Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Anand T Hingorani
GANDHI‘S TO THE STUDENTS: A Signed Copy with Editorial Provenance, Reviews and Publishing Archive
Anand T Hingorani, To the Students, Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing House, 1938, third edition.
344 pages with index; original publisher’s binding
8.8 x 5.8 in (22.35 x 14.73 cm)
Signed and dated by Gandhi in Hindi in black ink: “बापू 2/10/41” (“Bapu, 2 October 1941”)
A significant Gandhian educational compilation edited and published by Anand T. Hingorani, comprising selected speeches and writings of Mahatma Gandhi addressed principally to students and young citizens of India and Burma between 1920 and 1938, concerning education, nationalism, truth, self-discipline, character formation, art, literature, social service, brahmacharya, machinery, village reconstruction, and ethical citizenship.
Together with two important provenance letters from Mahatma Gandhi to Anand T. Hingorani directly relating to the publication and editorial development of To the Students:
(i) autograph postcard signed “Bapu”, dated 5 October 1938, discussing Anand Hingorani's request for a preface to the book; and
(ii) autograph note signed “Bapu”, dated 19 February 1940, written on Gandhi's silent day, recommending that the publication should contain “an exhaustive index” and advising that one be prepared and issued separately.
The lot also has an important associated archive of contemporary advertisements, promotional notices, press reviews, and typed review extracts relating to the publication, reception, and circulation of To the Students, including printed advertisements issued through Anand T. Hingorani’s Karachi distribution network; a promotional clipping from Books magazine (17 October 1941); contemporary review extracts published in The Bombay Chronicle (29 January 1939), Visva-Bharati (May–June 1939), Taraporevala’s Sindian Literary Review (April 1939), The Indian Express (5 March 1939), Tribune (13 August 1939), and Rashtra-Vani (13 June 1940); additional review material from the column “The Caravan Passes” by “Dragoman”; and typed promotional essays discussing Gandhi’s educational philosophy, criticism of English education, machinery, nationalism, Wardha education, moral discipline, and the role of students in national reconstruction. The accompanying review archive preserves contemporary assessments describing the work as “a beautiful and inspiring exposition of students’ Dharma”, “a perennial fountain of instruction and cheer for the Indian youth”, “a gospel for our students”, and “a striking book” preserving Gandhi’s educational and moral philosophy for future generations.
Taken together, the volume and its accompanying archive preserve far more than a book. They document an attempt to shape the moral imagination of a generation destined to inherit an independent India. Few Gandhian publications survive with such complete evidence of their conception, reception and circulation, making the present lot an exceptional record of how ideas were transformed into a national educational project.
A GOSPEL FOR STUDENTS: Gandhi's Message to the Future of India
The present lot preserves not only one of the most important early compilations of Mahatma Gandhi's writings for students, but also the documentary record of how that publication came into being. At its centre stands To the Students, edited and published by Anand T Hingorani, Gandhi's close associate, participant in the Dandi March and one of the most active disseminators of Gandhian thought during the final decades of British rule.
Conceived as a handbook for India's youth, the volume assembled Gandhi's reflections on education, truth, self-discipline, national service, village reconstruction, moral character and citizenship. Rather than presenting students merely as recipients of education, the work positioned them as future custodians of India's moral and civic life. The themes collected within its pages reveal Gandhi's conviction that national regeneration required not only political freedom but also the ethical formation of the individual.
What distinguishes the present copy, however, is the survival of two provenance letters that illuminate Gandhi's direct engagement with the publication itself. In October 1938, shortly after the appearance of the expanded edition, Gandhi responded to Anand's request concerning a preface, remarking that he no longer thought one necessary and gently asking why so much burden should be placed upon him.
Even more revealing is a note written during Gandhi's silent day on 19 February 1940 while travelling from Santiniketan to Calcutta. Referring specifically to To the Students, Gandhi observed:
"A publication like this should have an exhaustive index. Even the second edition is not having it. You should prepare one and sell it separately."
The comment offers a rare glimpse of Gandhi not as political leader or philosopher, but as an exacting editor concerned with the practical usefulness of books. The observation reflects his belief that ideas should be organised and presented in a manner that genuinely serves readers.
The accompanying archive of advertisements, review extracts and promotional material substantially deepens the significance of the lot. Reviews published in contemporary journals and newspapers described the work as "a gospel for our students", "a beautiful and inspiring exposition of students' Dharma", and "a perennial fountain of instruction and cheer for the Indian youth". Together they document the reception of the volume among educators, intellectuals and nationalist readers during the late colonial period.
Particularly important is the evidence these materials provide for Anand Hingorani's role within Gandhian publishing. The surviving advertisements, distribution notices and editorial papers reveal not merely the existence of the book, but the mechanisms through which Gandhian ideas were collected, edited, published, marketed and circulated across India.
Taken together, these materials provide an unusually complete account of a single Gandhian publication from conception to reception. They illuminate not only the editorial relationship between Gandhi and Anand Hingorani, but also the wider networks through which Gandhian ideas reached students, educators, and readers across late colonial India.
This lot will be shipped in "as is" condition. For further details, please refer to the images of individual lots as a reference for the condition of each lot.