The Story of My Experiments with Truth/Volume 1

by Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi

The Story
of
My Experiments with Truth

By
M. K. Gandhi

Translated from the original in Gujarati
By
Mahadev Desai

Navajivan Press, Ahmedabad
1927

Publisher’s Note

In placing this first volume of Gandhiji’s autobiography in the hands of the public, the publisher’s acknowledgments are due to Sjt. Jerajani of the Khadi Bhandar, and Sjt. Shantikumar Narottam Morarji, Bombay, who took great pains in supplying and getting the Khadi dyed for use as binding cloth for this volume, to Sjt. Mahulikar, artist, Ahmedabad, for lending us his copyright photograph of Gandhiji for use in this volume, and to Sjt. Mangeshrao Kulkarni, proprietor the Karnatak Press, Bombay, who placed practically the whole resources of his printing house at our disposal.

Translator’s Preface

It was by a fortunate accident that the privilege of translating into English, for Young India, the Story of My Experiments with Truth or Gandhiji’s Autobiography, as it was being published in Navajivan from week to week, fell to me. No one, perhaps, is more conscious of the blemishes in the translation than myself. But it might be some comfort to the reader to know, that the volume, in the form in which it now appears, has had, so far as the meaning of the author is concerned, the benefit of his own careful revision, and so far as the language is concerned, the advantage of equally careful revision by Shrimati Miraben (Miss Madeleine Slade), who cast in her lot with us at the Ashram a year and a half ago.

M. D.

Satyagrahashram,
1st August, 1927

Contents

Page
Introduction		1
Part I
I.	Birth and Parentage	15
II.	Childhood	21
III.	Child Marriage	26
IV.	Playing the Husband	34
V.	At the High School	41
VI.	A Tragedy	51
VII.	A Tragedy (Contd.)	58
VIII.	Stealing and Atonement	66
IX.	My Father's Death and My Double Shame	73
X.	Glimpses of Religion	80
XI.	Preparation for England	89
XII.	Outcaste	99
XIII.	In London at Last	105
XIV.	My Choice	113
XV.	Playing the English Gentleman	121
XVI.	Changes	129
XVII.	Experiments in Dietetics	137
XVIII.	Shyness My Shield	146
XIX.	The Canker of Untruth	155
XX.	Acquaintance with Religions	164
XXI.	निर्बल के बल राम	171
XXII.	Narayan Hemchandra	177

XXIII.	The Great Exhibition	186
XXIV.	'Called'—but Then?	191
XXV.	My Helplessness	197
Part II
I.	Raychandbhai	205
II.	How I Began Life	213
III.	The First Case	221
IV.	The First Shock	228
V.	Preparing for South Africa	235
VI.	Arrival in Natal	241
VII.	Some Experiences	248
VIII.	On the Way to Pretoria	257
IX.	More Hardships	266
X.	The First Day in Pretoria	277
XI.	Christian Contacts	286
XII.	Seeking Touch with Indians	294
XIII.	What It Is to be a Coolie	301
XIV.	Preparation for the Case	308
XV.	Religious Ferment	316
XVI.	Man Proposes, God Disposes	324
XVII.	Settled in Natal	330
XVIII.	Colour Bar|340
XIX.	Natal Indian Congress	348
XX.	Balasundaram	357
XXI.	The £3 Tax	363
XXII.	Comparative Study of Religions	370
XXIII.	As a Householder	377
XXIV.	Homeward	384
XXV.	In India	391

XXVI.	Two Passions	400
XXVII.	The Bombay Meeting	408
XXVIII.	Poona and Madras	415
XXIX.	'Return Soon'	421
Part III
I.	Rumblings of the Storm	431
II.	The Storm	437
III.	The Test	445
IV.	The Calm after the Storm	455
V.	Education of Children	462
VI.	Spirit of Service	469
VII.	Brahmacharya—I	475
VIII.	Brahmacharya—II	483
IX.	Simple life	492
X.	The Boer War	497
XI.	Sanitary Reform and Famine Relief	503
XII.	Return to India	507
XIII.	In India Again	515
XIV.	Clerk and Bearer	522
XV.	In the Congress	527
XVI.	Lord Curzon's Darbar	532
XVII.	A Month With Gokhale—I	537
XVIII.	A Month With Gokhale—II	543
XIX.	A Month With Gokhale—III	549
XX.	In Benares	555
XXI.	Settled in Bombay?	565
XXII.	Faith On its Trial	571
XXIII.	To South Africa Again	578
Index		587