At the end of July 1933, Gandhi wired Bombay's home secretary to notify

him of his intention to lead a Satyagraha march from Ahmedabad to

Ras to urge all villagers there to boycott liquor and foreign cloth. He was
not, however, permitted to take a single step. He and Mahadev were arrested
at midnight on August 1,1933, first taken to Sabarmati Jail and then
transferred the next day to Poona's Yeravda. There he was tried by Magistrate
Hyam Israel. When asked his occupation, Gandhi replied: "I am by
occupation a spinner, a weaver and a farmer."39 Asked his residence, he
said "Yeravda jail now." He did not dispute any charge brought against
him, but made a brief statement. "I am a lover of peace, and I regard myself
a good citizen voluntarily tendering obedience to the laws of the State
to which I may belong. But there are occasions in the lifetime of a citizen
when it becomes his painful duty to disobey laws. ... I have had recently a
spell of freedom and was in the midst of people . . . living in a perpetual
fear of loss of liberty and their possessions. ... I sought shelter in selfsuffering."
40 After that reaffirmation of his passionate credo of civil resistance,
Gandhi requested to be treated as a grade "C" prisoner. Magistrate
Israel sentenced him, however, to one year as a grade "A" prisoner, "considering
your age and the present state of your health." He was almost
sixty-four and weighed less than one hundred pounds.
[ 172 ]
Imprisoned Soul of India
Eager to resume the Harijan work he had done earlier from his prison
cell, Gandhi requested secretarial assistance for preparing his weekly Harijan,
but now the prison authorities were totally unsupportive. On August
14, 1933, he therefore wrote to Bombay's home secretary and informed
him of his decision to resume fasting in two days. The strain of his not being
allowed to work had become "unbearable." Life "ceases to interest me
if I may not do Harijan service," Gandhi explained.41 He began his fast August
16, ending it eight days later when he was unconditionally released.
"How I shall use this life out of prison, I do not know," he wrote,42 though
Harijan service would remain from now on, he added, "the breath of life
for me, more precious than the daily bread." He was returned to Lady
Thackersey's bungalow on August 23, 1933, free at last and to remain so
for nine unbroken years.