Mahatma Gandhi, his life, writings and speeches/Lord Ampthill
APPENDIX III
APPRECIATIONS OF Mr. GANDHI
By Lord Ampthill
Mr. Doke does not pretend to give more than a short biography and character sketch of Mr. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the leader of the Indian community in Transvaal, but the importance of the book is due to the facts that men and matters are inseparably connected in all human affairs, and that the proper comprehension of political affairs in particular ever depends on a knowledge of the character and motives of those who direct them.
Although I am not in a position to criticise I do not doubt that in these pages the facts are accurately recorded, and I have sufficient reason to believe that the appreciation is just.
The subject of the sketch, Mr. Gandhi, has been denounced in this country, even by responsible persons, as an ordinary agitator; his acts have been misrepresented as mere vulgar defiance of the law; there have not been wanting suggestions that his motives are these of self-interest and pecuniary profit.
A perusal of these pages ought to dispel any such notions from the mind of any fair man who has been misled into entertaining them. And with a better knowledge of the man there must come a better knowledge of the matter.—(Extract from the preface to Mr. Doke's book—Biography of Mr. Gandhi).