Gandhi: A Manga Biography

Younger readers in particular will enjoy this lucid survey of Gandhi’s life and teachings. Beginning with the awkward boy who recognized the unfairness of India’s caste system but was too shy to speak against it in public, the book shows him seeking ways to correct injustice without resorting to violence. There’s plenty of conflict in the world around the young man as different social classes abuse each other; Muslims and Hindus use religion as an excuse to hate their neighbors; and the colonial authorities unscrupulously exploit these divisions. Rather than taking sides, Gandhi tries to teach universal principles of fairness, turning to civil disobedience only to remind adversaries of their common humanity—tactics later borrowed by the American civil rights movement. Ebine’s treatment of this story respects Gandhi’s consistent, stubborn belief that people could learn to live together peacefully. The resulting comic is sometimes bland, with stiff art and infelicitous wording, but the message survives. (Sept.)