"This cable… was not in my words": Gandhi, the Telegraph and Political Communication in the British Empire

This chapter re-examines Gandhi’s prolific record as a political communicator from the perspective of the technologies of communication he employed during his South African years. It focuses in particular on his discourses and practices of telegraphy, an important tool of communication in a broader and interrelated media environment that also included letters, newspapers and speeches. The chapter makes an argument for Gandhi’s critical use of telegraphy, demonstrating how he moved beyond a simple critique of technology to imagine a different instrumentality for it.