Gandhi Before India

A brilliant account of Gandhi's early years in South Africa, where he developed his political thinking and forged his tools for fighting for civil rights. We in the subcontinent are generally not well informed of the length and intensity of this two decades long struggle for basic civil rights, and tend to assume that it was a simple, one-off affair. On the contrary, it was a long and bitter struggle, calling for enormous commitment and sacrifices on the part of quite ordinary people of Indian origin in South Africa, led and organised by a small-town lawyer from an obscure corner of Gujerat in the west of India, with no traditional or family ties to the place of the struggle. The author has rendered a timely service in retelling this show more epic in detail, as it tends to get overshadowed by the later part of Gandhi's life and career. It enhances our respect and awe of this great person, who went on to the even greater struggle of Indian independence, when he could as well have hung up his walking footwear and retreated to the life of a provincial lawyer. The simplicity and directness of Guha's prose mirrors the personality and style of his protagonist, making for an absorbing and painless reading experience. show less

Unfortunately, the audience for this informative, ground-breaking biography of Gandhi's first 45 years is likely rather small, but this well-written book uses third party sources as much, if not more than, Gandhi's own writings to tell the story of his family, his experiences at school in India and in London, and his decades in South Africa. Of course, the story of why and how Gandhi developed and led the nonviolent resistance movement to laws designed to suppress and control non-whites is the central focus of the book, but Guha also delves into the background of Gandhi's dietary and medical experiments as well. Surprise, there are reasons for his vegetarianism rooted in his caste and culture; more surprisingly, Guha discovered and show more writes about Gandhi's mother's willingness to host and learn from Jain priests as the foundation of her son's openness to other religious perspectives while maintaining his devotion to his Hindu faith. This is a fascinating book that illuminates many aspects of the "Mahatma" Gandhi story and explains vividly the evolution of the attorney into the icon. show less

As an Indian, I must confess I thought I knew all there was to know about Gandhi. His childhood in Gujarat (insert some "I will not lie" stories) at school, followed by a stint as a lawyer in South Africa. The legendary incident of him being thrown out of the train followed by the anger and subsequent determination to throw the British out.

What I had never thought of was his evolution into the Mahatma - where his beliefs came from and how he stood by them when the entire world around him was going to pot (Lenin, Hitler, Churchill etc.).

The author has brought about Gandhi's evolution into the Mahatma beautifully through a multitude of sources.

Though the Mahatma's greatness may be unchanging, he himself was a work in progress - always show more eager and willing to listen to criticism and looking to improve himself.

A fabulous book. Will now read the second part. show less

Until now I had little idea of the background of the man who became the liberator of the nation of India. This book reveals the development of the man and his ideals, and shows the twenty years of the growth of his revolutionary ideas in the context of South Africa before he returned to India to put them in practice there. Very worthwhile reading, and it enlarged my knowledge of a part of the world that has not before been part of my world view. Not only would he have been a different person and the history of India perhaps different if he had not had these African experiences, but perhaps the eventual overthrow of apartheid would have been different as well. An enriching read!