The myth of Gandhi was, initially at least, created by Gandhi.

Surely it isn’t so with the saintly Gandhi, I hear you cry! I’m quite glad to say it is contemporary social-media users could learn a lot about shameless self-promotion from Gandhi! The title of his autobiography illustrates not only how his “experiments” shaped his identity, but also how this identity was self-created.

Attempts to reconcile the opposing agendas of “I the narrator” and “I the subject” are seldom successful as the necessity for positive self-representation trumps all other concerns. Though usually luring readers with promises of “warts and all” access to its subject, autobiography has always been an act of self-creation, and hence one of self-censorship. Originally published in weekly installments in both his native Gujarati and English, the text is structured around Gandhi’s “experiments with Truth”, a series of “spiritual, or rather moral” tests – including non-violence, celibacy and vegetarianism – through which he endeavoured to achieve self-realisation and liberation from the cycle of reincarnation. Regarded by some as “one of the great autobiographies of modern times” and the most widely-read of his voluminous literary output, the autobiography spans Gandhi’s childhood on the Kathiawar Peninsula in Gujarat, his three years studying for the bar in London and two decades dedicated to the cause of Indian civil rights in South Africa, terminating in 1921. This is, perhaps ironically, most true of his autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth. Yet, despite an extremely well-documented life, little has succeeded in dispelling the myth surrounding a man who remains, in the words of one biographer, “as much an enigma as a person of endless fascination”.

Since his death at the hands of Hindu fundamentalists in January 1948, countless books, documentaries and films have attempted to portray the life of the Mahatma (which, by the way, means “Great Soul” his given name was Mohandas) likewise, his writings, the published versions of which run to more than 100 volumes, have been the subject of much cultural, social, political and spiritual commentary. But of the numerous complex personalities – and associated egos – involved in the fight for Indian independence, it is the figure of Gandhi, the “Father of the Nation”, that continues to loom largest. The terms of Indian independence were far from ideal – as its bloody aftermath would attest – and were the result of a rushed, highly acrimonious process. Seventy years ago, at the stroke of midnight, August 15th, 1947, Britain’s centuries-long dominion over India ceased.

Autobiography of mahatma gandhi