiations” between 1945 and 1947, which he unfolds with considerable clarity. We learn why the Cabinet Mission members secretly met Gandhiji and how Gandhiji was shocked by the Congress President Maulana Azad’s secret letter to the Cabinet Mission endorsing the principles on which a compromise was to be struck between the Congress and the League. Gandhiji was again astonished to discover that Azad had assured the Cabinet Mission about non-inclusion of a Congress Muslim in the interim government going against Gandhiji’s determination to prevent the representation of the Congress as a Hindu organisation.

Ghosh recounts how Gandhiji’s successful 1946 Noakhali mission “reminded one of the Lord Buddha on his pilgrimage, walking from village to village, with his stick in his hand, preaching the gospel of tolerance and compassion.” He remembers the communal orgy between October and November 1946 as “months of frustration and bitterness” for Nehru and his colleagues, convincing them that the subcontinent’s Partition was the only panacea for peace. We have an insider’s story of Viceroy Wavell’s “virtual dismissal” and his replacement by Mountbatten. But Gandhiji, as is well known, could not reconcile himself with the Partition and “at the end of this long journey … felt he was alone.”

Ghosh cites Nehru’s “violent personal likes and dislikes” and laments Panditji’s “personal dislike” of him , although after Gandhiji’s death he served Nehru’s Government and was a Member of Parliament. He oversaw the “amalgamation” of princely states to constitute the Patiala and East Punjab States Union; he pioneered — largely on Gandhian lines — the community development project in Faridabad, which transformed the lives of about 40,000 refugees and presaged the region’s integrated economic development; he was involved with the establishment of Rourkela, Bhilai and Durgapur steel plants. Ghosh reflects upon the bureaucratic “steel-frame” frustrating developmental schemes, including his Faridabad project. He also unfolds such lesser-known facts as Nehru’s confidential appeal to the U.S. during the Indo-China conflict; the U.S. role in the making of 1965 Indo-Pakistan War; and search for diplomatic resolution with American and Soviet support of Indo-Pakistan and Indo-Chinese conflicts.

Ghosh uncovers the Mahatma’s human touch. Even at the height of political crisis Gandhiji remained concerned about the welfare of his associates. Gandhiji personally supervised Sudhir’s travel arrangements when he walked four or five miles early morning to catch a train from Wardha to Calcutta. When he joined the Noakhali camp Gandhiji personally overlooked his sleeping and food arrangements. Gandhiji’s notion of family comprised all “who lived and worked with him and shared his joys and sorrows.” This, however, made Gandhiji’s own family members feel “neglected”, as was evident from his son Manilal’s outburst at Sodepur Ashram.

Ghosh finds Gandhiji’s “incredible capacity to care for others” as the key to his moral authority over millions when he commanded no institutional power. Departing from the conventional wisdom, Gandhiji felt “The real love is to love them that hate you…” The book’s importance, as Mukherjee notes in the introduction, is its ability to raise “crucial issues which continue to be subjects of debate…”

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