A first volume of a series detailing the life and work of the influential political advocate draws on private papers and other untapped sources to cover his birth in 1869 through his upbringing in Gujarat, discussing his London education and decades as a lawyer in South Africa.
"In 1893, when Gandhi set sail for South Africa, he was a twenty-three-year-old lawyer who had failed to establish himself in India. In this remarkable biography, the author makes clear the fundamental ways in which Gandhi's ideas were shaped before his return to India in 1915. It was during his years in England and South Africa, Guha shows us, that Gandhi came to understand the nature of imperialism and racism; and in South Africa that he forged the philosophy and techniques that would undermine and eventually overthrow the British Raj. Gandhi Before India gives us equally vivid portraits of the man and the …
A first volume of a series detailing the life and work of the influential political advocate draws on private papers and other untapped sources to cover his birth in 1869 through his upbringing in Gujarat, discussing his London education and decades as a lawyer in South Africa.
"In 1893, when Gandhi set sail for South Africa, he was a twenty-three-year-old lawyer who had failed to establish himself in India. In this remarkable biography, the author makes clear the fundamental ways in which Gandhi's ideas were shaped before his return to India in 1915. It was during his years in England and South Africa, Guha shows us, that Gandhi came to understand the nature of imperialism and racism; and in South Africa that he forged the philosophy and techniques that would undermine and eventually overthrow the British Raj. Gandhi Before India gives us equally vivid portraits of the man and the world he lived in: a world of sharp contrasts among the coastal culture of his birthplace, High Victorian London, and colonial South Africa. It explores in abundant detail Gandhi's experiments with dissident cults such as the Tolstoyans; his friendships with radical Jews, heterodox Christians and devout Muslims; his enmities and rivalries; and his often overlooked failures as a husband and father. It tells the dramatic, profoundly moving story of how Gandhi inspired the devotion of thousands of followers in South Africa as he mobilized a cross-class and inter-religious coalition, pledged to non-violence in their battle against a brutally racist regime." -- Publisher's description.
From this book, I learned some surprising things about Gandhi's work in South Africa. For example, I did not know that Chinese activists joined Gandhi in his Satyagraha in South Africa. It is quite amazing to learn how thousands of people, including Chinese, Tamils, Gujaratis, Hindus, Muslims, Parsis, etc., all willingly went to jail under Gandhi's leadership. The author succeeds in giving us a good social portrait of the times. I would have liked to learn more about Gandhi's childhood, but I think it is not the author's fault that historical material is hard to come by for that time period. Overall, I liked this book and recommend it!
Scholars of Gandhi will probably appreciate the multitude of small details more than someone like myself who wanted to learn about Gandhi's life as an activist in South Africa in a more general way. The details became too much for me to stay focused and I finally closed the book for good at about 40% of the way through it.
