Q How we can know about Gandhi Ji?

There are different sources from which history of the National Movement and the political career of Gandhiji can be reconstructed.

Writing and speeches of Mahatma Gandhi and his contemporaries were important source for knowing the events. Though there is a difference, speech were meant for public while private letter were meant to express emotions and thinking that cannot be expressed publicly. Sometimes this public-private distinction breaks down. His letters to Nehru were published by Nehru ji as ‘Bunch of old letters” bring a useful insight of Gandhi Ji’s thinking.

Many letters wriThe language of letter was shaped by the awareness that it might be published, so it often prevent people from expressing their opinion freely.

Autobiographies give us an account of past, but one need to be careful while reading and interpreting it. They are written on the basis of memory of author. A historian must see what the author does not tell us and why?

Government records, official letters were also important source for knowing the history. But it also have limitations as these were mostly biased so it needs to be interpreted carefully.

Newspapers in English and other Vernacular languages tracked Gandhiji’s movement, National Movement and sentiment of Indians regarding freedom movement and Gandhiji. For Newspaper should not be seen as unprejudiced as they were published by people who had their own political opinions and views.

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