Gandhi Before India
 First edition | |
| Author | Ramachandra Guha |
|---|---|
| Country | India |
| Subject | Biography |
| Published | 2 October 2013 (Penguin India) |
| Pages | 688 |
| ISBN | 9780670083879 |
Gandhi Before India is a 2013 book by the Indian historian Ramachandra Guha, the first part of a planned two-volume biography of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. The book deals with Gandhi's life up to his return to India following a 21-year period as a lawyer and civil-rights activist in South Africa. During this period in South Africa, Gandhi experienced discrimination that all coloured people there faced, including the Indian community he became a part of. In response to the government's policies developed Satyagraha, a form of protest that translates loosely to "truth force".
Gandhi Before India was first published by Penguin India on 2 October 2013, Gandhi's birth anniversary. The book's title alludes to Guha's India After Gandhi (2007). Gandhi Before India was mostly well received by critics, both in the mainstream media and in scholarly journals.