Essential reading on MK Gandhi

Gandhi after his release from prison, 1924. The first account that I read of Gandhi was through the first three volumes of Desai’s diaries, written in Gujarati, of their time together as prisoners at the Yerawada central prison. It also humanised their otherwise stern companion who had come to us in school text books as an “iron man” — the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel of those prison diaries is a man full of earthy humour, who had a school boy like diligence in learning Sanskrit and who took great delight in making parbidiyas, envelopes for Gandhi’s vast correspondence. The other text that made explicit the joy of reading philosophical discourse was Kishorelal Mashruwala’s Gandhi Vichar Dohan, which, to my mind, remains one of the most nuanced philosophical expositions on Gandhi’s thought. Gandhi’s life as a student in London, his flâneur-like explorations of the city, his voracious readings and later three visits to London are captured best in James Hunt’s Gandhi in London.