Gandhi: An Autobiography

Gandhi: An Autobiography (published in full as The Story of My Experiments with Truth) is Mohandas Gandhi's own account of his life from childhood through 1921, written in serial installments during the 1920s. It traces his strict Gujarati upbringing, an arranged child marriage, a difficult period studying law in London, and his early, largely unsuccessful attempts to establish a legal career in India.

The bulk of the book covers Gandhi's more than twenty years in South Africa, where he confronted systemic racism against Indian immigrants and began developing satyagraha — his philosophy of nonviolent resistance — through organizing and direct action. He returns to India as a public figure and the narrative closes as he emerges as a central leader of the Indian independence movement.

Gandhi frames the book explicitly as a record of his "experiments with truth": trials in self-discipline, diet, celibacy, and civil disobedience, recounted with unusual candor about his own doubts, mistakes, and contradictions rather than as a polished political legacy.