Gandhi wrote his autobiography in Gujarati as weekly instalments in his journal Navajivan between 1925 and 1929, and his secretary Mahadev Desai translated it into English. It covers his life from childhood in Porbandar and Rajkot to about 1921, and Gandhi presents it not as a political history but as an account of his spiritual and moral experiments.
He describes, with striking frankness, his child marriage, adolescent rebellions, guilt over his father's death, student years in London grappling with vegetarianism and English manners, and his faltering start as a lawyer. In South Africa, being thrown off a train becomes the turning point that leads to his community work, the Phoenix settlement, Tolstoy Farm and the first satyagraha campaigns against discriminatory laws.
The final sections cover his return to India, the Champaran and Kheda struggles and the Ahmedabad mill strike. Throughout, Gandhi experiments with diet, celibacy, nursing, simple living and religious ideas, and he records failures as readily as successes. The book is essential for understanding the man behind the movement, including views that later readers find troubling.
Book details
| Author | Mahatma Gandhi |
|---|---|
| First published | 1927 |
| Original language | Gujarati |
| Translated by | Mahadev Desai |
| Genre | Memoir |
| Type | Non-fiction |
| Pages (approx.) | 450 |
| Setting | Porbandar, Rajkot, London, South Africa and India, 1869-1921 |
Themes
- Truth
- Non-violence
- Self-discipline
- Spiritual experimentation
- Racial injustice
Who should read it
Anyone who wants Gandhi's own account of how his ideas formed, in his own humble and searching voice.