Memoir traces journey from Italy to Indian politics
Gandhi’s 544-page memoir, published by HarperCollins India, is primarily a personal account, with political developments providing the backdrop to her life story. As she describes it, politics serves as “a kind of framework” for the narrative.
Last month, Gandhi had said others had spent decades telling her story and that she had now decided to tell it herself. She also anticipated considerable public attention and controversy surrounding the memoir, remarking that there was bound to be “some tamasha” when it was released on 10 November.
The book’s publication in India follows an impasse between Gandhi’s representatives and Penguin Random House India (PRHI), which had initially been keen to bring out the memoir but eventually withdrew as its domestic publisher.
The disagreement reportedly centred on editorial changes sought in the manuscript. Several Congress leaders subsequently raised concerns about possible government pressure and its implications for freedom of expression. Some alleged that Penguin India had faced pressure to remove passages concerning Modi, the RSS and China’s alleged occupation of Indian territory during the present government’s tenure.
PRHI maintained that it had been keen to publish the memoir, describing it as a ‘hard-won acquisition’, but eventually decided to withdraw after negotiations reached a stalemate over a particular issue.
The publishing house denied that any external pressure had influenced its decision. However, citing confidentiality obligations and its agreement with the author, it declined to disclose the precise nature of the disagreement.
Belonging: A Journey of Love traces Gandhi’s life from her childhood in post-war Veneto, Italy, to her eventual arrival in India. It recounts her move to Cambridge, where she met Rajiv Gandhi in 1965, their subsequent marriage and her introduction to her mother-in-law, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
The memoir also explores her gradual adjustment to Indian life, including learning Hindi, adopting the sari and familiarising herself with the country’s food and cultural traditions.
Among its most personal chapters are accounts of the tragedies that shaped the Gandhi family — the death of Sanjay Gandhi in a plane crash, Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984 and Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination in 1991.
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