AHMEDABAD: If you are researching on Gandhi and using the revised version of the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (CWMG) as a resource base, don't be surprised when you notice some important entries on Gandhi's stay in South Africa from 1892-1915 missing.

Experts would tell you that this is among other omissions in the new CWMG. The 100-volume series was revised by the I&B ministry in 2001 during the NDA regime. There is also a CD version of the revised series, which has similar lapses. However, the whole matter has come to light only now. Gandhians have already demanded that the revised CWMG and its CDs should be withdrawn.

However, whether the distortion is deliberate or out of pure incompetence is not known. But the matter of concern for Gandhians and students is that once the older version is out of circulation, the next generation of researchers will have no authentic version to fall back on.

Also, with the old version tampered with, the references in close to 10,000 books written on Gandhi may not now correspond with the volumes of the revised version.

"There are about 500 entries missing in the revised version which is a sacrilege. The volumes in circulation will have to be withdrawn.No amount of correction will help," eminent Gandhian Chinubhai Vaidya asserts.

Other distortions include letters written by Gandhi to his friends where the content has been swapped. For instance, in volume 74 on page 462-463, the letter, which should have been addressed to Herman Kallenbach, has been printed as Prabhu Dayal Vidyarthi and the letter for Vidyarthi has been printed as Mathurdas Trikumji. The one meant for Trikumji has been printed as Pyarelal, while the one that should have been addressed to Pyarelal has been printed as Kallenbach.

Also, an important table on the Khadi workers is missing from volume 32 of the revised series. The preface penned by the editor has been removed from all volumes.

A Gandhi expert Tridip Suhrud points out that in the older version the first 90 volumes carried the main content, supplementaries made up for volumes 91 to 97 and the last three volumes contained indices. In the new version, the first 98 volumes have content with all supplementaries having been merged, and just two volumes of indices. "This has resulted in a complete mismatch of indices and content. Further, in volume 96 of the new version, a portion on Gandhiji's draft will is missing."