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Image Credit: Twitter/Rishi Bagree, Wikipedia/MK Gandhi
No, The British Raj Did Not Bestow The Title Of ‘Mahatma’ On Gandhi; Viral Claim Is False
India, 22 Jan 2023 9:35 AM GMT
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A Twitter user shared an image with the claim, "It is interesting to see the memorandum of the British government through which Mr Gandhi became Mahatma Gandhi officially." The Logical Indian Fact-Check team verifies the claim.
An image showing a memorandum proclaiming that the title of Mahatma was bestowed on Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi by the British Government in 1938 is being widely shared across social media platforms. The viral image shows a list of names underneath which there is a short note proclaiming that "Mr Gandhi would be referred to as "Mahatma Gandhi"."
Claim:
The title of the memorandum page reads, "Government Of The Central Provinces And Berar General Administration Department." A list of persons is addressed in the memorandum, such as the Registrar, High Court of Judicature, Nagpur, All Commissioners of Divisions, the Chief Engineer, Public Works Department, and the Chief Conservator of Forests, among others. The memorandum is dated September 2, 1938.
At the bottom of the page, a note reads, "In future, Mr Gandhi should be referred to in all correspondence as "Mahatma Gandhi ". Another note reads, "An office order of the Congress government in the Central Provinces in 1938, instructing all (and especially British) officials, to henceforth refer to Gandhi as 'Mahatma'."
Rishi Bagree shared the image with the claim, "It is interesting to see the memorandum of the British government through which Mr Gandhi became Mahatma Gandhi officially."
Similar claims have been widely circulated across Facebook and Twitter.
Fact Check:
The Logical Indian Fact-Check team verified the viral claim and found it to be false.
At the bottom of the image, we noticed the text 'Secretary to Government and Central Provinces of Berar'. The text also reads, "An office order of the Congress government in the Central Provinces in 1938, instructing all (and especially British) officials'.
In 1935, the British Parliament passed the Government of India Act, which led the way for elections in areas with certain limitations. Indian National Congress secured a victory in the provincial elections that were first held in 1937 in five provinces, namely Madras Presidency, United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, Central Provinces and Berar, Bihar and Orissa.
As per the official website of the Indian National Congress, the first elections were held for the provincial legislatures, where Congress won an absolute majority in 5 out of 11 provinces and formed governments in 7 provinces. However, the Congress ministers tendered their resignations in September 1939 as a form of protest against the Governor-General's declaration, which marked India's participation in the Second World War.
Who Bestowed the Title of Mahatma on Gandhi?
In his book, historian Ramchandra Guha noted that the title of 'Mahatma' was bestowed upon Gandhi by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Guha states on Page 362 of his book, "The conventional wisdom has it that it was the poet Rabindranath Tagore who, around 1919, first began to call Gandhi 'Mahatma', after he had become a major figure in Indian politics."
However, Guha also presents an alternate claim from the representatives of the Gujarat town of Gondal, which "seems to have conferred the title on Gandhi when he visited it on his return from South Africa in 1915", says Guha.
Guha also adds that Pranjivan Mehta preceded them both. However, Mehta had made these remarks in a private letter rather than a public declaration.
As per a Times of India report published on February 16, 2016, the late poet and Tagore scholar Sankha Ghosh asserted that it was a wrong perception that Tagore bestowed the title of Mahatma.
The Times of India quotes Ghosh as saying, "Gandhiji was first addressed as 'Mahatma' at a reception at the Durban town hall in South Africa on July 12, 1914. The Indian Government has published this fact in a book, 'Mahatma Gandhi A Chronology'." However, Ghosh added that Tagore had popularised the title, the report adds.
An article published in The Print on October 2, 2021, notes that Mehta was probably the first person to use the word 'Mahatma' for Gandhi.
The Print article reads, "In a letter to Gopalkrishna Gokhale, dated 8 November 1909, Mehta wrote, "…from year to year (I have known him intimately for over twenty years) I have found him [Gandhi] getting…more and more selfless. He is now leading almost an ascetic sort of life—not the life of an ordinary ascetic that we usually see but that of a great Mahatma, and the one idea that engrosses his mind is his motherland."
The book cited is The Mahatma and The Doctor, S.R. Mehrotra, with the relevant passage on Page 28.
We also found a letter by Tagore dated 18 February 1915, addressed to his friend, CF Andrews, in which he says, "I hope that Mahatma and Mrs Gandhi have arrived in Bolpur, and Shantiniketan has accorded them a welcome as befits her and them."
Gujarat High Court: Tagore Gave the Title of 'Mahatma':
The Gujarat High Court heard a case between Sandhya Naranbhai Maru and Gujarat Panchayat in 2016. The Gujarat HC referred to several textbooks and noted that Tagore bestowed the title of Mahatma on Gandhi.
The petitioner, Maru, appeared for an examination for the post of 'Talati cum Muntri' in 2015, where one of the questions read, "Who was the first person to bestow the word Mahatma for Gandhiji."
Maru had allegedly selected Tagore as the correct answer, whereas the answer key suggested that an unknown journalist bestowed the title. The High Court bench held that Tagore bestowed the title of Mahatma to Gandhi in 1915 after Gandhi called him 'Gurudev'.
There is no evidence to indicate that the British Raj bestowed the title of Mahatma on Gandhi.
However, Gandhi did receive honours, such as the "Kaiser-I-Hind" gold medal in 1915 and the Zulu War medal in 1906 from the British. Gandhi did return these honours after the Khilafat movement. Mahatma Gandhi gave up the title of Kaiser-i-Hind following the Jalianwala Bagh massacre.
Conclusion:
We found that no evidence indicates that British Raj conferred the title of Mahatma on Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Hence, the viral claim is false.
If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.
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