The Story of My Experience with Gandhi

When I hear Mahatma Gandhi, the first thing that comes to my mind is the scene from the movie "Gandhi" where he gets thrown out of a train in South Africa. That scene made it clear to me that I was indeed watching Gandhi movie for the second time. If you are wondering why I couldn't make out which movie I was watching, I should add that I am talking about the time when I was around five years of age. I don't think I knew to read at that age. When my older cousins and uncle wanted to watch the movie, my father decided to take them and I had to tag along. Since I had barely sat through that movie the first time, I was not told which movie we were going to. I went along without realizing what I was being dragged into.

The moment I saw the scene where Gandhiji was thrown off the train, I decided to call it a day. How can they expect me to sit and watch all that violence again? Totally out of question! I made enough noise that my father had to step out of the theater with me. Interestingly, that movie complex was one which had more than one theater, not a common thing in those days. One of the operators took us into the projector room from which a local movie named "Belt Mathai" was being shown. I remember the excitement of being in the projector room and watching a song from that movie. It may not have been the best movie of the times. To the five year old, it was so much better than having to sit through the violence in Gandhi!

Isn't it strange that I associated Gandhi with violence when he was actually an epitome of non-violence? The five-year old had completely missed the message conveyed through the movie and the greatness that had made him "Mahatma" (great soul). The history lessons in my later school years were mainly about his struggle for independence and of course, the emphasis was on memorizing dates and facts about the various events. A variety of literature and media gave me some glimpses of his principles. However, I never got a full picture of his life: of how he saw it as a set of experiments and a series of transformations through the path of truth.

On a recent visit to the library, I picked up a book about Gandhi for the kids. When I read that book, I realized I didn't know much about this great person and how he came to be so. That prompted me to get a copy of his auto-biography "The Story of My Experiments with Truth" which I have been reading since the last few weeks. I'm only halfway through this English translation but it has been such an eye-opener. What appealed to me the most was the fact that Gandhiji mentions everything as his experiments asking one to accept things only after doing experiments themselves. Though the biggest messages are that of Ahimsa (non-violence) and Satyagraha (holding on to truth), the numerous subtle messages conveyed throughout the book are simple yet refreshing .

Maintaining health through an easy exercise like walking; ensuring hygiene and cleanliness of surroundings; being self sufficient and open to performing any type of work; working towards a common cause by co-operating with people who may differ in views in other areas; treating people from different religions and classes of society without boundaries - these are just a few of the elementary yet pragmatic messages. I should rather say they are examples as they were not intended as rules that should be followed blindly. Most of them are put forth as scientific experiments with a hypothesis, process and evidence.


In the book, Gandhiji writes about his early life and the stage till he became a well-known public figure. It is fascinating to see the transformation: from a man who went abroad for education and livelihood and tried to fit into the social circles of his profession to the great person who fought against prejudice and injustice without any form of violence. Despite the fact that the translation makes the language flow a little choppy, it is a wonderful book and I am looking forward to the rest of it. It is time for me to end my write-up and go back to reading the autobiography of this great man. Let me stop with his simple yet deeply insightful thought: "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."