22 Unknown History Facts About Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, writer, and social activist. He is known as the father of the nation who devoted his life to achieving independence for India. For this, he led numerous movements, like the non-cooperation movement, the Khilafat movement, and the civil disobedience movement. Gandhi was the Mahatma, which loosely translates into Great Soul, in the eyes of thousands of people. Let’s learn some interesting facts about Mahatma Gandhi. 

Facts About Mahatma Gandhi

1. Mahatma Gandhi is known as the Father of the Nation. 

2. He was born on 2 October 1869 in Porbandar, Gujarat.

3. Mahatma Gandhi shares his birthday with Lal Bahadur Shastri, who was born in 1904.

4. He pursued law for one year at the University of Bombay.

5. He attended University College London and completed his graduation in 1891. 

6. The United Nations declared 2nd October the International Day of Non-violence to commemorate his birth anniversary.

7. Gandhi was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five times but never received the award. 

8. In 1930, Time Magazine named Mahatma Gandhi Person of the Year. 

9. Before taking a vow of celibacy, Mahatma Gandhi had four sons. 

10. Mahatma Gandhi’s mother tongue was Gujarati. 

11. Gandhi did his schooling at Alfred High School, Rajkot. 

12. He was the youngest child and had 2 brothers and 1 sister. 

13. Gandhi married Kasturba Gandhi at the young age of 13.   

14. Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated in the garden of the former Birla House. 

15. Gandhi Memorial or Gandhi Museum was established in the city of Madurai, Tamil Nadu. It contains blood-stained garments that Gandhi was wearing when he was assassinated by Nathuram Godse.

16. India observes 30 January and 23 March as Martyr’s Day or Shaheed Diwas. 

17. Rabindranath Tagore gave Gandhi the title of Mahatma. 

18. He set up Tolstoy Farm at a distance of 21 miles from Johannesburg, South Africa for his colleagues in the Satyagraha struggle. 

19. He started the Dandi Salt March in 1930 and the Quit India Movement in 1942. 

20. The Reserve Bank of India issued The Gandhi series banknotes which included a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi on 10 and 500 rupee banknotes. 

21. He penned numerous influential books, like The Story of My Experiment with Truth, Hind Swaraj, Gokhale: My Political Guru, and Satyagraha in South Africa. 

22. It is said that Mahatma Gandhi’s funeral procession was about 8 kilometres long.

Hope you had fun reading these interesting facts about Mahatma Gandhi. If you like reading about facts, you can visit our interesting facts page to read more such blogs.