Few political figures have written a memoir quite like this.

Gandhi's autobiography follows a lifelong attempt to understand how a person might live according to their principles. Written originally in Gujarati and first published in serial form during the 1920s, it traces Gandhi's journey from childhood in western India through his years in London and South Africa, and the gradual formation of the ideas that would later shape one of the most influential independence movements of the twentieth century.

What makes the book remarkable is its candour. Gandhi writes openly about failure, doubt, fear, vanity, religion, diet, sexuality, law, politics and self-discipline. The "experiments" of the title are often surprisingly mundane, concerned with everyday habits and ethical decisions rather than grand historical events. The result is an unusual political autobiography: part memoir, part spiritual inquiry, part philosophical notebook. Whether one agrees with Gandhi's conclusions or not, the book remains one of the foundational texts of modern political thought and nonviolent resistance.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869–1948) was a lawyer, anti-colonial leader and political thinker whose philosophy of nonviolent resistance influenced movements for civil rights and national liberation across the world. His autobiography remains the most direct introduction to his intellectual and moral worldview.

Penguin paperback edition. 1983 reprint. Good condition with light shelf wear and age toning to pages.