Customer Reviews

Gandhi: A Life

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After having read mahatma gandhi's autobiography which does not reach towards the later part of his life, i was keen on getting a complete account of his life. I must say that Chadha's book proved immensely satisfying and educative in this regard. The book is very thoroughly researched and its best attribute is that in it Chadha tries to stick to facts and takes up the role of the narrator rather than put in his own personal views. Invariably biographies make a picture of the person as the biographer chooses to think about him or her, but in reading this book one gets the feeling that Chadha has tried to consciously hold back his opinions and remain historically accurate. He leaves the judging to the reader. All the same the book is definitely not dull and dreary. It vividly brings out the great man's character along with his faults. It shows gandhi as human and definitely not a saint. It is when we realise this that we truly understand the greatness of the mahatma and the courage, strength of character and truth on which his life, movement and teachings were based. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wishes to learn about the mahatma.

I purchased this book because I wanted to learn more about Gandhi and his influence, given that he's been regarded as the father of modern India, and was an inspiration for Martin Luther King Jr.

Gandhi: A Life is a densely packed book; I wouldn't say it's hard reading, but there's a huge amount of material here. Unfortunately, I felt disappointed by it since it does a good job of presenting the basic facts of Gandhi's life (carefully cross-checked for accuracy, the author assures us in his foreword), but goes no further than that. As such, it will teach the reader much about what Gandhi did and said, and about the state of India circa 1890-1948, but it will provide little insight into the man himself.

As one would expect, facts about Gandhi's later life are more readily available than about his earlier life. Despite this, the first third of the book feels the most rewarding, as several formative events provide profound insight into the man, including his vegetarianism and policies of non-violence. His gradual development from a shy young lawyer with stage fright into the powerful and dogmatic leader is carefully shown through his experiences in South Africa.

His return to India prior to 1920 and his ascension to the top of Indian politics, though, is not as successful. Just when we most need explanations and interpretations of Gandhi's behavior, Chadha fails us. Gandhi suddenly ceases to talk on Mondays, for some reason. He acquires what is essentially a cult of personality, but his own personality seems basically unlikeable, and the personalities of those around him are left sketchy. Chadha introduces supporting characters with a few paragraphs when they appear, but then takes as a given that their behavior will be understood.

While I can understand the desire to deconstruct the mythology around a figure such as Gandhi, it seems to me that the author does us a disservice in not probing deeper into the figure, even if he does have to work with some less-well-documented material. Such interpretation seems to me to be an essential part of being a biographer.

The book concludes on its lowest note, a three-chapter description of the plot (if it can be called that) leading to Gandhi's assassination. Filled with characters who never met Gandhi, and whose motivations were not particularly profound, it adds almost nothing to our understanding of Gandhi, those around him, or his nation. It is, ultimately, a digression and an anticlimax.

If pure facts about the life of Gandhi are what you're looking for, then this is the book for you. If you're looking for interpretation or better understanding of who he was and why, then I recommend you look elsewhere.

After having read Gandhi's "My experiments with truth" I found Chadha's book very helpful about the context surrounding Gandhi. This book almost reads like a Hypertext document in that Mr. Chadha takes you to the source of Gandhi's many inspirations e.g. Tolstoy. So a reader doesn't have to go to library and find Tolstoy, Ruskin, etc. Chadha also throws light on many persons who were followers of Gandhi in South Africa. Chadha also quotes from many friends and adversaries of Gandhi in South Africa. So this book gives lots of insight into Gandhi's past. This is indeed a very well researched book.

I guess I found myself wanting to like this book so much more than I actually did, due to the profound respect and reverence I have for the subject matter. A read-through of this book definitely proves educational, as Chadha seems to capture all the facts surrounding Gandhi's extraordinary life. What is lacking is the passion and enthusiasm that fails to bound the reader to Gahndi's profound beliefs in Ahimsa/non-violence and the Satyagraha/soul-force resistance movement. Some highlights of the book are the extensive retelling of Gahndi's initial efforts in South Africa, his personal family life, and the well-researched background behind his assassins and the assassination. Gahndi's life is such a motivational influential epic that it's a shame to not have a biography to match it. This is a good book to read to learn about the historical facts surrounding Gahndi's life, but if you are looking to get to know his spiritual side and get caught up in his inspiration, the biography has yet to be written. I just wasn't enthralled with the writing.

This is the second biography of Gandhi that I have read in the last few years. Yogesh Chada's book being much longer than the previous biography that I read, I hoped to get more detail and more insight about that extraordinary man named Gandhi.

This much praise I can give to Chada: he did his homework. Gandhi: a Life is a non-stop littany of facts; overpowering, insightful, and boring. It sounds harsh for me to say that, because this book is an excellent account of Gandhi's life in terms of facts, but it simply has no narrative flow. And after 500 pages it becomes overwhelming. For so much reading, I took away far less from it than I would have supposed. This works very well if one is researching Gandhi and needs the details of certain events and episodes in India's independence movement, but the dryness of it all makes it hard to remember and appreciate the story that is being told.

Gandhi may be the subject of this book, but it is objective in the extreme; removed of life, sapped of interest. But it is factual, and if that is what you are looking for in a biography, then you have hit pay dirt with Chada's work. And for that I cannnot completely be upset with this book. It is effective in certain ways, but not in all the ways I was looking for.

Mahatma, Traitor, God, Machiavellian, Father of the Nation

Yogesh Chadha has done a great job in trying to bring forth the man behind the legend. But Gandhi was and is a very complex personality.

Throughout his life Gandhi's view matured and changed every day. This I am sure irked the British but it is the essence of Gandhis life that he absorbed the good out of every incident in his life.

Many critics view Gandhi as a political leader but as is made evident by Chadha Gandhi was extremely religious and this was where he found the strength that made the sacrifice of millions logical to him. We should be thankful that his fanaticism was towards truth and peace and only forced on himself (quite unlike the leaders nowadays).

A great book but a new reader would be advised to read Gandhi's Autobiography first as that is very approachable and lacks the dichotomy in this book that can leave a reader confused...

Being an Indian, I have seen how name of "Gandhi" become political currancy in today's india. Many indians, Including Myself, know about Gandhi only from his autobiography or propoganda fed by Congress Govt. over many years.

Gandhi, was not one dimentional. He was multidimentional. First and foremost he was social reformist who used political platform to reach out to masses..( enough of my views).

This book does what it claims to do, provide unbiased facts. I am impressed with the narration, accuracy of facts and author's restraint from expressing his own view. Author just provides facts, or history as it happened. Now its upto you to intrepret and get what you want to get out of it.

While you read book, its like Gandhi's life is passing thorugh your Eyes. His strengths, his weaknesses, his successes, his failures...

I highly recommend this book.

I am not an avid reader but I found the movie "Gandhi" so intriguing that I decided to find a biography on this inspirational man. The book left me as satisfied as the movie did. While other books may be shorter and closer to the point, this book really goes in depth of what was going in India during Gandhi's non violence movement. I feel I really got to know the man and his policies better while even learning a lot of the Indian politics of the time. The inspiration I drew from this book and the Mahatma has led me to search for more information on this subject and to look closer into how one is supposed to live. While no man is without his faults Gandhi helps us find the truth in peace with each other. Great book

I knew very little about Gandhi before I read this book. I had seen the movie years ago. And I wanted to know more because I knew that Gandhi was a major influence on MLK. I picked up this book in the library and it seemed like a good place to start.

The book does a very thorough job of discussing Gandhi's life from his childhood, to his time in South Africa, to the Independence movement, and finally his assassination. It's all there and after reading this book I felt I truly knew many of the details of his life, as well as the turmoil surrounding the dissolution of the British Raj into today's Pakistan and India. I also liked that there are many quotes directly from Gandhi's writing and speeches. In general, the book was easy to read. Only rarely did it feel bogged down in minutia.

My main criticism of this book is that it is almost entirely facts, with little reflection by the author. Gandhi's major decisions are never tied back to other times in his life, so we can get the author's take on why Gandhi made certain choices. The book ended abruptly after a long, detailed description of Gandhi's assassin. I was surprised to get no reflection on what Gandhi's life has meant over the years since his death. I would have liked to see Gandhi's achievements put into context more. Other biographies I have read tend to do more of this; they point out themes in the character's life, both good and bad, allowing the reader to go beyond facts and get into the psyche of the book's subject (at least, as that particular author sees it).

But as I said in the title of my review, this book is mostly facts. And in that effort, it certainly succeeds.

This book has several things in it's favor.
- It does not try to deify Gandhi
- It provides, a historical treatment of events in Gandhi's life
- The author does not try to push his opinions on you, but instead allows you to absorb the facts and make your own mind up.

The book is a result of a tremendous amount of research and is very well thought out and well presented. I couldn't put it down.

I recommend this book for someone who wants to learn about Gandhi:The Man, his achievements and his shortcomings and not Gandhi: The Mahatma or Great Soul.