Gandhi: Some Reminiscences of the Bar

In one line

Gandhi recalls that he never lied in his legal practice, warned every new client that he would not take a false case or coach a witness, and then tells of the day he insisted on telling a court about an arithmetical error in an award that was entirely in his own client's favour.

In the wording a student can write in an examination: Some Reminiscences of the Bar is chapter 44 of Part V of Gandhi's An Autobiography, in which he recalls incidents from his South African practice bearing upon the practice of truth, and in particular a case in which he insisted, against the advice of his senior counsel, on admitting to the court an error in an arbitration award which favoured his own client.

Where the piece comes from

The book. An Autobiography, or The Story of My Experiments with Truth, written in Gujarati and published in weekly instalments from 1925, and translated into English. It is arranged in five parts and one hundred and sixty-seven short chapters. This is chapter 44 of Part V, and it is numbered 121 in the sequence as a whole.

MU cites it differently. The syllabus gives the source as The Law and the Lawyers, edited by S. B. Kher, Navajivan, which is a compilation of Gandhi's writings on law. The piece is genuinely from the Autobiography, and the compilation reprints it. Saying so in an answer costs one clause and shows you have looked.

Where it stands in the story. Gandhi says at the outset that before coming to a narrative of his life in India, it seems necessary to recall a few South African experiences he had deliberately left out. He practised as a lawyer in South Africa from 1893, and this looks back over those years.

Why he wrote it. Because lawyer friends asked him for his reminiscences of the bar. He says the number is so large that describing them all would fill a volume, so he will recall only those "which bear upon the practice of truth", and that his friends seem to think the legal profession might profit by hearing of occasions when he refused to swerve from it.

What he says about the profession

The saying he heard as a student. "As a student I had heard that the lawyer's profession was a liar's profession." He adds at once why it did not affect him: he had no intention of earning either position or money by lying.

What he claims for his own practice. Four things, and each is a separate proposition.

1. He never resorted to untruth in his profession.
2. A large part of his practice was in the interest of public work, for which he charged nothing beyond out-of-pocket expenses, and sometimes met even those himself.
3. He never made his fees conditional on winning, and expected neither more nor less whether the client won or lost.
4. He wished in his heart of hearts to win only if his client's case was right, and remembers only one occasion when, having won, he suspected that his client had deceived him.