With a new introduction by Makarand R ParanjapeThe life of Mahatma Gandhi is the story of a legend In Mahatma Gandhi The Great Indian Way Raja Rao upends the genre of the literary biography with inventive nonlinear chronology through dialogue and anecdote situating the physical within the metaphysical and with a text that is both retrospective and contemporary at the same time By mapping genealogies and distilling them Rao focuses on Gandhis years in South Africa the birth of nonviolent resistance and then moves into the epic freedom struggle in India which brought Gandhi to worldwide renown in his own lifetimeWith an emphasis on the idea of dharma as a framework for Gandhism both in South Africa and India this is the story of the man as much as the Mahatma