Gandi: An AutobiographyThe Story of My Experiments with Truth
Mohandas K. Gandhi is one of the most inspiring figures of our time. In his classic autobiography he recounts the story of his life and how he developed his concept of active nonviolent resistance, which propelled the Indian struggle for independence and countless other nonviolent struggles of the twentieth century. In a new foreword, noted peace expert and teacher Sissela Bok urges us to adopt Gandhi's "attitude of experimenting, of tesing what will and will not bear close scrutiny, what can and cannot be adapted to new circumstances,"in order to bring about change in our own lives and communities. All royalties earned on this book are paid to the Navajivan Trust, founded by Gandhi, for use in carrying on his work. from product description
In Gandhi’s autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, the reader enters deep into Gandhi’s quest for truth which is deeply rooted in devotion to God. He aims to explain this core belief that he feels has had a great impact on his life, both challenges and successes alike.
ReplyDeleteGandhi affirms that his experiments with truth can lead to self realization and a better understanding of he who is above all else. These experiments which notably include Satyagraha (nonviolence) incited the Indian people to battle the iniquity and gain independence from British rule. We are chronologically taken to places that have particular importance to Gandhi in his search for truth. He hopes that others will gain the knowledge in order to follow in his footsteps by applying these principles through conviction, impartiality, and most especially humility. At times, in support of his thesis, Gandhi assumes that all those reading his book are his contemporaries and are acquainted with many of his life’s affairs. He takes for granted the fact that the reader possesses much historical information including the political landscape of the time.
One of the main contentions in Gandhi’s book has to be his theory of non-violence and the fact that it always conquers violence. He had such high esteem and respect for mankind, believing human nature to be so inherently good that even one who has hurt and killed countless beings will ultimately be halted by pure good alone. Another critical argument Gandhi makes is that of total faith and belief in God. Throughout the book, we are introduced to manners in which he attempts to get closer to this esoteric power as he seeks purity through modest living, alimentary practices, celibacy, and the aforementioned ahisma-a life without violence.
When you read this book, it feels as if Gandhi himself is speaking to you. He reveals exactly what he is thinking and internalizing at a particular moment. There is no duplicity in his words and he is totally transparent with his thoughts and ideas which is the greatest strength of his writing. Although I have discussed a key weakness regarding the bias of the thesis above, another slight flaw of the book has to be Gandhi’s excessive talks about his diet. This was necessary to a certain degree, however it was stressed disproportionately.
Although Gandhi has perished like all men before him, his ideas and efforts will never be forgotten. His vision will continue to grow and inspire all those that set out to journey through his autobiography which has forged its own place in literature and has been designated as one of the "100 Most Important Spiritual Books of the 20th Century."
Gandhi’s recount in ‘The Story Of My Experiments With Truth’ enlightens a reader towards the values of life that made his non-violent movements successful and historic. Gandhi’s ambition within his religion was to seek “self-realization” and in doing so he learnt the ethics and morals towards peaceful living from childhood up to the final moments of his career. Gandhi therefore provided a theme of life long learning allowing him to think critically or acting in situations that depicted his career and ideology for peace and independence.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, Gandhi’s experiences took place amongst people that were of his own race and culture or those that he decided to integrate with while studying or working abroad. These provided a fair amount of detail to the reliability of Gandhi’s surrounding society as the reader is given perspective to his negative, positive or memorable interactions. Furthermore, the relation by Gandhi himself, having been an important character towards the thesis of this book, his sources and events described are more likely to be accurate than those of a historian.
The book digs into detail of events or morals that Gandhi weighed more importance to during his lifetime. The structure of “parts and sub-chapters” distinguishes these narrations from the emphasis he wished to put for the reader.
Those readers interested in Politics, History or Religious Studies at school/university, the book provides sufficient detail towards the value of a society, the effect of little interaction amongst foreign countries and importantly, the magnitude of religions depicted in an individual.
The book serves the purpose of its title and thesis as it creates the open thought for the reader to comprehend how Gandhi actually experimented with truth. Unlike today, Gandhi did not set up a purpose and test his method repeatedly but he lived his life and evaluated all that he learnt to become a higher human being. There is little of teaching and more of describing to keep the reader’s interpretation personal and this is a great strength to Gandhi’s book. Whilst he did manage to keep the reader satisfied to their content, a weakness would be the repetition of issues that made little contribution to the thesis (eg. liquor).
In conclusions, the book carries a heavy load of literature as it describes the elements of society, religion, independent living and racial discrimination that were a reason of political and cultural unrest within and out of country borders.
The title of Gandhi’s autobiography, ‘The story of my experiments with truth’, tells the reader exactly what the book is about; it is not so much an autobiography as an account of how and why each concept, belief and opinion of Gandhi’s came into being, presented chronologically, or in the form of an autobiography. Every anecdote told is told for the purpose of highlighting a point, and information only seems to be given when it supports the reasoning as to why a concept was developed or a belief was formed, which brings me to the thesis of the book. The massive amount of detail in this autobiography suggests that Gandhi believes everything in his life has influenced his beliefs in some way, and that every single detail has impacted upon his beliefs in some way. In this book Gandhi aims to impart his beliefs upon us, but the forward by Sissela Bok aims to try and persuade the reader to adopt Gandhi’s beliefs, especially those of Satyaragha. However this book can be slightly biased as it is an autobiography, so Gandhi is going to have a very personal connection to the events and concepts discussed, and therefore he is going to have an opinion on them and the recount is evidently not going to be completely impartial.
ReplyDeleteOne of the contentions of this book is Gandhi’s beliefs on vegetarianism, and how is not needed to make you stronger, contrary to the popular belief of the time. Another contention of this book is Gandhi’s theory on nonviolence and how it will always overpower violence and destruction. Arguably the most central contention of the book was Gandhi’s views on religion. Gandhi was open to all religions, and he believed in complete faith and devotion to god, which he sought through clean and simple living, always helping others every opportunity, celibacy, and a peaceful life.
I feel some of the book’s strengths are found in the actual way it is written; Gandhi writes as if talking to the reader which allows the audience to become engaged, and it makes it feel as if he is just sharing his ideas and experiences with the reader, rather than preaching down to them. I found one weakness of the book to be that Gandhi expected the reader to already know a great deal about his life and the time he was living, and as I was reading the book without any prior knowledge on Gandhi, I often felt a little lost. Also, I sometimes felt that some of his ideas were over stressed, and they got a little repetitive, although this adds to the idea that everything in his life influenced his beliefs.
I feel that this book is perfect for anyone interested in history, politics, or religion, who also has some knowledge of Gandhi and his beliefs, and it is an important book in religious literature, as it describes events and concepts that have shaped our world today.