The Gujarati scholar and criticSitanshu Yashaschandra credits this work with pulling Gujarati prose away from its hesitant steps of the middle to late 19th century and infusing an element of confidence in the language. His 1909 work, Hind Swaraj, a meditation on the problems of modern civilization, was also in Gujarati. Incidentally, his autobiography wasn’t his first work in Gujarati. All his life’s activities up to this point would have involved his transacting in English a great deal and yet, when he chose to write his life story, he chose to do so in his mother tongue. He had studied in England, lived for close to two decades in South Africa and been the acknowledged leader of the freedom movement for almost a decade. When Gandhi chose to narrate his own life story, he was well past the age of 50. Desai later translated it from Gujarati to English this was published in 1940. This book was published in serial form in weekly instalments in Gandhi’s Gujarati-language journal, Navajivan, between 1925-29. The title page of the English edition of Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography, The Story Of My Experiments With Truth, mentions his name as the translator. Desai shepherded the Mahatma through his appointments, handled his travel arrangements and also played the role of Gandhi’s Boswell…of sorts. Gandhi’s lesser-known associates was his long-standing personal secretary, Mahadev Desai.
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