Gandhi the Man
book by Eknath Easwaran
Gandhi the Man is a biography of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi written by Eknath Easwaran. The book was originally published in the United States in 1973. Several subsequent expanded editions have been published. Non-English editions have also been published in several languages.
Topics covered
All US editions of Gandhi the Man contain four major parts entitled 1) The Transformation, 2) The Way of Love, 3) Mother and Child, and 4) Gandhi the Man. All US editions also contain numerous photographs. More recent editions contain a foreword by Michael Nagler and an Appendix by Timothy Flinders entitled "How Satyagraha Works." The 4th edition (2011) contains several pages of maps and chronology (timelines), and additional background notes.
Reviews and influence
Reviews have appeared in the New York Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, The History Teacher, and elsewhere.
In the New York Post, Bill McKibben wrote that Gandhi the Man "seems at first glance like pure hagiography, most notable for the wonderful photographs it contains. But it isn't a picture book - in fact,
in very few words, it comes closer to giving some sense of how Gandhi saw his life than any other account I have read.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Gandhi the Man” is book by Eknath Easwaran. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Gandhi, book and Eknath, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “book by Eknath Easwaran” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5520726. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1973 and 2011.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
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- Expand the search: follow Gandhi the Man primary sources, Gandhi the Man archive and Gandhi research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Questions for further research
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Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Gandhi the Man” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.