Amy Pastan
Gandhi
by Amy Pastan
 Gandhi is a nonfiction, informational book subtitled
“A Photographic Story of a Life”. It is an illustrated
biography.
 Gandhi is basically organized in chronological order,
but begins with a brief introduction to India in the late
1800’s. From there, it discusses Gandhi’s birth in 1869,
his childhood and adolescence in India, his college
education and life in Britain and his return to India to
advocate for the Indian people in his later adulthood.
Finally, it recounts Gandhi’s assassination in 1948 and
impact his work had on people throughout the world.
 Amy Pastan wrote Gandhi to inform the reader about
Gandhi’s life. Her message is that… “Although many
thought that violence was the only way to fight this
injustice (British rule in India), Gandhi successfully
used his teaching of nonviolence and civil
disobedience to win his country’s freedom- and to
create a philosophy of peace and equality that endures
to this day.”
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1869 Gandhi born in Porbandar, India
1883 Gandhi marries Kasturba
1888 Gandhi sails to England to study and practice law
1893 Gandhi serves as a legal consultant in South Africa where he experiences racial
discrimination firsthand
1906 Gandhi begins his nonviolent campaign for Indian rights
1907-1917 Gandhi organizes protests and demonstrations against unjust laws and practices in
India
1919 Amritsar Massacre occurs
1922 Gandhi is arrested and sentences to six years in prison
1924 Gandhi urges the Muslims and Hindus to work together
1930 Gandhi leads the Salt March to protest salt laws
1931 Gandhi attends the Second Round Table to discuss Dominion status for India
1932 Gandhi fasts to oppose separate elections for Untouchables
1942 Gandhi organizes the “Quit India” campaign for independence
1944 Gandhi’s wife Kasturba dies in prison
1946 Gandhi opposes the partition of India
1947 India celebrates independence from Britain
1948 Gandhi is assassinated in India
The author of Gandhi tells the story as if Gandhi was a
personal acquaintance. She relates Gandhi’s thoughts and
feelings throughout his story so that the reader can
understand why Gandhi made the choices he did. She is
also able to give enough background of the time Gandhi
lived so that the reader can follow the story of India’s
struggle to become free of British rule. She used a lot of
photographs to illustrate the story and make it easier to
follow. Amy Pastan wraps up her book with these words:
“Gandhi sacrificed himself as an individual to the greater
causes of freedom and human rights. He gave up his
possessions, time with his family, and ultimately, his life.
In death, he became a symbol of the principles he had lived
for: truth and nonviolence.” (p. 120)
 People who are able to make a difference in the world are
ordinary people with extraordinary character. They are
people who stand up for right, take risks, sacrifice for
others, and refuse to give up when hardship comes.
Gandhi was just such a person. He believed that the people
of India deserved the right to be treated as equals and to
govern themselves, and he used his influence to lead the
people in nonviolent protests against unjust British laws.
He gave up his own personal wealth, often representing
people in court cases for free. He suffered in prison and
during voluntary prayer fasts to create sympathy for the
people’s plight. His life made a difference in India, in
South Africa, and even in America when Martin Luther
King, Jr. used the teachings of Gandhi to help ensure the
passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
 Gandhi is a book worth reading again. It contains a lot of factual
information about Gandhi’s life and accomplishments. Any
unusual terms are defined and explained so the book is fairly
easy to read. The information contained in the book is
consistent with information found in other books and websites,
but it is written so that younger or less sophisticated readers can
comprehend it. Some surprising facts found in the book Gandhi
include: Gandhi’s family was wealthy, Gandhi studied law in
England, and over one million people attended Gandhi’s funeral
in 1948. Other topics related to this book are Hinduism, Islam,
the history of India, apartheid in South Africa, the
Untouchables, and Civil Rights activism. As Gandhi was a
Hindu, a study of his religion would help the reader understand
his motivations and actions even more.
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In India, the term "Untouchable" is now regarded as insulting or politically incorrect (like Eta in
Japan for the traditional tanners and pariahs). Gandhi's Harijans ("children of God") or Dalits,
("downtrodden"), are prefered, though to Americans "Untouchables" would sound more like the
gangster-busting federal agent Elliot Ness from the 1920's. Why there are so many Untouchables is
unclear, although caste Hindus can be ejected from their jâtis and become outcastes and various
tribal or formerly tribal people in India may never have been properly integrated into the social
system. When Mahâtmâ Gandhi's subcaste refused him permission to go to England, as noted above,
he went anyway and was ejected from the caste. After he returned, his family got him back in, but
while in England he was technically an outcaste. Existing tribal people as well as Untouchables are
also called the "scheduled castes" or "scheduled tribes," since the British drew up a "schedule" listing
the castes that they regarded as backwards, underprivileged, or oppressed.
The Untouchables, nevertheless, have their own traditional professions and their own subcastes.
Those professions (unless they can be evaded in the greater social mobility of modern, urban,
anonymous life) involve too much pollution to be performed by caste Hindus: (1) dealing with the
bodies of dead animals (like the sacred cattle that wander Indian villages) or unclaimed dead
humans, (2) tanning leather, from such dead animals, and manufacturing leather goods, and (3)
cleaning up the human and animal waste for which in traditional villages there is no sewer system.
Mahâtmâ Gandhi referred to the latter euphemistically as "scavenging" but saw in it the most horrible
thing imposed on the Untouchables by the caste system. His requirement on his farms in South
Africa that everyone share in such tasks comes up in an early scene in the movie Gandhi. Since Gandhi
equated suffering with holiness, he saw the Untouchables as hallowed by their miserable treatment
and so called them "Harijans" (Hari=Vis.n.u). Later Gandhi went on fasts in the hope of improving
the condition of the Untouchables, or at least to avoid their being politically classified as non-Hindus.
Ross, Kelly. From “The Caste System in India.” Retrieved at http://www.friesian.com/caste.htm on
March2, 2011.
Copyright (c) 1996, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2010 Kelley L. Ross, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved