MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH

An Autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi

This Autobiography is divided in five parts starting from his childhood days, his
experience in South Africa where he experimented with the powerful weapon of
Satyagraha and his transformation from Mohan to Mahatma, his various
experiments on fundamental principles of Truth and God, till the year 1921, after
which his life was so public that he felt there was hardly anything to write about.
Gandhi’s Non-violent struggle in South Africa and India had already brought him
to such a level of notoriety, adulation and controversy that when asked to write an
autobiography mid-way through his career, he took it as an opportunity to explain
himself.
Accepting his status as a great innovator in the struggle against racism, violence
and colonialism, Gandhi felt that his ideas needed deeper understanding. Gandhi
explains that he was after truth rooted in devotion to God and attributed the turning
point, success and challenges in his life to the will of God.
Gandhi says that his attempt to get closer to this divine power led him seek purity
through simple living, dietary practices (he called himself a fruitarian), celibacy
and ahimsa- a life without violence. It is in this sense that he calls his book “The
Story of My Experiments with Truth”, offering it also as a reference for those who
would follow his footsteps.

Every Indian knows about this great leader. Every school going kid is taught to
unthinkingly sing his praises. School textbooks present him as faultless, almost
divine. This book will revolutionize your thinking and present Gandhiji as a man.
Gandhiji was never perfect. He himself acknowledges this right from the first page.
The book demonstrates his incredible humbleness. The writing style is discreet.
The words are stitched up in a facile tone gingered with grandiloquence. He
reveals his personal life in a vivid fashion not making any attempt to camouflage
the truth about himself, however bitter, from his reading audience.
The writer is led by a barrage of experiments ranging from elocution classes to
purge his shyness and fear of public speaking, to shaking a leg on the dance floor,
to taking up singing sessions. He endeavored to learn Latin and treated diseases by
dietic modifications. He walked 10 miles a day, staunchly followed a vegetarian
diet and practiced rigorous fasting. You often turn to look at the cover page
mulling whether this mild-looking dhoti clad figure who gave up salt for 10 years
to wrangle against British rule would be so adventurous, so determined to find the
'truth' about every aspect of life that he carried out his own unbiased research into
it and refused to be satisfied with anybody else's notions of right and wrong.
Gandhiji was an erudite personality. He was a student of comparative religion and
one can witness the wisdom in his spirituality, he being a devout Hindu who
showed immense respect for all religions. He was not afraid to confess his
mistakes whether it was his concupiscence drawing him to fulfil his carnal desires
or, later, his abnegation of the warmth of his wife to become a celibate.
He exhibits remarkable fortitude and patience in his personal and professional life.
His non-violent views may have appeared iconoclastic and controversial at the
time, but they proved very effective.
He talks about God, faith, hope, truth, failure, success and morality. A lot of people
have painted an image of him based on the history projected in textbooks. But they
fail to do justice to his character. This book is a must read for anyone who has just
entered college. Teenagers may also pick it up but a young school kid may not be
able to penetrate the depth of his teaching. It is a heavy read, but will help you
develop a thought process which will transcend your rational faculty. This book
shall present a pragmatic approach to solve problems in real life as Gandhiji
portrays from his own life experiences.