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{{short description|Son of Mahatma Gandhi}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}}
{{Use Indian English|date=July 2017}}
{{redirect|Manilal|other people with this name|Manilal (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Manilal Gandhi
| image = ManilalGandhiImage.jpg
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1892|10|28|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Rajkot]], [[Rajkot State]], [[British Raj|British India]]
| death_date = 5 April 1956 (aged 63)
| death_place = [[Phoenix, KwaZulu-Natal|Phoenix]], [[Natal Province]], [[Union of South Africa|South Africa]]
| parents = [[Mahatma Gandhi]] <br>[[Kasturba Gandhi]]
| spouse = Sushila Mashruwala (1927–1956)
| children = {{flatlist|
*Sita
*[[Arun Manilal Gandhi|Arun]]
*[[Ela Gandhi|Ela]]
}}
}}
'''Manilal Mohandas Gandhi''' (28 October 1892 – 5 April 1956)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://lccn.loc.gov/n90712835|title=Library of Congress LCCN Permalink n90712835|website=lccn.loc.gov|language=en|access-date=2018-10-17}}</ref><ref>Dhupelia-Mesthrie: ''Gandhi’s Prisoner? The Life of Gandhi’s Son Manilal'', p. 384</ref> was the second son of [[Mahatma Gandhi]] and [[Kasturba Gandhi]].

==Biography==
Manilal was born in [[Rajkot]], [[British India]], the second of four sons of Mohandas Gandhi and Kasturba Gandhi. He had an older brother, [[Harilal Gandhi|Harilal]], and two younger brothers, [[Ramdas Gandhi|Ramdas]] and [[Devdas Gandhi|Devdas]].

Manilal's early years were spent in Rajkot, and it was in 1897 that he traveled to South Africa for the first time (his father having moved there several years previously). The family lived for a time in Durban and Johannesburg.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Dhupelia-Mesthrie|first=Uma|date=2007|title=Gandhi's South African Family|journal=India International Centre Quarterly|volume=34|issue=2|pages=34–45|jstor=23006303}}</ref> Between 1906 and 1914, he lived at the [[Inanda, KwaZulu-Natal|Phoenix Settlement]] (in KwaZulu-Natal) and [[Tolstoy Farm]] (in [[Gauteng]]), both settlements established by his father.<ref name=":0" />

After a brief visit to India (accompanying his parents), Manilal returned to South Africa in 1917 to assist in printing the ''[[Indian Opinion]]'', a [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]]-[[English language|English]] weekly publication, at Phoenix, [[Durban]]. By 1918, Manilal was doing most of the work for the press, and in 1920, he took over as editor. He remained editor of ''Indian Opinion'' until 1956, the year of his death.<ref>{{cite news|title=Manilal Gandhi Dead|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=P9oYG7HA76QC&dat=19560406&printsec=frontpage&hl=en|access-date=19 February 2018|agency=Press Trust of India|publisher=The Indian Express|date=6 April 1956|pages=1, 8}}</ref> Manilal died from a [[cerebral thrombosis]] following a [[stroke]].

Like his father, Manilal was also sent to prison several times by the [[British India|British colonial government]] after protesting against what he perceived as unjust laws. He was one of the initial 78 marchers to accompany Gandhi on the [[Salt March|1930 Salt March]], for which he was imprisoned.<ref name=":0" />

==Personal life==
In 1926, Manilal informed his father [[Mahatma Gandhi]] about Fatima Gool, with whom he had fallen in love in [[South Africa]]. Fatima was a Muslim of Gujrati descent. But Gandhi conveyed his disagreement because of the different religions of the two and wrote:<blockquote>''If you stick to Hinduism and Fatima follows Islam it will be like putting two swords in one sheath; or you both may lose your faith. And then what should be your children's faith? ... It is not dharma, only adharma if Fatima agrees to conversion just for marrying you. Faith is not a thing like a garment which can be changed to suit our convenience.''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Guha |first=Ramchandra |title=Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World |publisher=Penguin Allen Lane |year=2018 |isbn=978-0670083886 |pages=240}}</ref></blockquote>In 1927, Manilal married Sushila (24 August 1907 – 1988), a woman from his own community and similar background, in a match arranged by their families in the usual Indian way.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gandhiforchildren.org/remembering-sushila-gandhi/|title=Remembering Sushila Gandhi 1907-1988|last1=Prasad|first1=Archana|date=21 August 2013|publisher=gandhiforchildren.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160519175828/http://www.gandhiforchildren.org/remembering-sushila-gandhi/|archive-date=19 May 2016|access-date=19 February 2018}}</ref> Sushila was the daughter of Nanabhai Mashruwala of [[Akola]], [[Bombay State]], and the niece of Kishorlal Mashruwala, a close associate of Gandhi and a resident of [[Sevagram]] ashram. It was Mahatma Gandhi who sought her hand for his second son; the match was arranged, and after the wedding, Sushila duly joined her husband in South Africa. They had three children:
*Sita Dhupelia (b. 1928), elder daughter
*[[Arun Manilal Gandhi]] (1934–2023), son
*[[Ela Gandhi|Ela Gandhi Ramgobin]] (b. 1940), younger daughter

==Legacy==
Manilal's children Arun and Ela were also social-political activists. Uma D. Mesthrie, Sita's daughter, published a biography on Manilal.<ref>Uma Dhupelia Mesthrie, ''Gandhi’s Prisoner? The Life of Gandhi’s Son Manilal''. (Permanent Black: Cape Town, South Africa, 2003).</ref>

==Notes==
* Mesthrie, Uma Dhupelia. ''Gandhi's Prisoner? The Life of Gandhi's Son Manilal''. Permanent Black: Cape Town, South Africa, 2003.
* [https://archive.today/20121225043228/http://www.history.ukzn.ac.za/ojs/index.php/jnzh/article/viewArticle/300 Dhupelia-Mesthrie, Uma, "Writing the Life of Manilal Mohandas Gandhi," ''Journal of Natal and Zulu History'' 24 & 25 (2006-2007): 188-213.]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Refbegin}}
*[https://archive.today/20120728122533/http://www.cofchrist.org/peaceaward/archive/gandhi-intvw2002.asp Interview of Ela Gandhi]
* The [http://africanactivist.msu.edu/ African Activist Archive Project] website has an [https://africanactivist.msu.edu/audio.php?objectid=5 Interview with Manilal Gandhi] conducted in South Africa in September 1954 by George M. Houser. At the time he was editor of newspaper Indian Opinion and ran the [[Phoenix Settlement]], both established by his father. There is also a 1947 photograph of [https://africanactivist.msu.edu/image.php?objectid=467 Manilal Gandhi at the Community Church of New York], a September 1954 photograph of [https://africanactivist.msu.edu/image.php?objectid=394 Mr. and Mrs. Manilal Gandhi at Phoenix Settlement] and a 1954 photograph of [https://africanactivist.msu.edu/image.php?objectid=455 Chief Albert Luthuli and Manilal Gandhi.] Four issues of the newsletter Bulletin: Americans for South African Resistance has information about him: [https://africanactivist.msu.edu/document_metadata.php?objectid=1784 September 1952 issue], the [https://africanactivist.msu.edu/document_metadata.php?objectid=1775 14 January 1953 issue], the [https://africanactivist.msu.edu/document_metadata.php?objectid=1777 27 February 1953 issue], and the [https://africanactivist.msu.edu/document_metadata.php?objectid=1781 1 March 1954 issue.]
{{Refend}}

{{Gandhi}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gandhi, Manilal}}
[[Category:1892 births]]
[[Category:1956 deaths]]
[[Category:Family of Mahatma Gandhi|Manilal]]
[[Category:Gandhians]]
[[Category:Anti-apartheid activists]]
[[Category:People from Rajkot]]
[[Category:Deaths from cerebral thrombosis]]
[[Category:Prisoners and detainees of British India]]
[[Category:South African Indian Congress politicians]]
[[Category:South African people of Indian descent]]
[[Category:South African people of Gujarati descent]]
[[Category:Colony of Natal people]]
[[Category:South African editors]]
[[Category:People from Durban]]

Manilal Gandhi - Revision history

ZFMOtis800669 at 03:49, 22 November 2025