A Promised Land-Barack Obama's Autobiography talks about Gandhiji's influence on the politician's life and thought process

A Promised Land-Barack Obama's Autobiography talks about Gandhiji's influence on the politician's life and thought process

In his autobiography  "A Promised Land", the 44th U.S. President Barack Obama documents his journey from the 2008 election campaign to the end of his first term, concluding with the Abbottabad (Pakistan) raids that killed the dreaded al-Qaeda Chief Osama bin Laden.

Though originally  the memoirs intended to cover more episodes from Obama's life, as in the preface of the book , Obama says he set out to tell the story of his presidency in 500 pages and finish within a year, but an additional three years and 200 pages later, he has only been able to cover a comparatively smaller portion of his biography. 

"A Promised Land" delves into Obama's childhood to the 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden, with a detailed amount of information that helps one understand the personality of the ex president and offers deeper windows in the psyche of the man. "A Promised Land" is the first of two planned volumes revolving around the life of one of the most admired leader of the modern world. The first part hit bookstores globally on Tuesday. It is interesting to note that Obama also talked about his connection with India in the memoirs. 

Barack Obama has said that his fascination with India was based on his admiration with Mahatma Gandhi, whose "successful non-violent campaign against the British rule became a beacon for other dispossessed, marginalized groups". "More than anything, though, my fascination with India had to do with Mahatma Gandhi. Along with (Abraham) Lincoln, (Martin Luther) King, and (Nelson) Mandela, Gandhi had profoundly influenced my thinking," writes Obama, who had visited India twice during his presidential term. He also described the influence of Gandhian philosophy, during his growing up years. "As a young man, I'd studied his writings and found him giving voice to some of my deepest instincts," the former US president said. Though Obama feels disillusioned that in spite of Mahatma's activism the country was unable to successfully address the caste system or prevent the partition based on religion.

"His notion of ''satyagraha'', or devotion to truth, and the power of non-violent resistance to stir the conscience; his insistence on our common humanity and the essential oneness of all religions; and his belief in every society's obligation, through its political, economic, and social arrangements, to recognize the equal worth and dignity of all people -- each of these ideas resonated with me. Gandhi's actions had stirred me even more than his words; he had put his beliefs to the test by risking his life, going to prison, and throwing himself fully into the struggles of his people," Obama writes. Obama talked about how Gandhi's campaign was not only a freedom movement but was also aimed at changing the morality of the society and world at large, including U.S. "It became a beacon for other dispossessed, marginalized groups - including Black Americans in the Jim Crow South - intent on securing their freedom," said Obama.

Obama also recollects his first visit to India in 2010, in the book. He reminisced his visit to Gandhiji's modest home Mani Bhavan in Mumbai, along with the first lady Michelle Obama"And in that moment, I had the strongest wish to sit beside him and talk. To ask him where he'd found the strength and imagination to do so much with so very little. To ask how he had recovered from disappointment," Obama wrote.