The correspondences between the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi and his Jewish friend Herman Kallenbach during the stay of the former in South Africa has been brought to India for preservation in the National Archives of India. These documents shed greater insight into the activity of the Father of the Nation in South Africa.

Herman Kallenbach (1871-1945) was one of the foremost friends and associates of Mahatma Gandhi while they were working in South Africa.

A German born Jewish South African architect, Kallenbach was greatly influenced by Gandhiji’s views on Satyagraha and donated his thousand acre farm to Gandhiji near Johannesburg, which was developed as “Tolstoy Farm” housing the families of Satyagrahis. It became the laboratory for experimenting Gandhian Philosophy, like simple lifestyle, vegetarian diet, social equality, politics and self-sustained economy.

Kallenbach remained involved with Gandhiji throughout the Satyagraha in South Africa and also accompanied Gandhiji and Kasturba Gandhi on their final voyage from South Africa to London in 1914. Gandhiji and Kallenbach used to call each other as “Upper House” and “Lower House” respectively, Lower House preparing the budget and Upper House vetoing it in large chunks.

The valuable documents are on display for the public in the National Archives of India till February 15. But researchers can have access to these documents through the usual process.

The present display is based on Gandhiji’s correspondence with Kallenbach which is the latest addition to the Private Paper Collections in National Archives of India. This correspondence classified in 13 groups not only reflects Gandhiji’s association with Herman Kallenbach but also depicts Gandhiji’s relationship with his brother Simon Kallenbach and niece Hana Lazar.

Letters of several eminent Indian personalities namely Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Pherozeshah Mehta, CF Andrews, Mahadev Desai, Pyarelal, Sushila Ben, Mira Ben, Maganlal Gandhi, Manilal Gandhi, Harilal Gandhi, Devdas Gandhi, Ramdas Gandhi are also on display.

The collection also contains some letters of Isabella Fyvie Mayo, a close associate of Gandhiji and Kallenbach apart from being a pioneering translator of Tolstoy’s writings into English. Besides, the collection has 287 photographs and memorabilia like Yarvada Chakra, flag of Suraj, Khadi Scarf which show the impact of Gandhiji in the daily life of Kallenbach. The original copies of Young India and Harijan are also part of the collection.

The National Archives of India also launched the digital version of the catalogue of publications (till June 2012) on its website - www.nationalarchives.nic.in - under section “List of Publications”.

This catalogue is not merely a list of publications brought out over the last 70 in pursuance of the approved publication scheme in 1942; rather it unfolds the history of the publication policy of this Department since its inception.

Over the last 70 years, approximately 101 titles have been brought out with many of the titles having several volumes. Out of these 101 titles, 40 are priced publications, 49 are non-priced, 8 are reprints and 4 are facsimile copies of the manuscripts preserved in the National Archives of India.

In the first phase of the digitization of publications by the National Archives of India, only non-priced publications which are in single volume have been made available for download. In the second phase Annual Reports of National Archives of India (1891 onward) and Report of the Director General of Archives and other non-priced publications in various volumes would be made available on the website. The last phase of digitization will deal with all priced publications of the department.

The digital copies initiative of non-priced publications by NAI will help scholars, historians, academicians, administrators and users of archives and can be accessed freely by the public on the website.