Bapu’s Letters to Mira

This special volume is a profoundly intimate compilation documenting a unique cross-cultural spiritual partnership. The text features a curated selection of nearly 400 letters handwritten by Mahatma Gandhi to one of his closest European disciples, spanning twenty-four volatile years of the Indian Independence Movement. Rather than focusing strictly on high-level political stratagems, these deeply personal dispatches cover an extraordinary breadth of daily ashram life, focusing on health, dietary experiments, religious ethics, and the slow, meditative discipline of spinning khadi yarn. Because Gandhi frequently addressed his younger followers, children, and spiritual seekers under his paternal nickname "Bapu" (Father), the correspondence functions as an authorized ethical guidebook, capturing a rare, humanizing glimpse of the global leader as an attentive, tender, and demanding spiritual mentor.

The compiler and recipient of these historic letters was Madeleine Slade (1892–1982), the daughter of an aristocratic British Admiral who fundamentally abandoned her high-society life to serve the cause of Indian freedom. Deeply moved by the spiritual philosophies of Romain Rolland, she emigrated to India in 1925 and joined Gandhi’s ashram, where he warmly adopted her and bestowed upon her the Indian name Mirabehn (Sister Mira). Mirabehn quickly transformed into one of Gandhi's most trusted confidantes, serving as his personal assistant, traveling alongside him to the historic 1931 Round Table Conference in London, and enduring multiple imprisonments by British authorities for her political activism. Working diligently in the months following Gandhi's tragic 1948 assassination, Mirabehn carefully preserved, transcribed, and inserted explanatory context notes for over 300 of these letters, channeling her immense grief into a lasting publishing project that safeguarded their shared philosophical journey for the global public.

This 1949 Navajivan printing documents the internal mechanics of non-violent resistance (Satyagraha). Issued on humble, post-independence Indian paper stock by the very publishing house that Gandhi himself founded in 1919, authentic copies from this inaugural print run are exceptionally scarce on the international antiquarian market. This copy is additionally signed by the author Mirabehn in blue ink on the preliminary flyleaf; “To Lucy with love from Mira (Madeleine) Pashulok India 17.11.49.”

Original khadi cloth back with blue paper covered boards. Titles in black on upper board and spine. Portrait frontispiece and two further photographic plates. Illustrations within the text. Some bumping and mild wear to the tips and spine darkened. Boards are slightly marked. The contents lightly spotted to the end papers and otherwise clean throughout. A very good copy.