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Article published In: Metaphor in Religion and Spirituality
Edited by Stephen Pihlaja
[Metaphor and the Social World 7:1] 2017
► pp. 103–121

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“Truth is like a vast tree”

Metaphor use in Gandhi’s autobiographical narration

 | University of Chester
Published online: 20 July 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/msw.7.1.07nea
This article focuses on Gandhi’s use of biblical metaphor in the English translation of his autobiography “The Story of My Experiments with Truth” (1940). The aim of the analysis is to show how Gandhi appropriated Christian ideology to his own life story when presenting it to an English-speaking audience. Given that metaphor use is “seldom neutral” (Semino, E. (2008). Metaphor in discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, p. 32), underlying conceptual mappings can be revealing, particularly when the same conceptual frame is employed systematically across a text or discourse situation. Analysis of the English translation reveals a use of biblical metaphor which may constitute a deliberate appropriation of Christian ideology. This article suggests potential motivations for this appropriation, linking the text’s metaphor use to Gandhi’s desire to reform Hinduism and intention to counter the rising tide of Hindu-Christian conversion that threatened the success of his campaign for Indian political and spiritual independence.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background and method
  • 3.Analysis
    • 3.1Plants
    • 3.2Biblical metaphor
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
References (29)
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Neary, Clara
2023. The Story of Gandhi’s “Experiments with Truth”. In Gandhi’s Autobiographical Construction of Selfhood, ► pp. 11 ff. DOI logo
Neary, Clara
2023. “Life is one indivisible whole”. In Gandhi’s Autobiographical Construction of Selfhood, ► pp. 103 ff. DOI logo
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2023. Gandhi Writing Gandhi: Autobiographical “Split Selves”. In Gandhi’s Autobiographical Construction of Selfhood, ► pp. 75 ff. DOI logo
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2022. “Noah’s Family Was on Lockdown”: Multimodal Metaphors in Religious Coronavirus-Related Internet Memes in the Nigerian WhatsApp Space. Metaphor and Symbol 37:4 ► pp. 287 ff. DOI logo
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This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

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