The Story of my experiments with Truth. By: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Time spent reading: 7 Hours .

I am experimenting with increasing my reading circle and hence always look to read from different writers. I picked up the book to understand the writer and what inspired an idea that changes my life and the life of a billion people with it.

This book was designated as one of the "100 Best Spiritual Books of the 20th Century"

Short Summary

Gandhiji started writing this book while he was in one of his prison stints at Yerwada Central Jail. The book was published later but it started as a weekly column in a Gujrati newspaper. Madhav Desia has translated the book from Gujrati to English with the help of an English scholar who did not wished to me named and Pyarelal Nayyar.

The book starts with Gandhiji’s journey from his childhood in Gujrat. He introduces us to his parents and siblings, friends and other extended family. He talks about him experimenting with meat eating, smoking, drinking and shamefully recalls his stealing to fuel his bad habits and influences. He goes on to talk about his very early marriage which he writes, and I quote “ I can see no moral argument in support of such a preposterously early marriage”. He goes on to talk about losing his father and how that jolted him.

Gandhiji then goes on to talk about how his brothers and family friends guided him towards the study of law and he talks in great details about his time in the courts of Mumbai and living in a small house close to the courts where he explored the city on foot to save money. He also talks in detail about his fears and self-doubts as a shy boy from Gujrat who struggles to first get cases in the city and then struggles against his shyness to defend his clients or point across their points. A dejected Gandhi decides to go back to Gujrat and fight a different battle.

Gandhiji Landed on the famous shores of South Africa to forever changes the history not only of the Indians living in SA but also back in his homeland of India. Gandhiji talks in detail about how he got over his shyness of public speaking not a vessel of self-improvement but as a necessity to share his outrage and to fight. Gandhiji also speaks in detail about his experiments with forming a new and separate community South Africa, where he and some of his followers were to settle and start a printing press, all the while following the ideal way of living. Gandhiji also talks about the horrors of living conditions in the Indian housings in South Africa while very clearly mentioning that tough the local government was responsible for the pitiful condition, the Indians living in them were also equally responsible for the condition. He talks about his experiences of participating in the World War One forming a special unit of mostly Indians who helped with the treatment of the wounded soldiers.

Through out the book Gandhiji keeps talking about the experiments that he carried out on himself and then he thought others. He talks about his experiments with the truth in speaking, eating, nonviolence, action and behavior. He talks in detail about his travels in India through the train, always travelling in the 3rd class compartments. He was appalled by the inhuman conditions in which people had to travel. He talks about how he was introduced to the freedom struggle of India and his ideas and philosophies which sometime matched and most of the time clashed with his colleagues in the Congress party. In the later stages of his life he talks about a new experiment that he was conducting at Sabarmati Ashram, though he give a very good explanation for it somehow this experiment of his does not sit right with me. The book abruptly ends in 1915 after the Nagpur Congress session.

My Review

Great men don’t do thing different things, they just do things differently. From his childhood to the time he decides to go to South Africa, Gandhijis life is not very different than most of ours. A middle child with a rebellious streak at young age living under the shadow of their father in a conservative home. I also found it quite relatable that the elders of the house come together to decide his future with his education and his marriage. The first vow that he took that of never lying I think liberated the scared boy and turned him into a man. You can also embarrassingly feel for a young Mohandas who tries to dominate and bully his young but matured in age wife.

This book is designated as the “100 Best Spiritual Books of the 20th Century” once you start reading it and understand how being brutally honest, not to others but to yourself can be some liberating. The story moves in linear timeline and is very easy to follow. The translators have done a commendable job in keeping the language simple and thus including readers from a variety of reading categories from beginners to experts. Throughout the book Gandhiji has left nuggets of information on various dietary experiments he carried. Though he did not lay too much emphasis on it, Gandhiji was strained by the tear in the relationship that he had with his own children and sometime when he talks of them you can feel the pull of the father in him.

From what I could understand the two thing that Gandhiji most regretted were his inability to find common grounds with Mohammad Ali Jinha and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and the violent turn he quit India movement took. The riots in Kolkata also hurt him dearly. This book demands retrospection and self-inspection. I had read one of Dr. Sashi Tharoors essays where he presents doubts if the type of Satyagraha Gandhiji committed and demanded would really work in today’s time. If you look at what is happening today around the world, I believe it depends on Location…Location…Location it is easy to absorb everything that your abuser throws at you and not fight back hoping he will be ashamed of his action and do the right thing, if you are living in an advance, educated and nurturing civilization like Europe. However if you are a specific sect of Muslim in a country dominated by one particular race and its political party your satyagraha will lead you nowhere.

Please let me know about your opinions in the comments section below.