Contents: Preface. 1. Nature of autobiography. 2. Gandhi's experience in autobiographical writings. 3. Nature of Gandhi's autobiography. 4. Controversies the autobiography raised. 5. Gandhi on himself: 1920-34. 6. Gandhi on himself: 1934-48. Bibliography. Index.

"Gandhi started writing his autobiography towards the close of the year 1925, as a series of articles in his Gujarati weekly 'Navajivan'. It took him more than three years and four months to finish it. The first article appeared in November 1925 and the last was published in March 1929. It was written in Gujarati but its English translation simultaneously appeared in his English weekly 'Young India' done mainly by his secretary Mahadev Desai with the approval of the author. Later on it was published in two volumes, volume I in 1927 and volume II in 1929.

"But Gandhi did not write his complete autobiography. Starting from the early childhood he wrote till the confirmation of the non-cooperation resolution at Nagpur in December 1920. The author does not dwell upon the events of his life after the crucial decision on the ground that henceforth there was hardly anything about him which was not known to the people.

"The main purpose of the present study is to make use of fragments and records which are available in 100 volume project, The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi and make his autobiography complete covering all the main events till his death.

"The purpose of the present study is not to add just another book on Gandhi's life but to discover and assemble with exemplary precision the autobiographical writings of Gandhi after 1920." (jacket)