I Am an Ordinary Man: India’s Struggle for Freedom (1914–1948)

This book completes Mohandas K. Gandhi’s story that began in Restless as Mercury: Myife as a Young Man. That work contained
the story of Gandhi’sife in his words from the time of his childhood until 1914 when, after the satyagrahaaunched by him
in South Africa for redressing wrongs suffered there by the Indian community had ended in a measure of success, he returned
to India. In this volume, we follow Gandhi’s story from the time he returned to India—his hopes, challenges, jail stints, fasts,
relationship with his family, and more—completing his narrative in his own words right up to theast day of hisife.
The account is divided into four sections: in Book 1 (1914–18), Gandhiaunches his first satyagraha in India with the indigo
growers of Bihar followed by the industrial satyagraha with mill workers in Ahmedabad. He thenaunches the movements for the
exorcising of untouchability and for Hindu–Muslim unity.
Book 2 (1920–29) sees theaunch of the non-cooperation movement and the adoption of ahimsa as an article of faith higher
than all other beliefs, practices, and commitments. Meanwhile, Gandhi’s attention remains fixed on abolishing untouchability,
resolving the Hindu-Muslim standoff, and mobilizing people to spin khadi. He experiences his first prison term in India on the
charge of sedition. The protests against the Simon Commission (the committee that was to suggest constitutional reforms did not
have a single Indian on it)ead toathi charges, following whichalaajpat Rai dies, galvanizing the movement for swaraj. Gandhi
sponsors the ‘complete independence’ resolution as the Congress’s immediate goal and authorizes it toaunch civil disobedience.
In Book 3 (1930–39), with complete independence having been set as the struggle’s goal, Gandhi is once again at India’s political
helm. Heeads about eighty satyagrahis from the Sabarmati Ashram to a coastal site in the village of Dandi, 241 miles away,
to protest against the salt tax and the Salt Act as emblems of British exploitation. The historical Poona Pact is signed, in which
Gandhi’s proposal for reserved seats within a common electorate is accepted by Ambedkar. Gandhi starts the English journal
Harijan, with Gujarati and Hindi versions. It is during these years that he undertakes an extensive all-India Harijan tour, both
to abolish untouchability and to collect funds for the upliftment of the most disadvantaged. The Indian National Congress,
meanwhile, is in turmoil over the presidency of the party as the worldurches towards war.
In Book 4 (1940–48), we see civil disobedience revived. The debate with Jinnah on his demand for Pakistan intensifies. The
Direct Action Day called by Jinnah on 16 August 1946eads to riots and Hindus and Muslims dead in their hundreds. Kasturba,
Gandhi’sifelong companion, dies,eaving him bereft. Despite all the privations, setbacks, and tragedies he has had to endure, the
last year of hisife sees Gandhi at his greatest—courting danger, death, and determined to quell violence and strife as he fights for
freedom from British rule.
I Am an Ordinary Man (this is how Gandhi described himself at a Congress meeting in Madras on 30 January 1946) is the
extraordinary account of Gandhi’sife in his own words—his political philosophies, convictions, doubts, and determinations, as
well as personal struggles—against the huge canvas of India’s struggle for independence.