He returns to India, where he attends the Indian National Congress and stays with Gokhale, his mentor. In Part Three, Gandhi develops his spiritual practice of self-restraint by taking the brahmacharya vow of celibacy-by now, he's had his four sons, all with Kasturbai-and develops his political power by leading an Indian ambulance corps in the Boer War. He heads back to India for a while, where he meets his mentor Gokhale and others, but is soon recalled to South Africa to continue 'public work,' which is his term for what we today might call activism. He continues studying religion and founds the Natal Indian Congress. He gets kicked off a train due to 'color prejudice' (which is what he calls racism), and he decides to fight back-non-violently, of course.

Part Two tells us all about his time in South Africa, where he goes to work with a law firm. , after officially becoming a lawyer), he returns to India. Gandhi tells his caste he's definitely going to England, and they can go ahead and kick him out…which they do.Īs for his mother's concerns, Gandhi takes serious vows not to touch alcohol, meat, or other women. Meanwhile, his mother is worried he'll lose his way in the foreign culture and start drinking alcohol, eating meat (his family is vegetarian), and sleeping with women other than his wife, who's to stay at home in India while her husband has his big adventure. However, his caste tells him it's against their religion for him to travel abroad. Once Gandhi's father dies, a family friend suggests Gandhi go to England to study law to keep the family a high status one.

At age 13 (!), he's married to Kasturbai in a child marriage, meaning she's a teenager, too, and their parents are the ones who decide they should get married.Īfter a few years, she becomes preggo with the first of Gandhi's four children. He's influenced as a kid by his religiously tolerant political official father and devout mother. Part One gives us Gandhi's birth (October 2, 1869), childhood, teens, and time in England. The intro outlines his quest for truth, and the closing sums it up, so they show the big-picture message. His account is pretty much in chronological order. Most chapters are short and cover a brief episode or two in his life. The Story of My Experiments with Truth Summaryįirst, the structural deets: Gandhi's autobiography is divided into an intro, five parts with chapters, and a closing.

Mk gandhi autobiography