Book Review - Gandhi Before India
Some time back I happened to watch Richard Attenborough's movie "Gandhi" (9 Oscars and a box office hit). After watching the movie I wanted to know more about Gandhi. I had read his autobiography "My Experiments With Truth" but it did not cover much of the small events and circumstances that would have shaped his personality.
So when I heard of this book "Gandhi Before India" by Ramachandra Guha , I grabbed a chance to read it. It is a BIG book so I could only complete it in a month or so but it was a time well spent.
This book details the life of Gandhi before he became 'Mahatma'. It is an impartial narrative of the events that shaped this great man's ideologies. It contains accounts of even the smallest events that occurred in his early and mid life. The book includes many of his letters written to his friends and mentors which gives us a fair idea on how he made this transition from an ordinary good person to an extra ordinary loving soul. At many places in the book you would come to know about his personal struggles and anxieties too. The book
This book follows the journey of Gandhi from Gujarat to London to South Africa and then back to Gujarat. It's almost as if you are seeing him living his life being taken on a time machine back to his time. Very good book if you want to understand Gandhi. A must read.
Its available, along with other above mentioned resources, on amazon.in