Throughout his long and turbulent career as an Indian leader, first in South Africa and then in India, Gandhi sought to fulfill his religious aspirations through politics, and to reconcile politics with his private religious discipline. The Gandhi revealed here is not the secular saint of popular renown, but a difficult and self-obsessed man driven by a sense of unique personal destiny.
Penetrating and provocative, Tidrick draws on material previously ignored by Gandhi's biographers and explores the paradoxes within his life and beliefs. Did the nationalist leader truly believe that he was not just fighting for Indian independence but also global enlightenment? Gandhi never admitted his early influences and experiences, but how important were the more esoteric ideas he first encountered in the West?

A major reinterpretation of Gandhi's life, politics, religion and nation

About the Author
Kathryn Tidrick is the author of the highly regarded Heart Beguiling Araby: The English Romance with Arabia and Empire and the English Character.

Reviews
A fine and engaging biography ... His ideas remain very relevant in understanding the problems that plague the contemporary world. -- Amartya Sen, Lamont University Professor at Harvard and Nobel Prize winner
Brilliant. -- William Dalrymple * Sunday Times *
Fair and balanced. -- Atul Chaturvedi * Indian Express *
Exhaustively researched ... Gandhi emerges from Tidrick's detailed and balanced biography as a man with his full share of flaws, contradictions and oddities, but with more than a streak of genuine holiness. * Tablet *



Book Information
ISBN 9781781681015
Author Kathryn Tidrick
Format Paperback
Page Count 400
Imprint Verso Books
Publisher Verso Books
Weight(grams) 637g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 155mm * 28mm