AnAutobiography or The Story of My Experiments with Truth

M. K. Gandhi (Author)
Mohandas K. Gandhi was born in 1869 in Porbandar, India. He studied law in London and was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1891. He worked to improve the rights of immigrant Indians in South Africa, returning to India in 1915 to take up the struggle for independence from Britain. Gandhi never wavered in his belief in non-violent protest and in 1947 he succeeded in uniting India in a national movement. In January 1948 Gandhi was assassinated as he walked to take evening prayers.

Tridip Suhrud (Introducer)
Tridip Suhrud is a scholar, writer and translator who works on the intellectual and cultural history of modern Gujarat and the Gandhian intellectual tradition. As the director and chief editor of the Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust (2012-17), Ahmedabad, he was responsible for creating a digital archive-the Gandhi Heritage Portal-of all of M.K. Gandhi's works. Apart from a number of books on Gandhi's life, Suhrud has co-edited the critical annotated edition of Hind Swaraj, translated Narayan Desai's four-volume biography of Gandhi, My Life Is My Message, and translated the four-volume epic Gujarati novel, Sarasvatichandra.

Suhrud is presently translating the diaries of Manu Gandhi, covering the period between 1942 and 1948, compiling a series 'Letters to Gandhi'-of unpublished correspondence to Gandhi-and working on an eight-volume compendium of testimonies of the indigo cultivators of Champaran. Tridip Suhrud is provost at CEPT University, Ahmedabad, and director of Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Institute of Indology.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is among the most enigmatic, charismatic, deeply revered and equally reviled figures of the twentieth century. His Autobiography, one of the most widely read and translated Indian books of all time, is a classic that allows us to glimpse the transformation of a well-meaning lawyer into a Satyagrahi and an ashramite.

In this first-ever Critical Edition, eminent scholar Tridip Suhrud shines new light on Gandhi's life and thought. The deeply researched notes elucidate the contexts and characters of the Autobiography, while the alternative translations capture the flavour, cadence and quirkiness of the Gujarati. In the original and insightful introduction, Suhrud traces Gandhi's evolution into a seeker of Truth as God, and explores possible modes of reading the Autobiography.

This Critical Edition of the Autobiography is an absorbing, illuminating text about the life-affirming journey of the most public and most complex figure of Indian history.

Gandhi's autobiography is probably the most important book ever published in India; in part because of the stature of the author, in part because of the nature of the work. In The Story ofMy Experiments with Truth, the Future Father of the Nation provided an astonishingly frank and revelatory account of his moral evolution and his personal struggles. In this superb critical edition, Tridip Suhrud explains how and why the book was written, provides detailed notes on the characters and situations mentioned, and subtly analyses the evolution of the English translation from the Gujarati original. Suhrud's work is a colossal contribution to Gandhi scholarship; as well as a vital aid to all readers, present and future, of Gandhi's remarkable autobiography. This edition will be read and discussed for generations to come.This pioneering critical edition subtly and invaluably expands our understanding of one of Gandhi's key texts-and our sense of the man himself.Gandhi's Autobiography is an important document for understanding both the Mahatma and the nature of the Self. This edition is unlikely to be surpassed in value. It will authoritatively guide the lay reader through the textures of Gandhi's prose and references. But even the most accomplished Gandhi scholars will learn new things about this text. Tridip Suhrud is the gold standard in scholarship. This meticulous and powerful textual engagement will only enhance his reputation.Written in his incomparably limpid English, M.K. Gandhi's Autobiography is comparable, as great literature, to Augustine's and Rousseau's Confessions. The invaluable new Introduction by Tridip Suhrud, arguably the finest interpreter and editor of Gandhi's writings and correspondence in our times, alerts our attention to the tensions between Gandhi's zest for living in and building an Ashramic community and his willingness to die for Truth-that is, ahimsa-between fasting to expiate others' impurity and marching with the masses to make salt to break unjust colonial laws, between spinning cotton thread in large groups and meditating alone to listen for the "still, small voice within". If we let Suhrud teach us how to read Gandhi, then Gandhi's life-writing can teach us how to seek the Self's Truth instead of self-seeking.An Autobiography by one of the twentieth century's most remarkable figures, this hugely influential book continues to be read widely around the world. This first critical edition allows us to understand the context and concerns that animated Gandhi's writing as never before.Gandhi's Autobiography is a seminal work for understanding Gandhi's vision and work, and is a classic twentieth-century spiritual and political text. Suhrud provides in this critical edition abundant notes for the contemporary reader, alternative translations where the Desai translation is obscure, and a significant Introduction which situates the Autobiography in Gandhi's life and thinking. A most welcome addition to serious Gandhi scholarship.