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The Life and Death of Mahatma Gandhi
This is the heroic story of the man whose non-violent movement transformed India both spiritually and politically as it impelled the nation along the road to independence. With consummate skill, in a narration that never flags in vividness and drama, Robert Payne re-creates Mahatma Gandhi both as a spiritual and historical force and as a living personality. Beginning with the moving story of a shy, awkward boy from a provincial Indian city who married at thirteen, then was separated from his bride for years while he read law in London, the book describe Gandhi's life as a successful barrister in South Africa who turned his back on wealth to defend Indian settlers against discrimination and persecution. In the tradition of his best-selling biographies of Lenin and Schweitzer, Robert Payne's life brings Gandhi alive as a rounded personality. Payne superbly describes Gandhi's daring marches to aid the oppressed, his fasts and imprisonments, his historic achievements at international congresses and conferences in India and England where, clad only in shawl and loincloth, he met with prime ministers and viceroys and won their respect as he fought for the dignity and freedom of his people.
703 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1969
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98 people want to read
About the author
Robert Payne
339 books35 followersPierre Stephen Robert Payne was born December 4, 1911, in Saltash, County of Cornwall, England, the son of Stephen Payne, a naval architect, and Mireille Louise Antonia (Dorey) Payne, a native of France. Payne was the eldest of three brothers. His middle brother was Alan (Marcel Alan), and his youngest brother was Tony, who died at the age of seven.
Payne went to St. Paul's School, London. He attended the Diocesan College, Rondebosch, South Africa, 1929-30; the University of Capetown, 1928-1930; Liverpool University, 1933-35; the University of Munich, summer, 1937, and the Sorbonne, in Paris, 1938.
Payne first followed his father into shipbuilding, working as a shipwright's apprentice at Cammell, Laird's Shipbuilding Company, Birkendhead, 1931-33. He also worked for the Inland Revenue as an Assistant Inspector of Taxes in Guilford in 1936. In 1937-38 he traveled in Europe and, while in Munich, met Adolf Hitler through Rudolf Hess, an incident which Payne vividly describes in his book Eyewitness. In 1938 Payne covered the Civil War in Spain for the London News Chronicle, an experience that resulted in two books, A Young Man Looks at Europe and The Song of the Peasant.
From 1939 to 1941 Payne worked as a shipwright at the Singapore Naval Base and in 1941 he became an armament officer and chief camouflage officer for British Army Intelligence there. In December, 1941, he was sent to Chungking, China, to serve as Cultural Attaché at the British Embassy.
In January, 1942, he covered the battle of Changsha for the London Times, and from 1942 to 1943 he taught English literature at Fuhtan University, near Chungking. Then, persuaded by Joseph Needham, he went to Kunming and taught poetry and naval architecture at Lienta University from 1943 to 1946. The universities of Peking, Tsinghua, and Nankai had converged in Kunming to form the University at Lienta. It was there that Payne, together with Chinese scholars and poets, compiled and co-translated The White Pony.
In China Payne met General George C. Marshall, Chiang Kai-shek, and Mao Tse-tung, who was elusive and living in the caves of Yenan, all of whom later became subjects for his biographies. From his time in China also came the autobiographical volumes Forever China and China Awake, and the historical novels Love and Peace and The Lovers.
From China, Payne briefly visited India in the summer, 1946, which resulted in a love for Indian art. Throughout his life, Payne retained a love for all forms of oriental art.
He came to the United States in the winter of 1946 and lived in Los Angeles, California, until he became Professor of English and Author-in-Residence at Alabama College, Montevallo, 1949-54. He was the founding editor of Montevallo Review, whose contributors included poets Charles Olson and Muriel Rukeyser. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1953.
In Spring, 1949, Payne visited Persia with the Asia Institute Expedition. He received an M.A. degree from the Asia Institute in 1951.
In 1954 Payne moved to New York City, where he lived the rest of his life, interrupted once or twice a year by travel to the Middle East, the Far East, and Europe, mostly to gather material for his books, but also to visit his mother and father in England. His very close literary relationship with his father is documented in the hundreds of highly personal and informative letters which they exchanged.
In 1942, Payne married Rose Hsiung, daughter of Hsiung Hse-ling, a former prime minister of China. They divorced in 1952. In 1981, he married Sheila Lalwani, originally from India.
Over a period of forty-seven years Payne had more than 110 books published. He wrote his first novella, Adventures of Sylvia, Queen of Denmark and China, when he was seven years old. Payne's first publication was a translation of Iiuri Olesha's Envy, published by Virginia and Leonard Woolf's Hogarth Press in 1936. A year later, T.S. Eliot published his novel The War in the Marshes under
Payne went to St. Paul's School, London. He attended the Diocesan College, Rondebosch, South Africa, 1929-30; the University of Capetown, 1928-1930; Liverpool University, 1933-35; the University of Munich, summer, 1937, and the Sorbonne, in Paris, 1938.
Payne first followed his father into shipbuilding, working as a shipwright's apprentice at Cammell, Laird's Shipbuilding Company, Birkendhead, 1931-33. He also worked for the Inland Revenue as an Assistant Inspector of Taxes in Guilford in 1936. In 1937-38 he traveled in Europe and, while in Munich, met Adolf Hitler through Rudolf Hess, an incident which Payne vividly describes in his book Eyewitness. In 1938 Payne covered the Civil War in Spain for the London News Chronicle, an experience that resulted in two books, A Young Man Looks at Europe and The Song of the Peasant.
From 1939 to 1941 Payne worked as a shipwright at the Singapore Naval Base and in 1941 he became an armament officer and chief camouflage officer for British Army Intelligence there. In December, 1941, he was sent to Chungking, China, to serve as Cultural Attaché at the British Embassy.
In January, 1942, he covered the battle of Changsha for the London Times, and from 1942 to 1943 he taught English literature at Fuhtan University, near Chungking. Then, persuaded by Joseph Needham, he went to Kunming and taught poetry and naval architecture at Lienta University from 1943 to 1946. The universities of Peking, Tsinghua, and Nankai had converged in Kunming to form the University at Lienta. It was there that Payne, together with Chinese scholars and poets, compiled and co-translated The White Pony.
In China Payne met General George C. Marshall, Chiang Kai-shek, and Mao Tse-tung, who was elusive and living in the caves of Yenan, all of whom later became subjects for his biographies. From his time in China also came the autobiographical volumes Forever China and China Awake, and the historical novels Love and Peace and The Lovers.
From China, Payne briefly visited India in the summer, 1946, which resulted in a love for Indian art. Throughout his life, Payne retained a love for all forms of oriental art.
He came to the United States in the winter of 1946 and lived in Los Angeles, California, until he became Professor of English and Author-in-Residence at Alabama College, Montevallo, 1949-54. He was the founding editor of Montevallo Review, whose contributors included poets Charles Olson and Muriel Rukeyser. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1953.
In Spring, 1949, Payne visited Persia with the Asia Institute Expedition. He received an M.A. degree from the Asia Institute in 1951.
In 1954 Payne moved to New York City, where he lived the rest of his life, interrupted once or twice a year by travel to the Middle East, the Far East, and Europe, mostly to gather material for his books, but also to visit his mother and father in England. His very close literary relationship with his father is documented in the hundreds of highly personal and informative letters which they exchanged.
In 1942, Payne married Rose Hsiung, daughter of Hsiung Hse-ling, a former prime minister of China. They divorced in 1952. In 1981, he married Sheila Lalwani, originally from India.
Over a period of forty-seven years Payne had more than 110 books published. He wrote his first novella, Adventures of Sylvia, Queen of Denmark and China, when he was seven years old. Payne's first publication was a translation of Iiuri Olesha's Envy, published by Virginia and Leonard Woolf's Hogarth Press in 1936. A year later, T.S. Eliot published his novel The War in the Marshes under
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 24, 2012
In addition to his own Experiments with Truth I've read at least three other biographies of Gandhi. Two of them, those by Louis Fischer and Wm Shirer, were adulatory. The third, by Erik Erikson, was more critical, but oriented more to interpretation than to exposition. Of the three this was by far the most thorough, including not only a chronological representation of Gandhi's life but also a serious attempt to understand the man on his own terms.
One aspect of the man I had not previously appreciated was how very religious he was--and that primarily in terms of Hinduism. While no mystic, Gandhi believed in, valued and sought such experience. However, while very much atune to his cultural background, Gandhi was not limited to it. Indeed, his religious interests were liberal and eclectic, a positive association with Theosophy and Anne Besant being long-standing in his life, his attitudes towards the other great world religions also being affirmative.
One aspect of the man I had not previously appreciated was how very religious he was--and that primarily in terms of Hinduism. While no mystic, Gandhi believed in, valued and sought such experience. However, while very much atune to his cultural background, Gandhi was not limited to it. Indeed, his religious interests were liberal and eclectic, a positive association with Theosophy and Anne Besant being long-standing in his life, his attitudes towards the other great world religions also being affirmative.
October 30, 2012
There are so many books on Gandhi, one flounders at what to read and when. "My Experiments With Truth" is always a good start, but for me, this book explained the Mahatma best.
I read it so many years ago and re-read it again afterwards. It's left an impression on me that I will never shake off. Whenever I encounter those who now find it trendy to pick flaws with Gandhi I can decimate them with the accounts given by this book.
I find that books written after this one tend to tell shallower tales of the man. They reduce profound moments of his life to more sensational soundbytes - "Gandhi made nude women sleep with him!"
I cannot speak as a historian, but in my heart I feel this book got it right. It is an honest telling and doesn't tell you what to think.
I read it so many years ago and re-read it again afterwards. It's left an impression on me that I will never shake off. Whenever I encounter those who now find it trendy to pick flaws with Gandhi I can decimate them with the accounts given by this book.
I find that books written after this one tend to tell shallower tales of the man. They reduce profound moments of his life to more sensational soundbytes - "Gandhi made nude women sleep with him!"
I cannot speak as a historian, but in my heart I feel this book got it right. It is an honest telling and doesn't tell you what to think.
March 10, 2013
Un bonne biographie dont l'orientation est clairement celle de la vie privée de Gandhi et de son fonctionnement psychologique. La première partie sur l'Afrique du Sud est très bien expliquée, on saisit toute l'ampleur de l'évolution de la lutte de la non-violence, les influences de l'enfance, mais aussi déjà les paradoxes propres à Gandhi. La partie sur l'Inde est à mon avis bien plus lacunaire, du fait que l'auteur n'intègre pas les données proprement politiques de l'Inde entre 1910 et l'indépendance, ce qui fait qu'on a un peu du mal à suivre à partir de l'évènement du 13 avril 1919 (massacre d'Amristar). Du coup c'est beaucoup plus flou, et l'analyse est moins convaincante.
February 28, 2024
This book should never have been published being a biography based on no primary research and very little secondary research. Robert Payne the author who visited India briefly but never lived there demonstrates very little knowledge of the political context that Gandhi operated in. His chief merits are his lively writing style and ability to avoid making any comments on topics that he knows nothing about.
My very favourite chapter was the one in which Payne describes Gandhi's meeting with Romain Rolland the winner of the 1915 Nobel Prize for literature and a fervent promoter of communism . Rolland comes across being totally enamored with himself and utterly blind to his limitations. He berates Gandhi for not embracing Marxism and the class structure while remaining utterly unable to grasp any of Gandhi's arguments. The chapter provides a damning portrait of an over-rated French intellectual. The problem is that however amusing it is, it recounts nothing of importance concerning the career of Gandhi.
Payne who is a graduate of the University of Cape Town is at his best when he writes about Gandhi's career in South Africa. He clearly understands the nature of the three cornered political struggle between the Indians, Boers and English South Africans. The book sags when Gandhi returns to India. Payne basically ignores the historical context of Gandhi's protest marches and hunger strikes. He also does his best to avoid the subject of Gandhi's relations with Congress.
What Payne does do when he writes on the Indian era is to focus on Gandhi's eccentric personality and deviant behaviours. In this latter area, some GR readers feel that he should have said more and denounced more vigorously. Payne who describes Gandhi as being "oversexed" (p. 269) is in fact very critical of Gandhi and his unique brand of celibacy (brahmacharya). The fact is however that his book is very thinly researched and he may not have been aware of all the salacious details which are now being discussed on the Internet.
My very favourite chapter was the one in which Payne describes Gandhi's meeting with Romain Rolland the winner of the 1915 Nobel Prize for literature and a fervent promoter of communism . Rolland comes across being totally enamored with himself and utterly blind to his limitations. He berates Gandhi for not embracing Marxism and the class structure while remaining utterly unable to grasp any of Gandhi's arguments. The chapter provides a damning portrait of an over-rated French intellectual. The problem is that however amusing it is, it recounts nothing of importance concerning the career of Gandhi.
Payne who is a graduate of the University of Cape Town is at his best when he writes about Gandhi's career in South Africa. He clearly understands the nature of the three cornered political struggle between the Indians, Boers and English South Africans. The book sags when Gandhi returns to India. Payne basically ignores the historical context of Gandhi's protest marches and hunger strikes. He also does his best to avoid the subject of Gandhi's relations with Congress.
What Payne does do when he writes on the Indian era is to focus on Gandhi's eccentric personality and deviant behaviours. In this latter area, some GR readers feel that he should have said more and denounced more vigorously. Payne who describes Gandhi as being "oversexed" (p. 269) is in fact very critical of Gandhi and his unique brand of celibacy (brahmacharya). The fact is however that his book is very thinly researched and he may not have been aware of all the salacious details which are now being discussed on the Internet.
September 13, 2023
N Certainly this book is the best.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 1, 2019
This book is heavily biased and written from a worshipful, one dimensional point of view as if Gandhi was a saint. In reality, there are several instances of Gandhi applying different rules to himself and others and not "practicing what he preached". Gandhi's support of the British fighting in world war 2 is just one example of the preacher of non violence supporting British military effort. There are also known instances of sexual abuse by Gandhi towards his female followers that are well documented in Wikipedia itself among other sources.
This book is not worth reading as it presents an untruthful and flawed picture of Gandhi.
This book is not worth reading as it presents an untruthful and flawed picture of Gandhi.
February 25, 2009
Things I learned:
1. About his childhood in Porbandar and Rajkot
2. That he spent almost thirty years in South Africa
3. That he actually mobilised the Indians on the side of the whites in the campaigns against the Zulus - the whites were so racist, they didn't think Indians would make good soldiers so they were only allowed to form a medical corps.
4. That a man full of so many contradictions, haunted by so many doubts could yet achieve so much.
5. I now have a handy reference bibliography for when I decide to study him further.
1. About his childhood in Porbandar and Rajkot
2. That he spent almost thirty years in South Africa
3. That he actually mobilised the Indians on the side of the whites in the campaigns against the Zulus - the whites were so racist, they didn't think Indians would make good soldiers so they were only allowed to form a medical corps.
4. That a man full of so many contradictions, haunted by so many doubts could yet achieve so much.
5. I now have a handy reference bibliography for when I decide to study him further.
December 23, 2011
A legendary character of sub continent's poltics, the life of Ghandhi is inspirational, eleborating the results of aim, hard work, consistancy and braveness. At the same time, reflects the domestic life of such personalities, how it can be ruined.
July 10, 2018
A very balanced account of a Leader's life. Robert Payne has done a fantastic job of recording actual history.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews