Bibliophile South Asia

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A Fire that Blazed in the Ocean Gandhi and the Poems of Satyagraha in South Africa, 1909-1911 Surendra Bhana and Neelima Shukla - Bhatt 2011, Hb, 234pp. ISBN-10: 9380188137 ISBN-13: 9789380188133 Publisher: Promilla / BSA Price: Rs 600 (Outside India: US $20) The Book: The Poems in this volume appeared in the Gujarati section of the Indian Opinion from 1909 and 1911, a newspaper edited by mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) while he was in South Africa. Most of them were composed by Indians in South Africa who took parts in the satyagraha movements(1906-1914) or were close observers. a few came from poets in India. All the poems were printed in Gujarati even though some were originally in Urdu or Hindi. The two leading contributors were Sheik mehtab and Ambaram Mangalgi Thaker. The poms had a performative dimension since they were recited or sung at public gatherings as partiipatory texts. While Gandhi introduced the concept of satyagraha, it was the poets who presented it with an emotive appeal. They were among the first to recognize its value as a revolutionary concept; and declared its importance to the world through poems incorporating the cultural-literary motifs of their Indian heritage. They helped to sustain the movement by presenting satyagraha as a concept and a historical moment, and by drawing attention to the dynamic releationship between ideals and individual acts of heroism. Their poems are creative products of South Africa's history as well as a distinctive literary genre of an early Indian diaspora community. Gandhi's use of this resource adds a new dimension to understanding satyagraha as a movement and his role as a creative leader in South Africa, which prepared him for his later career in India. The Author: Surendra Bhana Emeritus Professor Surendra Bhana taught at the University of KwaZula-Natal in South Africa from 1972 to 1987. He has published widely as author, co-author, editor, and co-editor, among them are the followind books: The Making of a Political Reformer : Gandhi in South Africa, 1893-1914 (2005); Dialogue of Two Friends, 1911 by An Indian (2004); Gandhi's Legacy (1997); Setting Down Roots (1991); Indentured Indian Emigrants 1860-1902 : A Study on Ships' Lists (1991); Essays on Indentured Indians in Natal (1991); Documentary History (1984); and United States andPuerto Rican Status Question (1975) . Neelima Shukla-Bhatt Neelima Shukla-Bhatt is an assistant professor in South Asia Studies at Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA. Her teaching focuses on South Asian religions as well as the languages Hindi, Urdu, and Gujarati. She has Published articles on devotional poetry of Medieval India, Hindu women, and religion and media in the diaspora. She is currently working on a monograph on Gujarati saint-poet Narasinha Mehta. She writes poetry in Gujarati. FOB Price: 600 INR