An Autobiography (Paperback)

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the great Indian political leader and social reformer, was born in 1869 at Porbandar in western India. In 1888 he went to London to study law, qualifying in 1891; there he first encountered liberal and Christian ideas, and the teachings of Tolstoy. Returning to India, he practised law there until 1893 when he left for South Africa. His experience of racialism in South Africa led him to take up the rights of the Indian community and he soon emerged as their leader. He instituted a campaign of passive resistance in response to the Transvaal govern- ment's discriminatory policy, coining the term Satyagraha - truth force - for this new revolutionary technique.
This method of resistance was later used to great effect in India's struggle for independence. Gandhi returned to India in 1915 and in 1925 he became President of the Indian National Congress. His first major clash with the British government came in 1919 over the Rowlatt Acts, and he then introduced the hartal, a strike during which the people devoted themselves to prayer and fasting. However, when his policies resulted in violence he abandoned the pro- gramme of mass civil disobedience.
For a period Gandhi withdrew from politics and travelled throughout India preaching the cardinal tenets of his doctrine: Hindu- Moslem unity, the abolition of untouchability, and the promotion of hand-spinning.