RaveThe Sunday TimesPolitician, freedom fighter, pacifist, ascetic-cum-guru, putative saint, it could be argued that for a true understanding of the man heralded by millions as a mahatma (great soul) the percipience of theology is required above that of orthodox history. Still, Ramachandra Guha is as dogged a researcher as Gandhi was an agitator ... the most exhaustive account yet of Gandhi’s temporal and spiritual crusades. A vivid, absorbing read ... Guha weaves together the narrative as deftly as Gandhi’s homespun cloth. His telling of this David and Goliath tale is greatly enhanced by excerpts from the private papers of Gandhi’s adversaries; his keen eye for the idiosyncratic often lends a life-affirming touch ... Guha seems overly anxious to defend his subject’s failings. But only Gandhi’s most ardent detractors (of which there are plenty in India) could put down this book and not recognize him as a remarkable, pioneering leader who changed the world and still has much to teach us.
