28 FEBRUARY 1970, Page 20

Shorter notice

Gandhi's Truth: On the Origins of Militant Non-Violence Erik H. Erikson (Faber 50s). Alarming as the enterprise may sound, 'a psychoanalyst's search for the historical pre- sence of Mahatma Gandhi and for the meaning of what he called Truth' conveys a great many highly suggestive ideas in an easy and unacademic style.• By concentrat- ing his investigations upon a single and somewhat neglected episode, W the 1918 Ahmedabad mill-strike and Gandhi's suc- cessful approach to a settlement, Dr Erik- son is able to assemble fresh data as well as new insights, but some critical back- ground of knowledge has to be assumed in the reader.