was translated that same year into Croatian (sic!), upon the initative of Stjepan Radiae (1871-1928),
entitled as Na1 Gandhi (Our Gandhi!); on the above photo.
in his atelier in Paris, during Gandhi’s meditation
Stjepan Radiae with his grandchildren
| Summary Romain Rolland’s book was published on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi, which was celebrated in 2019, and Stjepan Radiae, which was honored in the year 2021 when this reprint was published in Zagreb. The original Croatian version of the book was published in 1924, entitled “Na1 Gandhi” (Our Gandhi!). Issuing this reprint was suggested by Mr. Joginder Singh Nijjar, the president of Croatian-Indian Society in Zagreb. It appeared under the auspices of highest Croatian political, cultural and scientific institutions, as well as under the auspices of the Embassy of the Republic of India to Croatia with H. E. Mr. Raj Kumar Srivastava.
Below, we provide a presentation of the reprint, written by Ante Beliae for Disputatio philosophica.
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| Romain Rolland, Na1 Gandhi, Zagreb: Croatian – Indian society, 2021, 299 pp. When we mention the names of two great personalities, Mahatma Gandhi and Stjepan Radiae, we may wonder what connects them. One comes from the great and distant India, the other from small Croatia – seemingly incompatible “worlds” that have little in common. However, the reprint of Romain Rolland’s book Our Gandhi proves just the opposite. Mahatma Gandhi and Stjepan Radiae are closely related, and the social situations in India and Croatia at the time are much more similar than one might think. It is crucial to mention some facts related to the publication of this reprint that indicate the importance of this work. This significance is reflected in the list of patrons of this edition, which includes some of the most important institutions of the Republic of Croatia, such as the Parliament of the Republic of Croatia, the President of the Republic of Croatia, Zoran Milanoviae, the City of Zagreb, the Embassy of India, etc. An impressive list of institutions have recognized the importance of this edition, for which the Croatian-Indian Society, which is also the publisher of this reprint, is most deserving. First of all, it should be mentioned that the book was published on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi, which was celebrated in 2019, and Stjepan Radiae, which was honored in the year 2021 when this reprint was published. This edition begins with “The Prologue – Mahatma Gandhi and Stjepan Radiae” (2021), an exceptional contribution of Professor Mislav Je 3/4 iae (of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts), who on 108 pages analyses Rolland’s Our Gandhi, and its translation and first edition in Croatian. Moreover, Je 3/4 iae introduces us to the biography of the author, but also to the work of Stjepan Radiae and the inspiration he drew from the char-acter and work of Mahatma Gandhi. In the epilogue of this prologue, we find a kind of supplement to Rolland’s book itself. Rolland, in fact, wrote the book in 1922, but it was published in 1924, and more than two decades passed from then until Gandhi’s death. For this reason, Professor Je 3/4 iae titled the first part of his epilogue “Gandhi and India after the period in which the book Our Gandhi was written – Comparative Events in Croatia.” The second part of this epilogue is titled “India and Croatia from World War II to the present.” In this part, Je 3/4 iae analyses what happened in India and Croatia after the lives of Mahatma Gandhi and Stjepan Radiae and concludes with a curious question and a significant answer, “We can ask ourselves how much Gandhi’s ideas are still present in modern India more than 150 years after his birth and almost 75 years after his death. We can ask ourselves how many thoughts of Stjepan Radiae and his brother Antun are still present in modern Croatia exactly 150 years after his birth and almost 95 years after his death. We can answer that they are present as much as social and national liberation has been achieved in India or Croatia” (Je 3/4 iae 2021, CV).  Na1 Gandhi = Our Gandhi!
The centerpiece of this edition is a reprint of the 1924 translation of Romain Rolland’s book Our Gandhi. The book itself was originally published in 1924 under the title Mahatma Gandhi and went through more than thirty editions in less than a year. In the same year, a translation into Croatian was published after the 31st French edition at the request of Stjepan Radiae. 3,000 copies of this Croatian translation were published by the Slavic bookstore (Slavenska knji 3/4 ara), owned by Stjepan Radiae. The translation was done by Dr. Josip Vandekar, Stjepan Radiae’s son-in-law. Almost a hundred years after this edition, we do not have in our hands a new edition of the book, but a faithful reprint. Thus, we can see that the text follows the orthographic norms of the 19th century’s Zagreb Philological School. In the beginning, we find a short prologue written by Stjepan Radiae himself, entitled “Croatian Peacekeeping and Indian Nonviolent Movement” (Radiae 2021, V-VIII). Radiae tries to show the great connection and similarity between these two movements, despite the extremely different environments in which they operate. He gives the impression that he himself is amazed at the similarities between these two movements. For this reason, he is convinced that the Croatian peasant really has the right to consider Gandhi as “his” and, therefore, explains why this Croatian translation is called Our Gandhi. The introduction was written by the translator Dr. Josip Vandekar, who relayed historical and geographical information about India, different social groups, languages, and especially religion. This introduction could have served as an excellent source of basic information about India for the reader of that time, as it does for us today. |
