Justify the title ‘The Story of My Experiment with Truth’ by M.K. Gandhi, Gandhi ji autobiography . Sourav Omnibus.

 

Q.) Justify  the title ‘The Story of My Experiment with Truth’ by M.K. Gandhi

Ans.) Autography is “Literature of personal revelation” (Dictionary of World Literary Terms by Joseph  Shipley). The main interest of an autobiography resides in a conscious or unconscious self-portrayal by the author. It may be called a connected narrative of the author’s life. In an autobiography great  stress is laid on introspection, or on the significance of the author’s life against a wider background. Autobiography, says Encyclopaedia Britannica, “is the biography of a person written by himself. Its motivations are various-among others self-scrutiny for self-edification, self-justification”. Thus, the aim of autobiography has been to give truth about oneself. It may be the truth about one’s moral, spiritual and religious beliefs, or the truth of worldly or material achievements, or the truth of one’s profession. It may also reveal one’s outlook towards the worldly affairs. An autobiography contains comments on crucial incidents and personages one comes across.

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 'The Story of My Experiments with Truth' is one of the greatest autobiographies of the world. It is as great as Rousseau’s Confessions, Helen Keller’s 'Story of My Life' and De Quincey’s 'Confessions of an Opium Eater’.  An autobiography is a personal revelation. It is a self-portrait of the author. It may be called a narrative of the author’s life. According to Mohinder Singh, “is not an ordinary experiment in self-portrayal, but the product of a life wholly dedicated to truth as understood in its product of a life wholly dedicated to truth as understood in its widest connotation and an outstanding creation standing apart in its lonely grandeur on the Indian autobiographical scene” (Mohinder Singh, Truth in Autobiography: Gandhi’s Experiments with Truth, Gandhi Marg, March 1980, P. 739.).

 Mahatma Gandhi’s life is like a beacon  light to the rudderless boat of the readers. The revelation of truth has been Gandhiji’s main aim in writing his autobiography. To him Truth was God and he devoted his entire life to the realization of Truth, the God. The narration of his experiences and experiments with Truth aims at the moral and spiritual enrichment of the readers of his autobiography. Gandhiji himself writes explaining the purpose of writing his autobiography, “it is not my purpose to attempt a real autobiography. I simply want to tell the story of my experiments with truth. I believe that all these experiments will not be without benefit to the readers… I call my experiments spiritual or moral. Self-knowledge is the main feature of this book…. I have gone through deep introspection, searched myself through and through, examined and analysed every psychological situation” (M. K. Gandhi, “Introduction” The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Navajivan Publishing House, Ahmedabad)

 It was written as a means of education and reform. He again writes about its educative quality; “The exercise has given me ineffable mental peace, because it has been my fond hope that it might bring faith in Truth and Ahimsa to waverers ”. He wrote this book when he was in his fifties . At this time his outlook of life was formed and fixed. He did not take any autobiography as a model. He says, “I write just as the spirit moves me at the time of writing”. He says, “I worship God as Truth only. I have not yet found Him but I am seeking after Him”. 'The Story of My Experiments with Truth' is the autobiography of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, covering his life from early childhood through to 1921. It was written in weekly instalments and published in his journal Navjivan from 1925 to 1929. Its English translation also appeared at the instance of Swami Anand and other close co-workers of Gandhi. In 1999, the book was designated  as one of the “100 Best Spiritual Books of the 20th Century” by a committee of global spiritual and  religious authorities.

 An autobiography is divided into five parts. The first part of an autobiography begins with Gandhiji’s birth and parentage and ends with his return after studies from England in 1891. Mohandas  Karmchand Gandhi belonged to the Bania caste. His father Karamchand Gandhi, Alias Kaba Gandhi, was the fifth son of Ota Gandhi. Kaba Gandhi married four times in succession, having lost his wife each time by death. M. K. Gandhi was the youngest son of Kaba  Gandhi and his last wife, Putlibai. M. K. Gandhi was born of these parents on 2nd October, 1869 at  Porbandar. He passed his early childhood in Porbandar.

 At the age of twelfth Gandhiji was admitted to the high school. His books and his lessons were his sole companions. At this time he read ‘Sharvana Pitribhakti Nataka’ and ‘Harishchandra’. These  two plays inculcated  in him devotion to parents and undying love for truth respectively. Gandhiji was married at the age of thirteen. As a husband, he wanted to make his wife, Kasturbai, an ideal wife and a learned lady. She was illiterate. He was very anxious to teach her, but “ love left  me no time”. In short, in this part Gandhiji describes his childhood, his shyness, love for truth, his early child-marriage etc. His friend led him to eat meat, but to he gave up that habit afterwards. That friend also led him to be faithless to his wife, but “God in His infinite mercy protected me against myself”. He writes truth that four times he had to face similar incidents in his life but on all occasions, God saved him. How truthfully, he accepts his moral lapses: “......from a strictly ethical point of view, all these occasions must be regarded as moral lapses; for the carnal desire was there and it was as good as the act”.

 Gandhiji stole money for smoking and confessed his guilt. He felt that “... there could not be a cleansing without a clean confession”. Gandhiji suffered life-long regret and shame for his lustful relation with his wife. He did not restrain himself from lustfully approaching his pregnant wife, when he should have been holding his dying father in his arms. He calls this shame the “......shame of my desire even at the critical hour of my father’s death, which demanded wakeful service.......  regarded himself as a lustful, though a faithful, husband”. Then Gandhiji started reading the Bhagavat Gita and Ramayana for self-realization. In 1887 he went to England to study law. There, he became interested in the philosophy of nonviolence, as expressed in the Gita, Hindu sacred scripture, and in Jesus Christ’s Sermon on the Mount in the Christian Bible. He returned to India in 1891, having passed the bar, but found little success in his attempts to practice law. Seeking a change of scenery, he accepted a position in South Africa for a year, where he assisted on a lawsuit. The title of Gandhiji’s autobiography, ' Story of my Experiment with Truth', is not only apt but also  quite significant too. “The Story of my Experiment with Truth”, according to Mohinder Singh, “is not an ordinary experiment in self-portrayal, but the product of a life wholly dedicated to truth…... and an outstanding creation standing apart in its lonely grandeur on the Indian autobiographical scene” (Mohinder Singh, Truth in Autobiography: Gandhi’s Experiments with Truth, Gandhi Marg, March 1980, P. 739.).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

1.      Gandhi, M. K, 'The Story of My Experiments With Truth’; Shriman Narayan (ed), Navajivan Publishing House , Ahmedabad, 1927

2.      Gandhi, M. K., “Introduction” ‘The Story of My Experiments with Truth’, Navajivan Publishing House, Ahmedabad, 1976

3.      Stone, J.H., “M.K. Gandhi : Some Experiments with Truth”, Journal of Southern African  Studies; Vol. 16, No.4, Wesleyan University, December, 1990, www.jstor.com

4.      Singh, Mohinder, 'Truth in Autobiography: Gandhi’s Experiments with Truth’, Gandhi Marg, March 1980, P. 739

5.      Stone, J.H., “M.K. Gandhi: Some experiments with Truth”, Journal of Southern African Studies; Vol.16, No. 4, Wesleyan University, December, 1990