Indian Autobiographies That will Motivate You
1. Wings Of Fire By A.P.J. Abdul Kalaam
Wings of fireside is an autography of APJ Abdul Kalam covering his youth and his add Indian space research and missile programs. In this story of a boy from a humble background from Rameswaram who went on to become a key player in Indian space research and many Indian missile programs and later became the president of India. The book has been very fashionable in India and has been translated into multiple languages. I recently picked up a replica and skim it for a few days. it had been very engaging initially but attended drag a touch towards the top with tons of technical details and procedural information of his space research and missile projects.
I loved the initial chapters of Wings of fireside since it gives a vivid picture of our country from 1930 – 1950s. Abdul Kalam born in Rameswaram, a southern religious town in Tamilnadu. The initial chapters provide a stimulating glimpse of spiritual harmony which existed before India’s partition.
In the book we find out how Kalam started his career in Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) and was involved within the design of a hovercraft. Later he moved to Indian Space Research which was the brainchild of Vikram Sarabhai. In 1963, Kalam visited NASA facility in Maryland(USA) as a part of an educational program on test rocket launching techniques. There he found a painting that depicted Tipu Sultan’s rocket warfare against the British.
2. Why I Assassinated Mahatma Gandhi. By Nathuram Godse
The books “Why I Killed the Mahatma: Uncovering Godse’s Defence” written by Conrad Elst, a Belgian Indologist. maybe a controversial and difficult book, as was to be expected. He features a doctorate in Orientalism with a dissertation on Hindu Nationalism. The book raises many questions even before the book itself is often read or reviewed.
The first question is whether or not we'd like to listen to Nathuram Godse’s defense of his heinous act of assassinating Gandhi in the least at this point or at the other time. those that argue for absolute freedom of expression won't find it absurd or offensive, but many others can especially as his defense is freely available. The book draws largely from Godse’s defense statement before the court.
The second is that if the publication, or rather re-publication, of this book, would are possible or encouraged under a non-majoritarian government with clear leanings to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the organization that Godse drew inspiration from. The book available in stores now's significant.
The book will surely generate debate on the assassination of Mahatma by Godse, an apostle of peace. People interpret history differently. But, the very fact is Gandhi continues to influence the road to peace. Youngest Nobelist Pakistani Malala Yousafzai has repeatedly said she is inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s path of non-violence.
3. Veerappan: Chasing The Brigand By Koose Muniswamy Veerappan
Just as in Sholay, Gabbar measured his terror by the very fact that oldsters frightened their children to sleep by mentioning his name, kids of the 1990s were often terrorized into sleeping by a mention of Veerappan. However, the people that lost the foremost sleep in anticipation of the mustachioed brigand’s moves were the lads of the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka Special Task Force (STF). 13 years later, the then Tamil Nadu STF chief K Vijay Kumar, liable for leading the team that terminated the Veerappan saga in 2004’s Operation Cocoon, has begun with Veerappan: Chasing the Brigand, a compact, insightful, and punctiliously constructed chronicle of the 20-year-long fight.
Incidentally, the sole child to possess died at Veerappan’s hands was his own newborn daughter. Apparently, Veerappan was shaken after an in-depth shave with the authorities and wasn't close to letting anything compromise his location within the jungle. To a person with such motives, a neonate with 110-decibel cries may be a complete liability. an easy gesture to the midwife, who delivered the kid, did the work. This ruthless sacrifice is claimed to possess stunned his gang of 100 approximately jungle dwellers and ensured their utter loyalty.
Kumar, at several points within the book, calls himself a person of action wasted on desk work. He confesses that the foremost boring a part of his job was to write down reports. within the decade following Operation Cocoon, the policeman who disliked paperwork has managed to author a non-fiction book that reads like great fiction.
The long fight between the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka Special Task Force (STF) and their A-1 (accused-1/ Veerappan) ended with Veerappan’s killing in 2004, but the story within the book dates all the thanks to the poacher and smuggler’s youth. Koose Muniswamy Veerappan was born within the village of Gopinatham bordering the deciduous forest over which he would later reign. Being introduced to guns at a really young age, he became an ideal shot and was charged with poaching when he was just a boy. Fleeing the authorities, he took refuge within the jungle and, as Kumar writes, “The rest is history”.
4. The Story of My Experiments with Truth: An Autobiography By M.K, Gandhi
It is an in-depth account of Gandhi’s consisting of Gandhi’s self-penned essays (105 essays in all) on his experiments and covers all aspects of the Mahatma’s spiritual life. This Autobiography is split into majorly 5 parts ranging from his childhood days to his experience in SA where he experimented with the powerful weapon of Satyagraha and his transformation from Mohan to Mahatma.
Gandhi’s Non-violent struggle in SA and India had already brought Gandhi Ji to such A level of notoriety, adulation, and controversy. when asked to write down an autobiography midway through his career, he took it as a chance to elucidate himself.
Accepting his status as an excellent innovator within the struggle against racism, violence, and colonialism, Gandhi felt that his ideas needed a deeper understanding. Gandhi explains that he was after truth rooted in devotion to God and attributed the turning point, success, and challenges in his life to the desire of God.
Gandhi says that his plan to meet up with the present divine power led him to seek purity through simple living, dietary practices (he called himself a fruitarian), celibacy, and ahimsa- a life without violence. it's during this sense that he calls his book “The Story of My Experiments with Truth”, offering it also as a reference for those that would follow his footsteps.
Gandhi’s Autobiography is one of the simplest sellers and is translated in nearly all languages of the planet. Perhaps never before on so grand scale has any man succeeded in shaping the course of history while using his weapon of Peace – Ahinsa (Non-violence).
To many it'll have the worth of a replacement Bible or a replacement Gita; for here are words that have to begin from the depth of truth, here is the tireless striving that stretches its arms towards perfection. “Autobiography” during away may be a “confession of Gandhi’s faith, a really basic document for the study of his thought”
5. Reflections: Swami Vivekananda By Swami Vivekananda
Having read most of Vivekananda's lectures on Advaita Philosophy before, from which I derived most of my understanding on Hindu religious past and present, this book that collects a number of his important talks on Vedanta, Yoga, Philosophy, etc, didn't add an excessive amount of to my earlier knowledge. However, reading again those lectures and discourses, help me reflect again thereon understanding, and hopefully it might take me closer to the coveted 'realization'.
The text is obvious and straightforward to read. Sometimes it does become a difficult read as an excessive amount of Vedantic terminology/ philosophy is employed, but overall it’s a simple read. Then about its contents, it really makes one understand the Vedantic principles, which is otherwise tedious to understand. The philosophy is explained in a simple manner and it’s also applicability in real sense.
And overall I liked it's that how Vivekananda has praised all the religions of the planet and therefore the message that regardless of what paths we follow the goal for all citizenry is that the same. He has also cautioned to follow the faith by understanding its core and not get misguided by how different people have interpreted it to suit themselves.
6. How I Became a Hindu By Sita Ram Goel
"Goel in his book "How I became a Hindu," recounts what he saw of Nehru during a public address in the 1930s. During the speech when the mike went off thanks to some glitch, Nehru smacked ahead of public the local congress leader who was liable for organizing that address. And when the mike started functioning, he told the gathered crowd that "Delhi ki Congress ka kya kru kamine hain, razil hain, namaqul hain. Maine kai baar kaha hai ki intezam nahi kar sakte to mat bulaya karo par ye sunte hi nahin."
The public on hearing this warmed up to him, and clapped their hands to pain, in their appreciation. Pandit Ji was famous for his temper, and therefore the public loved him only the more for it. The slapped leader was as effusive as if he "had won some coveted prize." Goel also tells us of another public gathering, later on, where Nehru was to talk. then too he conducted himself during a totally rude, vain, and distasteful manner."
Goel-Ji strongly believes that the whole government just became willing servants of 1 family (duh) and he was very very unhappy about the creation of centers like JNU to breed "Stalinist professors". He also goes into some detail about how Nehru completely misled the state before 1962, while building up his persona because of the great mediator between the East and therefore the West, a sane voice during a war-hungry world. His reputation abroad lay in absolute tatters after 1962, but it had been still propped up by a pliant media in India then.
Even the grand failure of the 1962 war was written off as an error by home minister VK Menon, but Goel-ji has written an entire book in defense of him. I decide to read it soon. it's called - "In Defence of Comrade Krishna Menon: A Political Biography of Pandit Nehru".
He lamented that the new order after 1947 was only curious about bashing everything about Hinduism as communal, hooked into RSS, and their fascism while going crazy all instances of violence and crimes by Muslims. My main take-away from this was that today's Indian politics is along precisely the same fault lines as 60 years back and 30 years back.
7. An Autobiography (Nehru) By Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru, an individual I shall always be sorry I never met, wrote a desperately fascinating book! Arguably the foremost under-rated book of the 20th century.
Jawaharlal Nehru can describe as Plato's philosopher. He was an unprecedented writer, incredible reader, incorruptible statesman, and a technology lover who had a romantic relationship with the environment, democracy, and justice. So it'd be impossible to write down about him in a romantic manner. As his Introduction goes. "What is that the one salient thing to say about Nehru?". There are many excessive amounts of mention East-West can never meet. 'Nehru is proof that they have already met.'
It is strange, an individual of his stature has been reduced to Nehru-dynasty( which he didn't create ) and China war. It reflects the intellectual bankruptcy that an individual who did quite the opposite Indian insurgent in political struggle(spent almost 10 years in jail and arranged endless protests) then went on as PM to serve us for 17 long years within the foremost difficult circumstances. In return, we reduced his legacy to a minimum of one event. We forgot incredible things he did, to call a few- how he nurtured industrialization, gave voting rights to women, crushed social organization, preserved democracy, advance scientific temper, fought against religious bigotry, implemented constitutional rights not just in letter but also in spirit.
The most humane thing for us to undertake to, whilst we've forgiven Jefferson for keeping slaves, Dr. King for plagiarism, and Gandhi for preaching nonsense about the earthquake as a punishment of our sin of untouchability. With an equivalent gravity and respect. Instead of reducing him to the China war crisis, we'll acknowledge his invaluable contribution without-which India would haven't reached its present kind of being a free democracy. it's pity how little we all realize him and belief uneducated stupid politicians to supply us an inaccurate opinion on his legacy.
8. The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian By Nirad C. Choudhary
Nirad C. Chaudhuri’s Autobiography of an Unknown Indian, which came call at the first 1950s, has been on my reading list for over a decade, but because Chaudhuri was literally, for me, an unknown Indian, I used to be ready to put it away for therefore long, despite its reputation as a literary heavyweight. Why would an unknown Indian want to write down his autobiography, I wondered? And what would he need to say?
Chaudhuri is sort of modest as he sets sail. He announces very early that he has no illusions about his mastery over the English language. ‘An author whose English wasn't learned from Englishmen or in any English speaking country’, he describes himself, though it's clear that his writing doesn't have any reason to be shy. By the time Chaudhuri adds a touch later that he has never lived outside India, I'm convinced that I'm reading a master of English language, possibly the simplest Indian English writing I have ever read is better than even Vikram Seth’s writing.
If you're a successful sports star or an official or a businessman, writing an autobiography should be a simple, how-did-I-achieve-success narrative. Writers on the opposite hand, maybe because success as a writer is the maximum amount a function of the writer’s mental makeup and past trauma because it a result of diligence and persistence, makes a virtue of excoriating themselves publicly.
Chaudhuri starts off by giving an in-depth description of his parents and other relations. We are told that his father was a successful lawyer and therefore the Vice-Chairman of the Kishorganj municipality. Those days, there have been two categories of lawyers, Skills with higher academic and professional qualifications and Muktears who largely handled criminal cases. Chaudhuri’s father was Muktear who made enough money to shop for unlimited quantities of books for his children, who unusually for his time (and even by modern-day standards) thought that education was an end by itself. The Chaudhuri children evidently grew up during a literary environment.
9. Autobiography of a Yogi By Paramahansa Yogananda
Writing this book supreme confidence, there's an exceptional clarity of thoughts that runs throughout this book that appeals to a person who's kept his mind hospitable possibilities beyond the realm of the standard. Anyway, the text of the book is peppered with miracles which will sound bizarre and can blow your mind wide open. there's also a chapter that describes 'life' after death (the progression of the soul)in vivid detail. All this may be difficult to digest for the person of science, but Paramahansa Yogananda is self-assuredly convincing and consistent. He woos the scientific man by defining the subtle laws at work behind the extraordinary events we term as miracles couched in scientific terms like the idea of relativity.
It is an exquisite beginner's guide to Indian philosophy, to not deride the complexities of issues addressed within the book, but within the sense that it gently and lovingly guides the reader along the 'path', giving ample time for introspection, an important prerequisite for true understanding.
His ultimate goal is to means how the religions of the planet are talking about an equivalent goddamn thing. He does this by arising with Vedic interpretations of the Bible and drawing pretty convincing analogies with the Upanishads and other major Hindu philosophical texts. The book is certainly worth reading for a peek into world-views that are not strictly scientific. And for those that don't take his theories to heart as I did, it can alternatively be read as a particularly imaginative and engrossing work of fiction. As for me, it left me deeply disturbed and yet strangely asleep.
10. An Indian Pilgrim: An Unfinished Autobiography By Bose Subhash Chandra
This is a bonafide autobiography of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the unedited and original version. Written towards the top of 1937 during the ECU trip after being nominated because the Rashtrapati of Bharatbarsha, "An Indian Pilgrim" traces Netaji`s biography from birth till his resignation from the Indian government officials. In this autobiography the author focus on an honest and sincere account of his childhood memories. His life as a school-goer with a batch of cousins and relatives in Cuttack, his youth of intellectual development as a promising student of Presidency College in Calcutta, his go after spiritual enlightenment and his experiences as a student at the distinguished Cambridge University.
it's an astounding account of his ideological development and his singular focus in India`s reconstruction during which an outsized part was played by Swami Vivekananda - 'I was barely fifteen when Vivekananda entered my life. Then there followed a revolution within and everything was turned the wrong way up .' The book recounts the event of the spirit of service, sacrifice, and zeal for national liberation, which were the driving forces of his life. The autobiography also throws much light on Netaji’s indomitable spirit within the freedom movement of India. To sum up, the autobiography written during a simple and lucid language engages the reader during a candid dialogue with the best national hero India has ever produced.
Written towards the top of 1937 during his Europe trip, after being nominated the President of the Indian National Congress, An Indian Pilgrim traces Bose’s biography from birth till his resignation from the Indian government officials. it's an astounding account of his ideological development and his singular specialize in India’s reconstruction during which Swami Vivekananda played an outsized part—"I was barely fifteen when Vivekananda entered my life. Then there followed a revolution within and everything was turned the wrong way up ." This book forces us to count the event of the spirit of service, and sacrifice, and zeal for national liberation, which was the driving force of his life. We hope this Book will gain wide circulation in order that the spirit of Neta Ji Subhas Chandra Bose becomes the luminary of the Every country’s youth in these disturbing times
11. Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta by Mother Teresa
An incredible saga - and a testament to the strength of sheer human faith and perseverance through endless, bone-chilling duress! have you ever ever been gripped by a painful contraction of your coeliac plexus as you grapple with a nameless, insurmountable inner anguish?
Mother Teresa - that endlessly busy, always-smiling missionary - had that horrible affliction without pause for many of her life. And this is often the riveting story of her ultimate conquer that deadly existential dread. Nowadays doctors provide it many names - agoraphobia, depression, paranoia - take your pick. Back within the 1800’s Kierkegaard, bless him, called it the Sickness Unto Death. Except that Death is simply the death-rattle of a vicious world in our soul. And this brave little nun, who NEVER gave up believing and hoping, lived to ascertain it utterly evaporate. what percentage cynical naysayers have dissed this noble woman’s untiring efforts, unaware of the NIGHTMARES that fuelled her work and gave it supreme energy?
I used to be constantly pestered with similar anxiety and self-doubt when young, though it’s needless to say I used to be no saint, and my pain was picayune compared to hers. Though I never saw it all vanish as she did, books like this have greatly mollified my pain over the years. And with the dissipation of my anguish into clear hope, my sense of being reception with kindness - during a world of vast indifference - has increased. Why should we care if the cold grey world reaps its anxious harvest of uneven returns on its unsound amoral investment?
I’ve escaped from the Vicious Pit of the Inferno - which numerous incessantly renovate and decorate and boast to their friends - so I can sail over the graceful waters of peace once more. Teresa dared to climb the Everest of her Dread all by herself, slipping over. And once again into unbearable inner pain - until her kindly friends gave her a couple of homely, helpful tips that helped her to seek out her Way.
And when she died at ripe adulthood, she could enter peace...
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