Autobiography or the Story of My Experiments with Truth

An Autobiography or the Story Of My Experiments With Truth contains Gandhi’s recollections of his life experiences, up to 1921. This book was originally written in Gujarati, the Mahatma’s mother tongue.
Gandhi was doubtful about writing an autobiography, as he felt that his beliefs and ideals may change later in life, and may not be the same as they were when he pens his autobiography. Yet, despite all these doubts, the Mahatma decided to proceed with the project.

As he himself states, this is not a full autobiography. Rather, it is more a record of a series of experiments he conducted with his own life. So, more than a full life history, this story focuses on his attempts to shape his life according to certain principles that he believed in. Gandhi, the man who led India to independence and the man who stood as a symbol for non-violent resistance, most people are aware of. Many also know his simple lifestyle, his vegetarianism and his celibacy.

This book reveals how he came to believe in those ideals and how he managed to put them into practice in his own life. He dedicated his whole life to his country. Yet, his life was also about much more than the Indian National Movement. His life was about a man constantly trying to find an ideal way of life, to see how far he could go, not just in the political quest for independence, but also in his personal quest for spiritual progress.

An Autobiography or the Story Of My Experiments With Truth is a record of that aspect of his life, his personal journey as a man of ideals. The book is about the man’s evolution from an ordinary young man who transformed into a Mahatma, an evolved soul who could be an inspiration to others, who later became an inspirational figure to the whole world.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in Gujarat in 1869. He studied law and trained as a barrister in the UK. He then moved to South Africa to represent Indian Muslim traders and Hindu labourers in that country. The two decades he spent in South Africa were pivotal in his life. It helped shape his political views, ethics and his leadership skills. He developed the idea of satyagraha in South Africa, and when he returned to India, employed it successfully in his native land’s struggle for freedom.

Gandhi was the acknowledged leader of India’s freedom movement in its later phase. He is hailed as the father of the nation.