The Seeker Book

This is a fictionalized account of part of the life of Madeleine Slade (1892-1982), the British-born disciple of Mahatma Gandhi, who named her Mirabehn. I was impressed by her resolve to change her whole life in order to be part of Gandhi's movement, and her tenacity in that resolve despite considerable suffering, both physical and emotional. She spent a year in preparation, learning Urdu, becoming accustomed to sleeping on the floor, becoming vegetarian, then left her parents, friends, comfortable upper class life and everything familiar in England to live in an austere ashram in India led by Gandhi. Living in close contact with so many people whose culture and customs were foreign to her meant inevitable personality differences to deal with, and unaccustomed to the climate and diseases of India, she had illness to contend with as well. Plus she had the disadvantage of being from the very country whose colonial government the Indians were trying to throw off. She became overly attached to Gandhi, having great difficulty leaving him when he sent her elsewhere to carry on his work. He was always kind and supportive, but insisted she not be dependent on him.
Kakar is a critically acclaimed Indian author whose deep feeling for his country adds beauty to the narrative. For example, his description of Gandhi's Salt March has a "you-are-there" quality that was irresistible. I'm going to take a look at Mira's own account of her life entitled The Spirit's Pilgrimage, published in 1960.