Mohandas K. Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth Paperback – June 1, 1983

I have a great respect for Gandhi and I read this book to get a clearer understanding of the man. I reject the pedestal he has been placed upon, a fate no one deserves. Here are his words and thoughts, foreign in many ways to those of the west and unfamiliar with of man of his time and place. Readers who cannot understand his era or upbringing will likely be disappointed or confused by his account. Those with insight, compassion and the wisdom to know that Gandhi was indeed only human, will be able to enjoy this book completely.Due to the publisher's marketing is is called an autobiography, which it was never intended to be and does not include his later years when he was a considerable political force. Still there is much here and plenty of opportunities to meet the real Gandhi with all his glitter and grime. I feel I know him so much better now and am amused and surprised of the many attitudes/beliefs we share. It is unlikely that if I were a contemporary I could have called him friend, but it is especially satisfying to be able to identify more closely with what made this good man tick. A great read, but not a breezy read and not for those who do not want to see anything but a courageous white knight figure. He was so much more than that stereotypical caricature.

As a seeker, it was a great help to read about Gandhi’s daily life and struggles. Spiritual truths can sometimes seem far removed from the world we live in. I find it valuable to learn how those who practice unconditional love and truth apply the principles to their daily lives. Mandala’s autobiography has also been helpful in this regard.Unfortunately, the Kindle edition of this book is rife with typos, incorrect words, missing words, etc. At times it was a chore to try to determine Gandhi’s meaning.

Recently, TIME/CNN released its list of top 25 political icons. Topping that list was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948). It's hard to reconcile the image of the frail and cherubic- looking senior with the iron-willed patriarch of the Indian nation, who forced the most powerful empire of the age to back down and walk away. Once we read his memoir however, it's easier to understand.Gandhi's `An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth' covers his life from early childhood to 1921, and portions of it were written when he was imprisoned by the British government for his pro-freedom activities. It was originally written in Gujarati, and was intended by Gandhi to lay out the case for `Satyagraha' (Abidance in Truth), the name coined for his non-violent and peaceful resistance of British occupation. Gandhi's language is unostentatious, as can be expected by a man known for his ascetic simplicity. The reader is of course always at the mercy of the competence, or otherwise, of the translator. But the plain, factual language lets the unadulterated essence of Gandhi shine through.Born in the village of Porbandar, in Gujarat, a state on the west coast of India, the Gandhis had for three generations been in public service. His father having passed away when Gandhi was relatively young, the responsibility for his education was assumed by his elder brother, who supported him in going to England to study for the bar. Once Gandhi returned to India, he was unable to find satisfactory prospects, and went to South Africa to pursue a career in law. He stayed there for several years to champion the cause of the disenfranchised Indian community. On his return to India, he joined the struggle towards a Free India. From being a marginal figure, his influence rapidly grew to spearhead the movement, on his own terms - under the banner of Satyagraha, based on the principle of Ahimsa (non-injury).The reader has to contend with some obscure details of the Indian Resistance movement, many of which may not be of popular knowledge, but Gandhi always ties these incursions into Indian history to the subject of his autobiography - the application of Satyagraha, and its results. He mentions many of the stalwarts of the Resistance, but the main body, the Congress, comes across as a flabby, lumbering, and ineffectual piece of political machinery. Gandhi's intense love for his country and compatriots does not blind him to the challenges he faces both within the country, as well as without. When he does speak of the English, there is a remarkable lack of rancor in his statements.Gandhi, the private man, is as interesting as Gandhi, the public figure. He was married at the age of thirteen to the unlettered, but spirited Kasturbai. Kasturbai had his passionate devotion, but he ruefully acknowledges tyrannizing over her. Theirs was an enduring marriage that weathered many storms. He admits to having made some mistakes in the raising of his four sons, and there is a note of pain in his mention of his estrangement from the eldest. One doesn't doubt that it would have been hard living up to the Mahatma's standards.His influence on his family and friends is that of a benevolent dictator. Once he was convinced that he was on the right track, he spared no pains to persuade all around him to join him in his choices. This sounds autocratic, but we can easily credit that only a man possessed of this unique combination of unbending conviction and mesmerizing charisma could have galvanized a nation onto the path of Satyagraha.He certainly had his share of quirks. His dietary experiments seem to have gone beyond principles and eccentricity, to border on a reckless disregard for common sense and well being. Gandhi was also an enthusiastic proponent of home-schooling. While one can hardly argue against the need for active parental involvement, and values-based education, his execution of these ideas seem woefully ill-conceived, as well as inadequate. The education of children is no undertaking for unprepared amateurs. One would wonder if perhaps, the Mahatma could have practiced moderation in these issues and others, but it seems to me, that like those who are addicted to extreme sports, he applied an `all or nothing' philosophy to everything he did.He was not comfortable with the title of Mahatma (Great Soul) bestowed on him by his adoring countrymen. He seems to feel that he didn't deserve it. He was a man acutely conscious of his own shortcomings. His reticence seems quaint in that it's in such marked contrast to the public and private behavior of today's elected officials, many of whom aspire to lead without ever having served.Gandhi, from his earliest years showed both patriotism, as well as an all-embracing humanitarianism, but it is a revelation that many of the other qualities that we associate with him - his adamantine integrity, his courage, faith, abstinence, vegetarianism - were all hard-won, through a process of trial and error. They were in short, the very experiments that established him in the Truth so dear to him. Gandhi grew into his principles. Therein lies the beauty of his message and the power of this book.

This classic tells the story of Gandhi's experiments to express only truth. These experiments are the foundation of the Satyagraha approach to political activism through nonviolent civil disobedience. These are the stories of his early developmental struggles with family relationships, his own body and his career as a legal advocate. The experiments with truth end prior to him taking the limelight in the Indian struggle for freedom from British colonial rule.Gandhi's commitment to the expression of pure truth was challenged daily in his struggles with English prejudice against Indians in South Africa and Northern India. His English law education became valuable to him only when he became an advocate for Indians facing the injustice of the colonial British judiciary and bureaucracy. The English tradition of due process was Gandhi's first tool of nonviolence to overcome the deeply held British assumption that empire-building was for the good of all.Gandhi's expression of personal truth by a pure diet and fasting for political activism look alot like rationalized anorexia. That experiment in truth through pure diet nearly killed him. In truth, his dietary behavior could be explained away as a textbook example of Margaret Archer's meta-reflexive personality (Archer, 2003), as masochism from hyper sense of guilt, or some psychological approach. No matter. His redefinition of political activism as "getting people to act on what they already know is wrong" turns most of western Political Science theory and research on it's head. The opinion-driven narcisstic strategies of western personality political activism are wrong-headed. The western notion of politics as the "survival of the fittest" that creates "others and lessers" is a pointless, permanent and deadly competition. Gandhi humbly accepts all creatures as caught in the unchangeable circumstance that "life lives on life". There is no need to hate an enemy because we are all in the same circumstance. We are all spirits that must eat an-other, take an-other's place, and tyrannize an-other in order to physically survive. Satyagraha acknowledges the inescapability of physical life needs. All creatures share universal vulnerability. Non-violent resistance states that all have a place on this earth and deserve respect. I think, in some way Gandhi's punishing diet restrictions was his hope to end the need to sustain life on the lives of others(plants count as life).You will find yourself in the experiments with truth that Gandhi tells in this autobiography. You will begin to hear the niggling inner voice call on you to find nonviolent strategies to resist what you know is wrong. Just as a lotus emerges from the mud to bloom on the waters' surface, a truth will emerge from within you, and you will submit to your own Satyagraha.CitesArcher, M. 2003. Structure, Agency and the Internal Conversation. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.