The Essential Gandhi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Essential Gandhi
Image:The essential gandhi.jpg
Cover of the second edition
Author Mahatma Gandhi
Cover artist John Gall
Country United States
Language English
Series Vintage Spiritual Classics
Genre(s) biography, essay
Publisher Ballantine Books
Publication date 1962
Media type Print (Paperback)
Pages xxvi, 338 pp
ISBN ISBN 1-4000-3050-1 (reprint)

The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas is a collection of Gandhi's writings edited by Louis Fischer. The book outlines how Gandhi became the Mahatma and introduces Gandhi's opinions on various subjects. It is split into two parts: The Man and The Mahatma.

[edit] The Man

Gandhi and his wife Kasturbai (1902)
Gandhi and his wife Kasturbai (1902)

Part One chronicles the transformation of a young man full of internal struggle into India's spiritual leader. Gandhi travels to England for his education and upholds his vow to abstain from meat, alcohol, and women. Gandhi displays both a sense of humor in his planned suicide and an obsession for perfection in his own dismay at his lust for his wife, Kasturbai. Throughout this part of the book, the reader is shown subtle glimpses of the part of the rather unremarkable Mohandas K. Gandhi that will become the spiritual leader of India. Part One culminates in Gandhi's march into the Transvaal leading thousands of Indian laborers on strike. The demonstration brought about reforms to the previously anti-Indian law code.

[edit] The Mahatma

This article about an anthology of written works is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.