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        I have just finished reading a very great book called 'In the Shadow of the Mahatma: A Personal Memoir' written in the years after our independence by G D Birla, one of the great men of modern India. He first wanted to give a title called 'My correspondence with Gandhiji' for this book. But he gave up this idea and it is interesting to hear his reasons for deciding so: 'I did not like this title. True, this is substantially a compilation of my correspondence with Gandhiji and his secretary Mahadev Desai, who, under the direction of his master, wrote to me at length when Gandhiji was too busy to write himself and kept me well- informed of the events in his camp. But mere correspondence would not tell the whole story. I therefore deliberately decided to include also in this book the records of the various interviews that I have had from time to time with the British Viceroys, British Governors, British Statesmen and others. To have excluded them would have left a blank patch in the picture. I have also included in the book a few other letters from different political leaders which I thought would be relevant to the subject. After inclusion of all this material, a title confined to the narrow boundaries would have been a misnomer. I therefore decided to choose the title 'In the shadow of the Mahatma: A personal Memoir'.'

        G D Birla met Gandhiji for the first time in 1916 when he went to Calcutta shortly after he landed from South Africa. That contact continued to the end of Gandhiji's life, a period of 32 years, till Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead by Nathuram Godse at Birla House on that fateful evening of 30 January 1948. There can be no doubt there was a hidden hand of destiny in their intimate relationship.
 

G D Birla with Mahatma Gandhi in London in 1931. Sarojini Naidu is also seen.

        The period of our fight for freedom is an important epoch in the history of India as it was the time which saw the non-violent struggle of India led by Mahatma Gandhi against the British rule and its successful termination on 15 August, 1947. What happened during those stirring and eventful years is well-known and many newspaper files in all parts of India and the world contain description of the events that took place. Very little, however, is known of what was passing behind the scenes, both in Mahatma Gandhi's camp and the British government's camp in those turbulent times. G D Birla's book supplies the most authentic and reliable account of those great days. It contains correspondence that passed between G D Birla and Mahatma Gandhi and all other political leaders of the country for nearly 30 years from 1917 to 1947. It also contains important reports of interviews and substance of conversation which G D Birla had with the Britishers holding high positions in the government of the day in India and England and in public life in both the countries. The Round Table Conference in London and subsequent negotiations between the British government and the Congress leaders and the various events just preceding the inauguration of independence in India are all matters of absorbing interest not only to Indians but also to others who want to know the history of those times. Viewed in this light G D Birla's book will serve as a valuable source document for all those who are interested in the history of the time.

        Mahatma Gandhi's great quality was that he could make heroes out of clay. He had a peculiar gift of recognising the good points in a man and utilising them to the fullest extent that he could for the benefit of the country. It was thus that in his lifetime he literally created a large number of persons who, although they did not see eye to eye with Gandhiji in respect of many of his programmes, yet rendered invaluable service in their own spheres under his burning inspiration. G D Birla was one of such persons. He did not always agree with Mahatma Gandhi, but like a soldier obeyed the command of the master. This personal memoir of G D Birla clearly shows that though he did not always agree with Gandhiji on matters relating to his economic programme, yet without any reservation helped every cause sponsored by him. He also proved himself to be a trusted exponent of Gandhiji's view point to many Britishers as far as Gandhiji's political programme was concerned. This book also brings out the fact that G D Birla undertook many visits to England on his own and utilised the opportunity of keeping those in places of authority there well informed about the way Gandhiji's mind was working. He never pretended to act as an appointed agent of Gandhiji and yet having studied and understood his philosophy and his programme, voluntarily took upon himself the onerous moral responsibility to convey its implications to all those that counted. Winston Churchill, Lord Halifax, Sir Samuel Hoare, Lord Lothian, Stanley Baldwin, Ramsay McDonald and several other great English statesmen were G D Birla's close friends. These facts emerge from his memoir.

        G D Birla's book contains many letters that he exchanged with Lala Lajpath Rai, Pundit Madanmohan Malaviya, Pundit Motilal Nehru, Srinivasa Sastri, Sardar Vallabhai Patel, Rajaji and several other great freedom fighters. These letters bring out the burning patriotism of G D Birla and those mighty men and the great ideals and passions that moved them into heroic selfless action.

        Babu Rajendra Prasad in his foreword to G D Birla's book wrote: 'It is not only in regard to the political movements of Gandhiji that we get a clear glimpse into the working of his mind as is rightly understood by Sri Ghanshyamdas Birla but in regard to other matters too. Ghanshyamdasji was one of those few who became a child of Gandhiji and in whom the seed of his teachings found a well-prepared field and his message a ready response. This influence grew as the intimacy between the two grew, which lasted for nearly 32 years. And it was my privilege and joy to watch and observe this relation over a number of years. Because if he was intimate with Gandhiji, he was not less intimate with me'.

        My esteemed and brilliant friend belonging to the Indian Civil Service (ICS) of British India, S Y Krishnaswamy reviewed this book in 'Swarajya' in April, 1974. In his review, he wrote as follows, 'Whenever I read the biography or the autobiography of an eminent Indian, I am left with the feeling that he was more or less exclusively responsible for winning independence for India, occasionally helped by Mahatma Gandhi. It is, therefore, refreshing to read a description of the pre-independence events, chronicled by one who was content to remain in the background and help the helpers, rather than become an active helper himself. Such a great man was G D Birla. G D Birla has committed the unpardonable sin of being successful and rich, and is, therefore, suspect in the eyes of those who are neither'.

        On account of Nehru's infatuation for Russia and things Russian in the first 15 years after independence, the philosophy of 'Left' being always right and 'Right' always wrong became an accepted national currency in India. After 1955 Rajaji launched a national movement against this philosophy and described the government of Jawaharlal Nehru as being in the vicious grip of a Licence-Permit-Control-Quota-Raj. A species of 'semantic' morality was built into the politics of this country by Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru and his henchmen by which words like 'profit motive', 'private sector', 'monopoly house', 'private initiative', 'private enterprise', 'private entrepreneurship', etc became bad, unpatriotic and despicable. On the other hand, words like 'socialism', 'sweat of labour', 'public sector', 'small-scale industry', 'passion for social justice', 'motive of social service', etc became good, heroic and noble. G D Birla made it clear in his book on Mahatma that Gandhiji did not fall into the pit of these hypocritical ideological errors, but believed in the principle of trusteeship, ie that the rich should hold their riches as trustees for society and should use them for human upliftment. GD Birla, as a close friend of Mahatma Gandhi for nearly 32 years, not only embraced this trusteeship philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi but also implemented it in letter and spirit in all his private and public activities.

        Soon after our independence when Mahatma Gandhi was living in Birla House in New Delhi, some of the petty and jealous industrialists and businessmen tried to tell him that the government of India was being extra considerate towards the industrial empire of G D Birla, he reacted sharply by saying that G D Birla had been helping the nationalist cause from 1915 with a selfless spirit of desireless service enjoined upon Arjuna by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavat Gita. 'Strive, save and serve' will be an appropriate and adequate description of the way in which G D Birla and his family have used their wealth.