The Life and Death of Mahatma Gandhi

Payne's substantial biography follows Gandhi from his childhood in Porbandar and his years as a lawyer in South Africa through the independence movement, the campaigns of non-violent resistance, the trauma of partition and his assassination in 1948.

Payne is sympathetic but not uncritical, and he explores the contradictions in Gandhi's personality as well as his achievements. The book's narrative energy makes it a rewarding way into one of the most consequential lives of the twentieth century.