The Understanding of Gandhi Ji's ‘self’ Through His Autobiography

Gandhi ji has appreciably framed ‘Self’ by personal truth. In his whole autobiography, he kept telling about his life- his habits, his behaviour, his nature, his thinking, his weaknesses, his weapons- ‘Truth’ and ‘Non-Violence’, about everything about him and through all this, he has made a very clear picture of his personality before me. Having read the experiences of his life, such as- the incident when there was an audit in his school and denied to copy from someone else’s notebook - ‘Honesty’, the experiment with his ‘Self- Restraining power’, his weakness of ‘being a shy person’ then turning into a great leader etc., I have got a way better understanding of his nature than what I had before reading the same.

Even when I analyze Mr. Gandhi’s autobiography from this aspect, I feel that he has become quite successful in doing this also. There are a number of historical events which he had mentioned in it and through which he had presented a picture of ‘Self’, Events such as- the Creation of ‘Indian Natal Congress’ which shows his ‘leadership quality’, ‘The Satyagraha’- his power of ‘Self-Control’, ‘The Khilafat Movement’- His power etc.

According to my opinion, Gandhi ji didn’t frame himself by giving free rein to imagination as when I read the text, I came across with the facts- facts about his nature, facts about his experiences and facts about historical events which took place during that time, so I did not feel any scope for the imagination about him. This all is about my understanding of Gandhi Ji’s representation of ‘Self’ in his autobiography I would like to conclude this project by sharing my thoughts about the whole Autobiography in a summarized form.

Gandhi ji’s autobiography is seriously a very appreciable effort and the title of it –‘The Story of My Experiment with Truth’ is completely appropriate. “Since Gandhi intended to write the story of his experiments, his autobiography was essentially a Katha and not Itihasa, a didactic discussion of selected experiments rather than their complete and impartial account.” The autobiography gives a very true and honest picture of his personality. Though some truth were bitter to be accepted but he had accepted even those truths and mentioned those in the book which leaves a very good impression of him on the reader as not everybody has the courage to accept all the truths of his life. Though Gandhi Ji’s character could also be made a subject for the criticism but his god qualities overpower that.