Here are 25 interesting Mahatma Gandhi facts.
1-5 Mahatma Gandhi Facts
1. Mahatma Gandhi led a nonviolent protest known as the Dandi Salt March to protest a salt tax. Gandhi and his followers hiked to the Arabian Sea where they boiled sea water to make their own salt. – Source
2. Mahatma Gandhi used to travel with his goat so that he could have fresh milk. – Source
3. In 1948, the Nobel Peace prize was awarded to no one as “there was no suitable living candidate.” They did this in tribute to Mahatma Gandhi after he had been nominated that year but died before anyone was chosen. – Source
4. A quote expressing the importance of gun ownership for self-defense, “Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest.” Was spoken by Mahatma Gandhi. – Source
5. Mahatma Gandhi spoke English with an Irish accent, for one of his first teachers was an Irishman. – Source
6-10 Mahatma Gandhi Facts
6. Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin, Nathuram Godse, was raised as a girl for the first few years of his life due to a superstition that his family had that their male children were cursed. – Source
7. Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin is seen as a patriot by many Indians. This has led to attempts to create a glowing documentary of him, install busts in his likeness in political buildings, and even build a temple in his honor. – Source
8. “Mahatma” is not Gandhi’s first name. It’s a title he was given that means “great soul.” – Source
9. Mahatma Gandhi once set up a commission to investigate a reincarnation claim. A little girl started to remember a past life and she correctly identified her former husband, her son that she died giving birth to, the village she once lived in, former relatives, and her husband’s occupation. – Source
10. Mahatma Gandhi felt the Jewish victims of the Holocaust should have committed mass suicide. – Source
11-15 Mahatma Gandhi Facts
11. Although being considered the strongest symbol of non-violence in the 20th century, Mahatma Gandhi never received the Nobel Prize. He was nominated 5 times for the prize. – Source
12. Mahatma Gandhi put a 5 rupees fee on his autograph in order to fund his various programs since the British who controlled the funding were unwilling to help him. – Source
13. Arun Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and himself an activist, was so shocked on learning that government of India had granted $25 million to the production of the 1982 movie ‘Gandhi’ that he wrote an article condemning the grant. – Source
14. There are more roads in the Netherlands named after Mahatma Gandhi than those in India. – Source
15. Mahatma Gandhi was the founder of 3 football clubs in South Africa. – Source
re #20, I think this is the quote – or along these lines, I spotted it on one of the earlier source links.
“What will Hitler do with his victory? Can he digest so much power? Personally he will go as empty-handed as his not very remote predecessor Alexander. For the Germans he will have left not the pleasure of owning a mighty empire but the burden of sustaining its crushing weight. For they will not be able to hold all the conquered nations in perpetual subjection. And I doubt if the Germans of future generations will entertain unadulterated pride in the deeds for which Hitlerism will be deemed responsible. They will honour Herr Hitler as genius, as a brave man, a matchless organizer and much more. But I should hope that the Germans of the future will have learnt the art of discrimination even about their heroes. Anyway I think it will be allowed that all the blood that has been spilled by Hitler has added not a millionth part of an inch to the world’s moral stature.”
#24- slept and often bathed naked with nubile girls including his own grandniece to show how “in control” of his libido he was