If you’re looking for a lighter read on the life of Gandhi and the history/applicability of his teachings, Perry Garfinkel’s book may be for you. I read Gandhi’s autobiography roughly a decade ago and thought it a bit dry, and in coming across “Becoming Gandhi,” I thought it’d be nice to take a more personal look at his life and teachings through the eyes of a 21st century journalist instead.

Honestly, I’m not totally sure what I was expecting with Perry as a journalist, but the book read a bit too much like a lengthy magazine or newspaper article for me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s decently written and personally detailed, but it wasn’t really a page turner and I think some of that had to do with Perry’s journalistic style of writing - quoting his interviewees and other authors at length as if writing a thesis to back up his opinions. That on top of the fact that the e-edition of the book was so poorly laid out - random numbers, weird page breaks, and sentences broken right in the middle - made it really hard to read at times.

I liked Perry’s personal push to look at, and apply as best as possible, 6 of Gandhi’s key teachings - truth, non violence, vegetarianism, simplicity, faith, and celibacy - but for the above reasons I don’t feel I can give the read more than a 3 star. If I could give half stars it might get a 3.5, but it felt more like a round down situation than a round up one.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sounds True Publishing for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

When I came across this book, I found the concept fascinating. Perry Garfinkel decides to attempt living 6 key principles Mahatma Gandhi followed for at least a year or so. This is a very readable book, though considerable part of the book is context which would be very familiar to Indian readers. As Perry, a reporter, points out – we are in an age of questionable values, increased violence and rampant lying. Gandhi’s message has always been relevant, just maybe, all the more now with rising divisions & violence.

As Perry points out at the start – Mahatma Gandhi was an overachiever and it is difficult to name a person who has been more inspirational since the last century or so. He had great discipline, focus, commitment, obsessiveness, and the desire to make every day count. The 6 key principles Perry lists are – Truth (Gandhi said ‘Truth’ is ‘God’), Non-violence, Vegetarianism, Simplicity, Faith and Celibacy. Perry takes each of these and provides an explanation of how Gandhi lived these principles, and how he is going about following them. He travels to the places Gandhi stayed – India, South Africa & England to understand his life, habits and influence. As Perry points out, Gandhi said that his life is his message and it makes sense to understand how he lived his life. He tries to understand Gandhi’s daily routine and worldview – he was an early riser, walked at least 11 miles a day, dressed simply, weaved cloth using the charkha, ate simple food, was careful that his words never hurt anyone and had many intellectual discussions. He also said that he tried to see if his actions helped the poorest of the poor as a moral checkpoint.

As part of his travels, he meets many people (including Mahatma Gandhi’s great grandson Tushar Gandhi), visits memorials, museums and also recreates the Dandi march Gandhi did as a protest which galvanized the nation at that time. He does say that he met a few cynics as well. That the Gujarat Vidyapeeth functions entirely based on Gandhian values is something I did not know myself. Also, he mentions an interesting episode when Dr Martin Luther King requested to stay in the place Gandhi did and said he felt invigorated by his spirit to continue his struggle for equal rights. Barack Obama has also mentioned Gandhi being a major influence in his life, as also the spiritual teacher Ram Dass.

I liked how Perry made the principles he listed a personal endeavour seeking an inside-out transformation. In many ways Gandhi’s principles had stood the test of time. While truth and non-violence is most mentioned, his food & exercise habits for instance – eating fruits, veggies, nuts (no sugar, low salt), regular walking, avoiding meat & dairy are today recognized as being key to staying healthy, other than being morally correct. His views on the need to encourage local enterprises is gaining as well. At the same time, Perry makes no attempt to ignore or justify some of the controversial aspects of Gandhi’s life. He says bluntly that he regards Gandhi’s celibacy experiments as deeply flawed (as indeed most people today would). The other aspect that Gandhi held views which were racist during his stay in South Africa (he apparently advocated that Indians not be lumped along with coloured Africans initially), Perry is kinder. I agree here with him – people evolve their views over time. In the part of his life where Gandhi was most influential, he was no racist for sure. If asked about it during his lifetime, I am sure he would have been frank about it as well. His autobiography is probably the only one I have read which is not self-promotional or dishonest. Indians, in general have been very accepting of transformed views. Sage Valmiki who wrote the Ramayana epic was said to have been a bandit earlier before he transformed. There has also been much debate since Gandhi’s time on whether the absolute non-violence Gandhi advocated was practical. I would say myself that it is not (Savarkar’s views in this respect are interesting as well). However, Gandhi was well intentioned, keeping the faith that we as a people can get there – to living a life completely free of violence to all life forms. It is mentioned in the book how Gandhi wrote letters to Hitler imploring him to give up violence & discrimination.

A few things the book could have been better at:
- The context is excessive for Indian readers, but considering the primary audience is international, this is acceptable. Nevertheless, would have liked to see more of the author’s efforts in living the principles.

- There are some minor issues in his understanding of the culture and Hinduism. He wrongly translates “sadhana” as “realization”. It represents methodical and sustained practice. Similarly, he mentions in jest how he has been interested in Judaism (the first one God religion), Hinduism (many Gods religion) and Buddhism (no God religion). He could have done better than this simplistic & poor definition of Hinduism.

- Gandhi’s views on truth & faith were far more nuanced and complex than how Perry has outlined it. He was deeply influenced by the Gita and Hindu spiritual practices but imbibed teachings from other religions and cultures with no hesitation. The syncretism Gandhi practised I would regard as a role model for interfaith dialogue and harmony though he was not entirely successful in promoting it during his lifetime himself. It was based on absolute honesty, dialogue, metaphorical & deeper understanding of religion and essential oneness we are part of (and not the hypocrisy & dishonest political correctness rampant today).

There is a passage at the end of the book on Perry’s granddaughter's views on Gandhi after reading a book about him. It is beautiful & honest as only children can write.

A book I definitely recommend.

My rating: 4.25 / 5.

Having been interested in Gandhi and India since my twenties and having read a good deal about him, I was eager to read Becoming Gandhi. The author and I are roughly the same age, being in our twenties during the 1970s and seem to have similar thoughts regarding the Viet Nam war and American life in general at that time and to have significant concerns about the viability of the human race at a time when our society seems to be moving more toward violence and lack of common decency.
The book is listed under “Gandhi,” “Religious Leader Biographies” and “Personal Transformation Self-Help” by Amazon, and I found the book to be a hodge-dodge of these classifications as well as a bit of a memoir. He winnows Gandhi’s teaching down to six points and tries to implement them in his own life. These are:
1. Truth
2. Nonviolence
3. Vegetarianism
4. Simplicity of Life
5. Faith
6. Celibacy
Journalist Perry Garfinkel spends three years traveling the world examining how well Gandhi’s ideals have held up in the present. He traces the path of Gandhi through India, England, and South Africa and talks about his accomplishments and even his flaws. He discusses his life and death by assassination on January 30, 1948, shortly after Indian gained independence from Britain. Garfinkel discusses at length the Indian words for the six points above and their meaning, so to a certain extent, this is Indian Philosophy for Dummies. There is some discussion of what Garfinkel tries to do with these precepts in his own life, but not enough to actually guide others and lacking the ups and downs and ah, ha! moments one expects from what could have been a fascinating memoir. I was left with rather ambivalent feelings about the book, it being more and less than I expected.

This was a wonderful book. Anyone who aspires to be better than they ever thought they could be should read it over to cover. Better yet, live it.