The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Volume 1

Mahatma Gandhi

Translated by Mahadev Desai

78 chapters · about 6 h

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The opening

CHAPTER I BIRTH AND PARENTAGE

BIRTH AND PARENTAGE

HE Gandhis belong to the Bania 1 caste and seem to have been originally grocers. But for three generations, from my grandfather, they have been Prime Ministers in several Kathiawad States. Uttamchand Gandhi, alias Ota Gandhi, my grandfather, must have been a man of principle. State intrigues compelled him to leave Porbandar, where he was Diwan, and to seek refuge in Junagadh. There he saluted the Nawab with the left hand. Some one noticing the apparent discourtesy asked for an explanation which was thus given: 4 The right hand is already pledged to Porbandar.’

Ota Gandhi married a second time having lost his first wife. He had four sons by his first wife and two by his second wife. I do not think that in my childhood I ever felt or knew that these sons of Ota Gandhi were not all of the same mother. The fifth of these six brothers was Karamchand Gandhi, alias Kaba Gandhi, and the sixth was Tulsidas Gandhi. Both these brothers were Prime Ministers in Porbandar one after the other. Kaba Gandhi was my father. He was a member of the Rajasthanik Court, now extinct, but in those days it was a very influential body for settling disputes between the chiefs and their fellow clansmen. He was for some time Prime Minister in Rajkot and then in Yankaner. He was a pensioner of the Rajkot State when he died.

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About this edition

The words
Mahadev Desai's English translation, copied word for word.
Left out
  • Page numbers and running heads from the printed pages, in 6 places
  • Front cover, endpapers, and flyleaf scan noise (72 blocks)
  • Internet Archive digitization notice (2 blocks)
  • The title page and opening pages before chapter 1
  • Notes and pages added by translators, editors or publishers, in 3 places
  • Blank page scan specks (6 blocks)
  • A preface, foreword or afterword, in 2 places
  • Repeated book title on Part I half-title leaf (3 blocks)
  • Repeated book title on Part II half-title leaf (3 blocks)
  • Repeated book title on Part III half-title leaf (3 blocks)
  • Other material that isn't the author's, in 2 places
  • Stray scan mark or printer's signature mark '*' (5 blocks)
  • Stray scan mark or printer's signature mark '«'
  • Stray scan mark or printer's signature mark '/' (2 blocks)
  • Stray scan mark or printer's signature mark '•V'
  • Stray scan mark or printer's signature mark 'i' (3 blocks)
  • Stray scan mark or printer's signature mark 'AJ'
  • Stray scan mark or printer's signature mark 'ii' (2 blocks)
  • Stray scan mark or printer's signature mark 'CD CD'
  • Stray scan mark or printer's signature mark 't/'
  • Stray scan mark or printer's signature mark 'CD'
  • Closing line 'END OF VOLUME I'
  • The index
  • Printer's colophon 'Printed and published by Swami Anand at Navajivan Press, Ahmedabad'
  • Back flyleaf and cover scan noise (23 blocks)