Gandhi, An Autobiography
Jack Murphy reviews An Autobiography or The Story Of My Experiments With Truth – a remarkable account of the early life and works of Mohandas K. Gandhi
As the autobiography starts, we are introduced to a young man that has a burning passion for living honestly and respecting his elders, and it is this desire that follows Gandhi throughout his entire life. He provides the story of his life, from a young man growing up in Porbandar, Gujarat to his time studying to be a lawyer in England, and then the origins of his public work that he has come to be renowned for.
All narrated with the knowledge that his experiences have given him, Gandhi’s autobiography is more than just several anecdotes that are strung together; it provides a true insight into his life and works, while gently advising readers to take a good look at themselves.
The question that Gandhi poses throughout his autobiography is why write? When challenged about his writing by a friend, Gandhi claims that an autobiography will never be finished; rather it is just a glimpse of how the writer sees their life at the time of writing it. This attitude of seeing life from a different perspective is representative of how he spent his life. For Gandhi, writing is an experiment.
This idea of experimenting is at the foundation of Gandhi’s autobiography. From religion to lifestyle and diet, Gandhi tries everything with an open minded attitude in a broader attempt to pursue the truth. He admits to eating meat – more out of peer pressure than anything – despite his strong conviction to vegetarianism. It is when he comes to England and begins reading into vegetarianism that he claims ‘to have become a vegetarian by choice’, rather than just because he promised his mother. There is a strong lesson here about education and knowledge being the backbone to serious life choices.
Gandhi’s openness to different cultures, religions and ideas are an inspiration, as he actively learns about as many different ideas as he can before dismissing them. His earlier feelings about Christianity were negative: his only experiences were of ‘missionaries [...] pouring abuse on Hindus and their gods’, and of the rumours he heard at home – that Christians are forced by their religion to eat beef and drink liquor. It was not until later when he met a Christian in Manchester who quashed these rumours and encouraged him to read the Bible that he began to learn more about the truth of Christianity. Gandhi’s desire to interact with people from all walks of life is the foundation of his quest for knowledge.
His experiments with different ideas and research into religions help him on his journey for truth. Despite encouraging the reader to experiment with their life as he has done, there is always a fair warning with his experiments that each person should make up their own mind, and it is this which prevents An Autobiography from becoming too preachy.
There is a free-flowing structure to the book that allows Gandhi to talk about his life in a chronological order, but still move quickly from anecdote to experiment, keeping the stories and ideas both short and informative. The simplicity of the language is part of its genius; there are many simple ideas about the importance of friendship that are much deeper than they initially appear. During an encounter with a friend whom he desperately wants to help, Gandhi discovers a truth about helping others: ‘A reformer cannot afford to have close intimacy with him whom he seeks to reform. True friendship is an identity of souls rarely to be found in this world. Only between like natures can friendship be altogether worthy and enduring.’ The necessity for mutual respect in friendship differs from the relationship between the reformer and the person that is to be reformed.
Throughout the autobiography, Gandhi shows an honesty that is humbling. His fear of public speaking and his jealousy are problems that he spends a lot of time trying to overcome. Although there are views in his works that are not relevant or agreeable with all contemporary readers, such as his attitudes towards child labour, An Autobiography was not written to be recited verbatim, but rather to be seen as the product of an experiment.
Furthermore, it doesn’t just have to be read as a collection of ideas because it is also a very interesting story. With accounts of life as a young boy in India, to his time as a student of Law in England, and then his subsequent public work in South Africa, the anecdotes are entertaining whilst painting a picture of life at the turn of the century and just beyond it.
The only real drawback to the autobiography may lie more with the translation than Gandhi’s writing itself. There are many wonderful phrases at the start of the book, particularly when Gandhi talks about a person being ‘innocent’ of knowing something. ‘Innocent’ has a compassionate tone to it, which speaks very much of Gandhi’s philosophies, but later on in the book the phrase is replaced with ‘ignorant’. Although it is only a small shift in language, ‘ignorance’ has pejorative implications. Despite seeming minor, it did become irritating to see the shift of that phrase, among others; however, it’s difficult to know whether it is the writing itself, or the result of the translation.
Providing a series of new ideas alongside a genuinely interesting life story is no small feat, and Gandhi has succeeded in combining these two parts of an autobiography with an accessible and simple attitude towards writing. It provides a perfect introduction to the life of Gandhi might propel a reader to investigate far beyond this excellent work.
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