Mahatma Gandhi and His Apostles

by Ved Mehta

Book Overview

In this book, the renowned author Ved Mehta brings Gandhi to life in all his holiness and humanness, shedding light on his principles and his purposes, his ideas and his actions. Through interviewing disciples of Gandhi in five countries, Mehta reconstructs in precise detail Gandhi's daily routine, recounts the story of his life, and presents the beliefs and practices of his "apostles." Mehta's book, widely praised when it was first published in...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300055390
• ISBN13: 9780300055399
• Release Date: April 1993
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

An unique Gandhi biography

Ved Mehta's this unique book on Gandhi is a must read for all those whom Gandhi is still an object of interest or target of criticism. For novice readers of Gandhi, this book gives them a window of opportunity for either deface their popular image of Gandhi or open up an all new interest for further reading and research. For a seasoned Gandhi reader, this book instead serves as a rare source of information on opinions and reflections of people who had lived and worked with Gandhi. Ved did an excellent job in going after Gandhi's contemporaries, most of whom were in their late years, gathering their recollections of Gandhi and presenting them in a very coherent manner, creating a unique biography of Gandhi in the process. It comes as little surprise to the readers of Gandhi that none of the people Ved met were talking about politics or Gandhi's contribution in the India's freedom struggle; rather they center their conversation on Gandhi's extraordinary character and near supernatural abilities, a response consistent with Gandhi's popular image as a saint than as an astute politician. One of the very intriguing aspects of Gandhi's life is the kind of relations that he had kept with his women disciples. Based on the popular saying that behind every successful man there is a woman, it is natural for one to develop a curiosity in women of Gandhi's life. Believe me, you won't be disappointed; but unlike other great people, Gandhi's involvement with women rest in a different plain that is, for most, a difficult proposition to comprehend. A number of western and Indian women became Gandhi's disciples at different points in time and became center of controversies. One woman who scholars most seriously studied and most famous among Gandhi's disciples was Madeline Slade (also known as Mirabehn, a name Gandhi had given to her). Two of other women of Gandhi's associates who also became scholars' subjects of interest were Manu and Abha, with whom Gandhi had a `close' relationship. One of the reasons for my interest in Ved's book was to look for the details of Mirabehn's recollections of Gandhi to see whether Richard Grenier's viciously worded interpretation of Mira's conversation with Ved about Gandhi in his book, The Gandhi Nobody Knows has any truth in it. Yet, one gets a different picture in Ved's book about their conversation that is quite different from Richard's interpretation who, one would tend to believe, distorted them in his tirade against Gandhi for falsely portray that she repented her association with Gandhi. The following are the excerpts from Ved's discussion with Mirabehn on Gandhi. ...I try to draw her out on the subject of Gandhi, but her answers are vague. She speaks of him in the most general and abstract terms as a great hero of history, comparing him to Socrates, Christ and Beethoven..."How is it that you were so readily able to substitute Gandhi for Beethoven and Beethoven for Gandhi?" I ask. "Surely what distinguishes the hero fro

A New Angle

On the cover of this book is a quote from Max Lerner, describing it as "meticulously researched, passionately felt, and elegantly written." I fully agree with this. Yet, as other reviewers have noted, meticulous research doesn't mean there is no agenda, and the author's passion may strike some as irritating bias. I have given this book five stars because it does what it does superbly. However, you should know something of what the author has set out to do.As the title suggests, Mehta is concerned as much with Gandhi's legacy as the man himself. There are three sections of the book, and the middle one is a good short biography of Gandhi. It is sandwiched by two sections which center around interviews with disciples and others who run Gandhian foundations, etc. This material is constanty interesting, and very well written. A portrait is painted of Gandhi's causes and message being largely ignored, trivialized, or merchandized - even by organizations and individuals who claim to be spreading his message. However, (with one notable exception) no one is demonized, and the tone is far from a moral tirade. Rather, one senses the author's sadness at seeing the ironies of history, and the very human process of losing touch with the real core of a revelation. I should emphasize that a number of individuals are very sympathetically portrayed. At least two disciples are seen as truly continuing Gandhi's work with integrity and dedication, if not quite on the Mahatma's level.And what was the Mahatma's level, according to this author? Did he write the book to humanize Gandhi? Certainly, the author believes, and wants to convince the reader, that Gandhi was capable of making mistakes and did so, and was not "complete" and perfect. Yet for all that, he clearly sees Gandhi as a truly great person, with tremendous inner and worldly achievements to his name. Remember that Mehta wrote his book when about 400 biographies of Gandhi had already been published, mostly hagiographic (devotional biography of a saint) in nature. Yet this book contains lots of information not easily available elsewhere, mostly about complexities and ironies of Gandhi's life. I think the author relied on people already having been given an impression of Gandhi's spiritual greatness from other sources, and wrote his book as a "new angle," and therefor didn't emphasize that which was already the standard image of his subject. Don't get me wrong - Mehta's book contains a lot which would lead one to be in awe of Gandhi (how could any biography of Gandhi not?) - but I think the simple, shining elements of Gandhi's life and ideas were downplayed to leave room for complex and controvertial aspects.In summary, I would recommend this book strongly for someone who is already duly impressed by Gandhi from other sources - whether his autobiography, or the famous film, or elsewhere. I would particularly recommend "Gandhi The Man" by Eknath Easwaran, which is full of powerful quotes and

Balanced Profile

Nuggets of lesser-known trivia about Gandhi presented in wonderful prose.Mehta, a staff writer for The New Yorker for a quarter of a century, neither deifies nor lambastes the mahatma (great soul).Instead, he chisels a most human profile of the man widely regarded as the originator of non-violent non-cooperation as a successful protest methodology even against the most formidable of opponents.

GANDHI WITHOUT A PEDASTAL? By Kush Khatri

In his foreword, Mr. Ved Mehta, makes it clear that his biography is an attempt to demytholigize the Mahatama. Does this make the author unfair? Of course not. The book perhaps will shock those who refuse to see M.K. Gandhi without a pedastal. Mr. Mehta's lucid writing skills keeps the reader's attention captured from start to finish. This is a must read for those who want to read a lively "humanized" account of M.K. Gandhi's life and legacy. Certainly an eye opener for those awed by the larger-than-life, propogandist type accounts of M.K. Gandhi. In the end, despite the self-acquired title of the Mahatama, Gandhi was very much a human being with his own quirks and obsessions. One of the obsessions being with sexual "purity" which Gandhi believed was not only possible but was a prerequisite for all who aspire to enter public life. The much talked about "experiments" in sexual purity, which involved Gandhi (in his seventies) taking young women (some of them married) to bed with him to test his carnality, form but a small portion of Ved Mehta's well substantiated account. I wish he had more details on the subject! But despite the bizzareness of Gandhi's religious experiments, it is quite clear from Mr. Mehta's account that Gandhi did not actually indulge in deviant sexual behaviour. Nevertheless, the women who had to be guineapigs in Gandhi's experiments, did find those experiences humiliating, at least in retrospect. Despite exposing Gandhi's quirkiness and his obsession with irrational religiosity, Ved Mehta's biography actually manages to keep the Mahatama's pedastal intact. Mehta builds M.K. Gandhi by bringing to the fore his unwavering committment to non-violence, his innate sense of humor and his ability to adhere to his convictions under trying circumstances. Whether one agrees with Gandhi's priniciples or not, Mehta makes it clear, that at least the man had principles. Contrast this with today's politicians in India, and Gandhi indeed looks a Mahatama! But wait a minute. Ved Mehta reveals (not by any means an original revelation) that Gandhi was patronized by three powerful Indian industrialist of that era: G.D. Birla, Bajaj and Mr. Sarabhai. All three were constantly writing checks and funding Gandhi's vow of poverty! Yet, Mehta goes over this without exploring necessary details. Details such as, exactly how much funds did Gandhi recieve from these powerful industrialists over a period of decades; what was the value of this behind the door funding in todays rupees; what impact did it have on Gandhi's thought process; are skipped altogether. Ved Mehta does tackle another issue that I found very bothersome: Gandhi as a failed husband and a failed father. But once again, Ved Mehta, refrains from making judgments or go into details, which is fine, but why he does not raise these issues (of money and his refusal to take responsibility for his family) with his followers or apostles is disappointing. That is one of the rea

Well-written but not always fair.

This is a relatively short book about one of the largest lives in human history. However, Mehta (a former staff writer for The New Yorker) proves himself a master of collage, giving the reader a multifaceted portrait of Gandhi and his legacy. All of the major events of Gandhi's life are recounted, including the sexual-spiritual crises that didn't make it into the movie. As the title indicates, this book is also about Gandhi's followers and his legacy, and Mehta seems to go out of his way to show how strange and unstable many of Gandhi's followers were. Mehta also spends a lot of time examining Gandhi's bramarchya experiments, where he tested his ability to resist temptation by sharing his bed with young girls. This is the most cited fact about Gandhi that people use to discredit him, and Mehta is no exception. He comes out without an understanding of Gandhi's peculiar (to us) behavior, and he has the journalist's typical approach of never voicing a judgment but merely arranging the facts in such a way to make his opinion clear. If you have not read anything about Gandhi, this may be a decent introduction to him (an implicit critique from a distance is generally better than a pious view from the bottom of a pedestal), but the best place to start is still the Mahatma's own autobiography.