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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.