25 Strangest Things about Gandhi

1.

In 1948, Gandhi's killer was immediately apprehended by an American diplomat, Herbert Reiner Jr. The diplomat had hoped to meet Gandhi for the first time when the murder occurred. -u/Gonetilnovemberish

2.

Mahatma Gandhi wrote two letters to Hitler, in which he asked him to stop the war cause it would have caused many victims. Neither of the letters he wrote was allowed to be sent by the colonial government. -u/tiba_004

3.

In 2003, MTV aired an adult cartoon called Clone High which features clones of historical figures in high school. It was canceled after one season because it caused mass protest in India and even hunger strikes over its portrayal of Gandhi as a party animal. -u/nickburrows8398

4.

Sid Meier's Civilization had an underflow glitch caused Gandhi to become a nuclear-obsessed warlord. -u/doitpow

5.

Gandhi slept naked along with his great-niece and several other young women to test his ability to abstain from sexual relations as part of a spiritual chastity experiment. -deleted user

6.

Gandhi formed an organization called the Indian Ambulance Corps, who acted as stretcher bearers during the Second Boer War in South Africa. -u/DylanVincent

7.

Gandhi, Winston Churchill, and future South African President Louis Botha were all present at the battle of Spionkop during the 2nd Anglo-Boer war. -deleted user

8.

Gandhi never said "Be the change you wish to see" what he said was much more eloquent: “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. ... We need not wait to see what others do.” -u/KnightSaber24

9.

Mahatama Gandhi modeled his Dandi march on the Boston Tea Party. He always quoted about the American struggle for independence in his speeches. He even flavored his tea with salt, while signing Gandhi Irwin Pact to commemorate the influence of Boston Tea Party in his satyagraha. -u/shivamohanmi

10.

Gandhi was married at age 13. -u/fur_pirate

11.

In India, you are systematically labeled by your caste class whatever you are, whatever you do. Mahatma Gandhi was struggling to abolish this caste system but it still exists today. -u/Big_Brain

12.

Gandhi's Assassin was executed despite Gandhi's strict opposition to the death penalty. -u/DozTacosPorFavor

13.

A variant of the following quote is commonly misattributed to Gandhi. "First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you." -Nicholas Klein -u/TurtleFood

14.

General who ordered the massacre of over 1000 peaceful men, women, and children as depicted in the movie Gandhi became a "celebrated hero" when he returned to Britain. -u/goodnewscrew

15.

Nathuram Godse, who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi, tried 3 times to kill him before succeeding. -u/Horehey34

16.

The Gandhi that we all know about, who employed nonviolent civil disobedience, was once a lawyer. -u/bluestreakxp

17.

Gandhi's non-violent resistance may have been inspired by a Maori Chief two generations earlier. -deleted user

18.

Gandhi was born Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, and "Mahatma" is an honorific meaning "high souled." -u/Ricashea3

19.

The seven sins according to Gandhi: "Wealth without work. Pleasure without conscience. Knowledge without character. Commerce without morality. Science without humanity. Religion without sacrifice. Politics without principle." -u/allocater

20.

The Nobel Committee declined to award the Nobel Peace Prize in 1948 because "there was no suitable living candidate." This was meant as a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi, who was assassinated earlier that year without receiving the Prize. -deleted user

21.

Both Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi tried to kill themselves during adolescence, and both suffered severe bouts of depression later in life. -u/l_hazlewoods

22.

Winston Churchill despised Gandhi and when he tried to hunger strike Churchill was in favor of letting him die. -u/soalone34

23.

Gandhi was met with incredulity when he chose a tax on salt as a focus in a campaign for India's independence, but his "Great Salt March" helped change world opinion. As the march ended, he raised a lump of salty mud and declared, "With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire." -u/design-responsibly

24.

Gandhi was obsessed with poop and enemas. He addressed his live-in maids every day with the sentence “Have you had a good bowel movement this morning, sisters?” -u/__Jay

25.

Gandhi had an arranged marriage when he was still prepubescent, at age 13. His wife was 14. “We didn’t know much about marriage,” he said later. “For is it meant only wearing new clothes and eating sweets.” He had his first son at 16. -u/NordyNed