The father of the nation has nearly 200 biographies in English to his name, all written by foreign authors or non-Gujaratis. But now you can get to read one written by a Gujarati.
For Gandhian scholar Prof. Tridip Suhrud, a social scientist and cultural historian, teaching at Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DA-IICT) has translated one of the most authentic biographies of Mahatma Gandhi Maru Jeevan Ej Mari Vani into English.
This biography in Gujarati has been written by Narayan Desai, son of Gandhi's personal secretary Mahadev Desai. The voluminous English translation of Gandhi's biography written by Desai, is all set to be published with the title My Life Is My Message'on October 2, 2009.
The biography My Life Is My Message would be the first complete biography of Gandhi in English, written and translated by Gandhian scholars belonging to Gujarati culture.
The English biography of Gandhi My Life Is My Message'will provide an understanding about Gandhi's life and Gandhian tradition within the context of Gujarati culture.
On why he chose to translate Gandhi's biography written by Narayan Desai into English Suhrud said, "Nearly 200 English biographies of Mahatma Gandhi are available, but I chose Narayanbhai Desai's 'Maru Jeevan Ej Mari Vani' because it is one of the best biographies of Gandhi and is the only complete biography of Gandhi in Gujarati."
"I believe that to know and understand one of the greatest personalities the world has ever known, it is necessary to understand the culture to which the great man belonged to. How has he been narrated in his own language? I have found all these dimensions in the work of Narayanbhai," Suhrud said.
He said Desai's biography on Gandhi in Gujarati language reflects the Gandhian and ashram traditions, which can help English readers understand Gandhi with a perspective of Gujarati culture.
Talking about his 'joyful pain' in translating the work, Suhrud said, "It took exactly 6 years to complete the work. It was on October 5, 2003 that I began the translation of the first part and the entire translation was finished on August 19, 2006 and rest of the time was spent on production work."
Maru Jeevan Ej Mari Vani is spread over four voluminous parts and it was not an easy work for the professor to translate the 2500 pages.
In fact the advance booking of My Life is My Message, which will be published by Orient BlackSwan, has already begun at Gandhi Ashram and the readers who are booking it at the Ashram are being offered 30 % discount on the cover price of Rs2900.
The professor has also written Writing Life: Three Gujarati Thinkers - the book, which narrates the lives and work of three 19th century thinkers of Gujarat - Narmadashankar Lal Shankar, Manibhai Nabhubhai & Govardhanram Tripathi. Poets, essayists and novelists, these three writers deeply influenced the intellectual life of Gujarat.
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