Harilal Gandhi

Harilal Gandhi

Harilal Mohandas Gandhi ( Hindi : हरीलाल गांधी , Harīlāl Gāndhī ; * between March and June 1888 in Rajkot , India ; † June 18, 1948 in Bombay ) was the eldest son of Mohandas Gandhi . His relationship with his father was disturbed by the fact that he had withdrawn from Hinduism and culminated in the fact that his father withdrew his inheritance and he ended up on the street.

Life

Harilal Gandhi converted to Islam in 1930 and took the name Abdullah Gandhi . This act hurt his Hindu father very much, who was convinced that his son had converted to Islam not for faith but for material reasons. Harilal Gandhi later appeared at Muslim meetings at which Hindus were to be proselytized. At one of these meetings, someone insulted his father. Harilal Gandhi became so angry that he wounded the speaker in anger. He was so disappointed that he converted back to Hinduism.

As was common in India at the time, Harilal Gandhi was married at an early age. After his wife's death in 1918, Gandhi wanted to marry a second time, which was unusual. The already tense relationship between father and son suffered even more in the years that followed.

Eventually, his father withdrew his inheritance. He became a homeless alcoholic and died of tuberculosis in June 1948, a few months after his father's death.

Web links

• About Harilal Gandhi

literature

• The book Mahatma against Gandhi by the Indian author Dinkar Joshi describes the life of Harilal Gandhi and his difficult relationship with his father in the form of a novel. It was published in German in 2009 by LangenMüller Verlag. The original English edition was published by Jaico Publishing House, Bombay in 2007 under the title Mahatma Vs Gandhi . There is also a play and a film version of it ( Gandhi My Father ).
• Chandulal Bhagubhai Dalal: Harilal Gandhi: A Life , 2007, ISBN 8125030492
• Arthur Koestler : It was over with Harilal . In: Der Spiegel 33/1961 of August 9, 1961, p. 49

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gandhi - Boyhood (p. 21)