Manilal Mohandas Gandhi (28 October 1892 – 5 April 1956) was the second son of

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

and

Kasturba Gandhi Kasturba Mohandas Gandhi (, born Kasturba Gokuldas Kapadia; 11 April 1869 – 22 February 1944) was an Indian political activist who was involved in the Indian independence movement during British Raj, British India. She was married to Mohandas ...

Biography

Manilal was born in

Rajkot Rajkot () is the fourth-largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

, the second of four sons of Mohandas Gandhi and Kasturba Gandhi. He had an older brother, Harilal, and two younger brothers, Ramdas and

Devdas ''Devdas'' (, transliterated as ''Dēbôdās'') is a Bengali romance novel written by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. The story pivots a tragic triangle linking Devdas, an archetypal lover in viraha (separation); Paro, his forbidden childhood love ...

. Manilal's early years were spent in Rajkot, and it was in 1897 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. Between 1906 and 1914, he lived at the

Phoenix Settlement Inanda or eNanda (isiZulu: ''pleasant place'', also possibly, ''level-topped hill'') is a township in Durban KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa that is situated 21 km north-west of Durban. It forms part of eThekwini, the Greater Durban Metropolitan ...

(in KwaZulu-Natal) and

Tolstoy Farm Tolstoy Farm was an ashram initiated and organised by Mohandas Gandhi during his South African movement. At its creation in 1910 the ashram served as the headquarters of the campaign of satyagraha against discrimination against Indians in Trans ...

(in

Gauteng Gauteng ( , ; Sotho-Tswana languages, Sotho-Tswana for 'place of gold'; or ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts f ...

), both settlements established by his father. After a brief visit to India (accompanying his parents), Manilal returned to South Africa in 1917 to assist in printing the ''

Indian Opinion The ''Indian Opinion'' was a newspaper established by Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi. The publication was an important tool for the political movement led by Gandhi and the Natal Indian Congress to fight racial discrimination and ag ...

'', a

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

weekly publication, at Phoenix,

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

. 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. Manilal died from a

cerebral thrombosis A thrombus ( thrombi) is a solid or semisolid aggregate from constituents of the blood (platelets, fibrin, red blood cells, white blood cells) within the circulatory system during life. A blood clot is the final product of the blood coagulatio ...

following a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

. Like his father, Manilal was also sent to prison several times by the 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 1930 Salt March, for which he was imprisoned.

Personal life

In 1926, Manilal informed his father

about Fatima Gool, with whom he had fallen in love in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. Fatima was a Muslim of Gujrati descent. But Gandhi conveyed his disagreement and wrote:

''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.''

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. Sushila was the daughter of Nanabhai Mashruwala of

Akola Akola () is a major city in the Vidarbha region of the Indian state of Maharashtra. The third largest city in Eastern Maharashtra after Nagpur and Amravati, it is located about east of the state capital, Mumbai, and west of the second ca ...

Bombay State Bombay State was a large Indian state created in 1950 from the erstwhile Bombay Province, with other regions being added to it in the succeeding years. Bombay Province (in British India roughly equating to the present-day Indian state of Mah ...

, and the niece of Kishorlal Mashruwala, a close associate of Gandhiji and a resident of

Sevagram Sevagram (meaning "A town for/of service") is a town in the state of Maharashtra, India. It was the place of Mahatma Gandhi's ashram and his residence from 1936 to his death in 1948. After Sabarmati, Sevagram Ashram holds immense importance d ...

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 Arun Manilal Gandhi (14 April 1934 – 2 May 2023) was a South African-American author, socio-political activist and son of Manilal Gandhi, thus a grandson of nationalist leader Mahatma Gandhi. In 2017, he published ''The Gift of Anger: And O ...

(1934–2023), son * 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, recently published a biography on Manilal.Uma Dhupelia Mesthrie, ''Gandhi’s Prisoner? The Life of Gandhi’s Son Manilal''. (Permanent Black: Cape Town, South Africa, 2003).

Notes

* Mesthrie, Uma Dhupelia. ''Gandhi's Prisoner? The Life of Gandhi's Son Manilal''. Permanent Black: Cape Town, South Africa, 2003.
Dhupelia-Mesthrie, Uma, "Writing the Life of Manilal Mohandas Gandhi," ''Journal of Natal and Zulu History'' 24 & 25 (2006-2007): 188-213.

References

External links

Interview of Ela Gandhi
* Th
African Activist Archive Project
website has a
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

, both established by his father. There is also a 1947 photograph o
Manilal Gandhi at the Community Church of New York
a September 1954 photograph o
Mr. and Mrs. Manilal Gandhi at Phoenix Settlement
and a 1954 photograph o
Chief Albert Luthuli and Manilal Gandhi.
Four issues of the newsletter Bulletin: Americans for South African Resistance has information about him
September 1952 issue
th
14 January 1953 issue
th
27 February 1953 issue
and th
1 March 1954 issue.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gandhi, Manilal 1892 births 1956 deaths Manilal Gandhians Anti-apartheid activists People from Rajkot Deaths from cerebral thrombosis Prisoners and detainees of British India South African Indian Congress politicians South African people of Indian descent South African people of Gujarati descent Colony of Natal people South African editors People from Durban