Gandhi before India
By: Ramachandra Guha
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 672
ISBN-13: 9780385532297
Subjects: Politics and government; East Indians; Biography; Statesmen
Description: A first volume of a series detailing the life and work of the influential political advocate draws on private papers and other untapped sources to cover his birth in 1869 through his upbringing in Gujarat, discussing his London education and decades as a lawyer in South Africa.

"In 1893, when Gandhi set sail for South Africa, he was a twenty-three-year-old lawyer who had failed to establish himself in India. In this remarkable biography, the author makes clear the fundamental ways in which Gandhi's ideas were shaped before his return to India in 1915. It was during his years in England and South Africa, Guha shows us, that Gandhi came to understand the nature of imperialism and racism; and in South Africa that he forged the philosophy and techniques that would undermine and eventually overthrow the British Raj. Gandhi Before India gives us equally vivid portraits of the man and the world he lived in: a world of sharp contrasts among the coastal culture of his birthplace, High Victorian London, and colonial South Africa. It explores in abundant detail Gandhi's experiments with dissident cults such as the Tolstoyans; his friendships with radical Jews, heterodox Christians and devout Muslims; his enmities and rivalries; and his often overlooked failures as a husband and father. It tells the dramatic, profoundly moving story of how Gandhi inspired the devotion of thousands of followers in South Africa as he mobilized a cross-class and inter-religious coalition, pledged to non-violence in their battle against a brutally racist regime." -- Publisher's description.
Notes: Originally published: London : Allen Lane, 2013.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 563-631) and index.
Table of contents: title: Prologue: Gandhi from all angles; title: 1. Middle caste, middle rank; title: 2. Among the vegetarians; title: 3. From coast to coast; title: 4. A barrister in Durban; title: 5. Travelling activist; title: 6. Lawyer-loyalist; title: 7. White against brown; title: 8. Pluralist and puritan; title: 9. Trouble in the Transvaal; title: 10. A lobbyist in London; title: 11. From conciliation to confrontation; title: 12. To jail; title: 13. A Tolstoyan in Johannesburg; title: 14. Prisoner of conscience; title: 15. Big little chief; title: 16. The contest of civilizations; title: 17. Seeking a settlement; title: 18. A son departs, a mentor arrives; title: 19. A physician at Phoenix; title: 20. Breaking boundaries; title: 21. Farewell to Africa; title: 22. How the Mahatma was made.