Excerpt: The Dying Of The Light

A new biography of the Mahatma explores hidden facets of his life. A section from the first chapter, ‘The Final Hours’: Pramod Kapoor 

There is a widespread belief that living saints are given some intimation of their own mortality. Mahatma Gandhi often talked about living to 125 years or more, like some Hindu seers had done, but on January 29, a day before his assassination, Gandhi was unusually eloquent about mortality and his own death. On that day, members of the Nehru family had arrived at Birla Bhavan around lunchtime. They included Krishna Hutheesing, Jawaharlal’s sister, his daughter Indira with her four-year-old  son, Rajiv, as well as Sarojini Naidu, the nationalist leader.