10 - Political Autobiography and Life-Writing

Summary

Autobiography and life-writing have been popular genres and were frequently used by writers as a vehicle to create political impact. Building on the scholarship of Bart Moore-Gilbert and Javed Majeed, this chapter compares the political autobiographies of two well-known global public figures, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Whilst such works may not routinely be located as part of the trajectory of black and Asian British cultural production, both Gandhi and Nehru spent many formative years in Britain and both books were first published prior to Independence in 1947 when Nehru and Gandhi were British colonial citizens. Moreover, despite their respective political differences with the British as they fought for Independence, they often portrayed themselves as being both ‘of’ and ‘not of’ the place. The chapter also makes reference to autobiographical writings by other well-known colonial citizens of empire, including poet turned Gandhian activist, Sarojini Naidu, and Kenya’s and Ghana’s future prime ministers, Jomo Kenyatta and Kwame Nkrumah.