'Get down!' the official said. 'Or I will get a constable to push you out!' 'Do that, ' I told him. 'I will not get off this train!' Mahatma Gandhi is best known as the father of the Indian nation and a charismatic leader in the fight for justice for all. But who was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, and what made him the phenomenon he became? Born into a middle class family, Gandhi's thirst for truth was evident from an early age, and his insistence on speaking and living his truth often got him into trouble. Why did it matter so much to him not to cheat at school, to stand up to officials who told him what he could and could not do, to fight relentlessly for the rights of the poor and those with little power over their own lives? What was it about Gandhi's life and experiences that brought him to the clear understanding that love and non-violence are the best weapons in any struggle? Real Reads are accessible texts designed to support the literacy development of primary and lower secondary age children while introducing them to the riches of our international literary heritage. Each book is a retelling of a work of great literature from one of the world's greatest cultures, fitted into a 64-page book, making classic stories, dramas and histories available to intelligent young readers as a bridge to the full texts, to language students wanting access to other cultures, and to adult readers who are unlikely ever to read the original versions.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Obscure Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Personal account of the life of the man who freed India from colonization through the Satyagraha nonviolent protest movement. His early boyhood life, legal studies, purification, and ultimate salvation of his homeland is carefully recounted in this inspiring and critical work of insurmountable importance.

Indian Home Rule (1909) is a book by Mahatma Gandhi. Originally written in Gujarati while the author was traveling from London to South Africa, Indian Home Rule or Hind Swaraj is a groundbreaking text that laid out some of Gandhi's core beliefs as an activist and political thinker. Banned in 1910 by the British government in India as a seditious text, Indian Home Rule remains essential to Gandhi's legacy in his native country and around the world. "It is my deliberate opinion that India is being ground down, not under the English heel, but under that of modern civilization. It is groaning under the monster's terrible weight. There is yet time to escape it, but every day makes it more and more difficult." In Indian Home Rule, styled as a conversation between a Reader and an Editor, Gandhi makes his case for Indian independence or Swaraj, explains his concept of Swadeshi (self-reliance), and argues that the Indian people have it within their power to not only expel the British, but to govern themselves while remaining true to their cultural and religious traditions. Through his rejection of Western civilization and advocacy for nonviolent resistance, Gandhi laid the foundation for the vital work he would undertake upon returning to India in 1915. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Mahatma Gandhi's Indian Home Rule is a classic of Indian literature reimagined for modern readers.

Gandhi's ideas are as meaningful today as they were during his long and inspiring life. His enlightening thoughts and beliefs, especially on violence and the atomic bomb, reveal his eloquent foresight about our contemporary world. The words of one of the greatest men of the twentieth century, chosen by the award-winning director Richard Attenborough from Gandhi's letters, speeches, and published writings, explore the prophet's timeless thoughts on daily life, cooperation, nonviolence, faith, and peace.

This bestselling volume includes an introduction by Attenborough and an afterword by Time magazine Senior Foreign Correspondent Johanna McGeary that places Gandhi's life and work in the historical context of the twentieth century. This book and the film Gandhi were the result of producer/director Richard Attenborough's long commitment to keeping alive the flame of Gandhi's spiritual achievement and the wisdom of his actions and his words. They are the wisdom and words of peace. Also included are twenty striking historical photographs, specially selected from the archives at the National Gandhi Museum in New Delhi, that capture the important personal, political, and spiritual aspects of Gandhi's career.

Identification with everything that lives is impossible without self-purification; without self-purification, the observance of the law of Ahimsa must remain an empty dream; God can never be realised by one who is not pure of heart. Self-purification, therefore, must mean purification in all walks of life. And purification being highly infectious, purification of oneself necessarily leads to the purification of one's surroundings. But the path to self-purification is hard and steep. To attain perfect purity, one has to become absolutely passion-free in thought, speech and action; to rise above the opposing currents of love and hatred, attachment and repulsion. I know that I have not in me as yet the triple purity, in spite of constant ceaseless striving for it. That is why the world's praise fails to move me; indeed it very often stings me. To conquer the subtle passions seems to me far harder than the physical conquest of the world by the force of arms. Ever since my return to India, I have had experiences of the dormant passions lying hidden within me. The knowledge of them has made me feel humiliated though not defeated. The experiences and experiments have sustained me and given me great joy. But I know I still have before me a difficult path to traverse. I must reduce myself to zero. So long as a man does not of his own free will put himself last among his fellow creatures, there is no salvation for him. Ahimsa is the farthest limit of humility.