At the age of eighteen, a shy and timid Mohandas Gandhi leaves his home in Gujarat for a life on his own. At forty-five, a confident and fearless Gandhi, ready to boldly lead his country to freedom, returns to India. What transforms him? The law. The Man before the Mahatma is the first biography of Gandhi’s life in the law. It follows Gandhi on his journey of self-discovery during his law studies in Britain, his law practice in India and his enormous success representing wealthy Indian merchants in South Africa, where relentless attacks on Indian rights by the white colonial authorities cause him to give up his lucrative representation of private clients for public work—the representation of the besieged Indian community in South Africa. As he takes on the most powerful governmental, economic and political forces of his day, he learns two things: that unifying his professional work with his political and moral principles not only provides him with satisfaction, it also creates in him a strong, powerful voice. Using the courtrooms of South Africa as his laboratory for resistance, Gandhi learns something else so important that it will eventually have a lasting and worldwide impact: a determined people can bring repressive governments to heel by the principled use of civil disobedience. Using materials hidden away in archival vaults and brought to light for the first time, The Man before the Mahatma puts the reader inside dramatic experiences that changed Gandhi’s life forever and have never been written about—until now.

"This book shows how Gandhi's early life in the law played a critical role in the subsequent evolution of his philosophy and theory of nonviolent civil disobedience. The author traces Gandhi's maturation from a tongue-tied novice to a competent professional, from civil rights lawyer to freedom fighter, finally integrating his principles of morality and spirituality into his political life"--Provided by publisher.

Nepal has seen more change in the last fifteen years than most countries. Its two-hundred-andthirty- years old monarchy was dealt a grievous blow with a horrific multiple murder that remains unexplained to this day. Alongside it came a decadelong civil war spearheaded by the Maoists. 16,000 people died, over a thousand disappeared, tens of thousands were affected, the little infrastructure and state presence the country had was destroyed. Peace has come with uncertainty. Elections were held in 2008 with the Maoists coming to power in a coalition government. A year later the coalition crumbled, replaced with another one. Ethnic assertion is posing new and unpredictable challenges, impunity and corruption are rife and there are two standing armies in the country. What does the future hold? Combining reportage and political history, and superbly narrated, A Half Revolution is the definitive book on Nepal’s recent history. Anagha Neelakantan is a freelance journalist who has written for Newsweek, Far Eastern Economic Review, Himal and Biblio among others. She was educated at Princeton University and has worked with the Nepal Mission of the UN and been an executive editor of The Nepali Times.

Here is the first volume of a magisterial biography of Mohandas Gandhi that gives us the most illuminating portrait we have had of the life, the work and the historical context of one of the most abidingly influential—and controversial—men in modern history. Ramachandra Guha—hailed by Time as “Indian democracy’s preeminent chronicler”—takes us from Gandhi’s birth in 1869 through his upbringing in Gujarat, his two years as a student in London and his two decades as a lawyer and community organizer in South Africa. Guha has uncovered myriad previously untapped documents, including private papers of Gandhi’s contemporaries and co-workers; contemporary newspapers and court documents; the writings of Gandhi’s children; and secret files kept by British Empire functionaries. Using this wealth of material in an exuberant, brilliantly nuanced and detailed narrative, Guha describes the social, political and personal worlds inside of which Gandhi began the journey that would earn him the honorific Mahatma: “Great Soul.” And, more clearly than ever before, he elucidates how Gandhi’s work in South Africa—far from being a mere prelude to his accomplishments in India—was profoundly influential in his evolution as a family man, political thinker, social reformer and, ultimately, beloved leader. In 1893, when Gandhi set sail for South Africa, he was a twenty-three-year-old lawyer who had failed to establish himself in India. In this remarkable biography, the author makes clear the fundamental ways in which Gandhi’s ideas were shaped before his return to India in 1915. It was during his years in England and South Africa, Guha shows us, that Gandhi came to understand the nature of imperialism and racism; and in South Africa that he forged the philosophy and techniques that would undermine and eventually overthrow the British Raj. Gandhi Before India gives us equally vivid portraits of the man and the world he lived in: a world of sharp contrasts among the coastal culture of his birthplace, High Victorian London, and colonial South Africa. It explores in abundant detail Gandhi’s experiments with dissident cults such as the Tolstoyans; his friendships with radical Jews, heterodox Christians and devout Muslims; his enmities and rivalries; and his often overlooked failures as a husband and father. It tells the dramatic, profoundly moving story of how Gandhi inspired the devotion of thousands of followers in South Africa as he mobilized a cross-class and inter-religious coalition, pledged to non-violence in their battle against a brutally racist regime. Researched with unequaled depth and breadth, and written with extraordinary grace and clarity, Gandhi Before India is, on every level, fully commensurate with its subject. It will radically alter our understanding and appreciation of twentieth-century India’s greatest man.

Gandhi the Man tells how Gandhi remade himself from a shy, tongue-tied, average little man to a Mahatma whose life can serve as an inspiration for our own transformation....

The book is an honest commentary on the ‘Father of The Nation’ – Mahatma Gandhi. Written by well known French philosopher Romain Rolland, the book is an attempt to shed light on Gandhi’s life, his ideals and philosophy. The author has probed and shown spiritual greatness of Gandhiji. The book explains in detail about his Non-violence strategy, his ethical approach to politics and religion as well as willingness to make sacrifices for truth. To portray an honest account of Gandhi’s life, Romain Rolland has also added criticism that he received from eminent personalities like Rabindranath Tagore and Andrews.