Top 100 GK questions on Mahatma Gandhi

Top 100 GK (General Knowledge) questions on Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation, and one of the most revered leaders not just in India, but the world over.

Lets see how much you know about Bapu.

Q) Gandhi ji’s full name?
Answer: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Q) Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on which date?
Answer: 1869, and can you guess the day? (Oct 2, which is celebrated as Gandhi Jayanti in India)

Q) Where was Gandhiji born?
Answer: Porbandar (Gujarat)
Porbandar is also the birthplace of Sudama.

Q) Gandhi’s Mother’s name?
Answer: Putlibai
If you have seen Lage Raho Munna Bhai, you will know this answer

Q) Gandhi’s Father’s name?
Answer: Karamchand

Q) How many children did Putlibai have?
Answer: One daughter and three sons

Q) What was the name of Gandhiji’s sister?
Answer: Raliat

Q) What was the profession of Gandhiji’s father?
Answer: Diwan

Karamchand Gandhi, also known as Kaba Gandhi, was a political figure in Porbandar. He served as Diwan of Porbandar, Rajkot, and Wankaner.

Q) What was the name of Gandhi’s domestic help?
Answer: Rambha dai

Q) What was Gandhiji’s nickname in childhood?
Answer: Manu or Moniya

Q) Who inspired Gandhi with ‘Ram Nam’ in his childhood?
Answer: Rambha Dai

Q) Where did Gandhiji receive his primary education?
Answer: Rajkot

Gandhi received his primary education in Porbandar and Rajkot (till twelfth year).

Gandhi was good in English, okay in arithmetic, weak in geography, and had bad handwriting. But he was an obedient and sincere student as reported here.

Q) Which spelling did Gandhiji spell wrong as a child when the school inspector gave dictation to the class?
Answer: Kettle

Q) How old was Gandhi when he got married to Kasturbai?
Answer: 13 years
14-year old Kasturba Kapadia married 13-year old Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in a traditional marriage.

It was an arranged marriage, and Gandhi had been engaged to Kasturba since he was seven.

Q) Who was Gandhiji’s youngest child
Answer: Devdas

Q) Who was Gandhiji’s eldest child
Answer: Harilal

Q) Who asked Gandhiji to eat meat in order to become strong?
Answer: Sheikh Mehtab

Gandhi was born into a Vaishnav family who did not eat non-vegetarian (meat and eggs). He did eat meat as a child after his friend Sheikh Mehtab convinced him that he needs to eat meat in order to become strong. Gandhi even tried smoking in his company. But soon, his guilt made him give up meat and smoking completely.

Q) Gandhiji confessed in a letter that he stole money for smoking, asked for adequate punishment, and and promised never to steal again in future. To whom was this letter addressed?
Answer: Father
His father tore the paper and didn’t utter a word, neither did he punish Gandhi

Q) How old was Gandhiji when his father died?
Answer: 16 years

Q) How old was Gandhi when he went to London to become a barrister?
Answer: 19 years

Q) In which year did Gandhiji pass his matriculation in England?
Answer: 1890

Q) What were the vows taken up by Gandhiji before he left for England?
Answer: Not to take alcohol, Not to eat meat, Not to eye other women

In London, Gandhi took lessons in dancing and music for a short time because he thought they were necessary to be considered a gentleman. He reads books on simple living and religious literature and is deeply impressed by the Gita.

Q) Which institution did Gandhi join as a member during his stay in England?
Answer: Vegetarian Society

Q) Which book influenced Gandhi greatly, which he read in England?
Answer: Plea for Vegetarianism

Q) To become a barrister in England, one had to join one of the Inns of Court. After obtaining admission, Gandhiji joined the Inner Temple on which date?
Answer: November 6, 1888

Q) To represent which company’s case did Gandhi go to Durban’ South Africa in 1893?
Answer: Dada’ Abdulla & Co.

After coming back from England, Gandhi struggled for over a year to get a case; he struggled with the legal practice in Rajkot and Bombay. Later, he left for South Africa, being after engaged by a Muslim firm for legal work.

Q) Which province in South African had the most number of India emigrants, when Gandhi arrived in South Africa?
Answer: Natal

Q) While holding a first-class ticket on his journey to Pretoria, Gandhi was ordered by a railway official to shift to the van compartment. On his refusal to comply, a constable pushed Gandhi out of the train with bag and baggage. Name the railway station where this incident took place.
Answer: Maritzburg (Pietermaritzburg) in South Africa

Q) After winning the law suit he was representing in South Africa’ Gandhi decided to return to India. But some one placed a copy of a journal in his luggage at his farewell party. Reading it’ Gandhi dropped the idea and stayed back to work for the Indian community in South Africa. Name the journal.
Answer: Natal Mercury

Q) On Gandhi’s suggestion’ which organization was formed in 1894 by the Indian community in South Africa?
Answer: Natal Indian Congress

Q) Who in South Africa gave Gandhi ‘Unto This Last’ to read which proved to be one of the most decisive books of his life?
Answer: H S L Polak (Henry Polak)
During a long train journey in South Africa, Gandhi was given the book ‘Unto This Last’ (written by John Ruskin) by one of his friends, which had a tremendous impact on his life

Q) To put the ideas of ‘Unto This Last’ into practice, Gandhiji founded the Phoenix Settlement near Durban. In which year was this?
Answer: 1904
Inspired by the teachings in the book, a young Gandhi established the Phoenix settlement near Durban and started publishing his newspaper “Indian Opinion” from there.

Q) Name of the community started by Gandhi in Transvaal, South Africa, in 1910, which later became the headquarters of their Satyagraha (non-violence) campaign
Answer: Tolstoy Farm.

This campaign was a reaction to the discrimination against Indians in Transvaal (now Gauteng Province). Gandhi and his friend Hermann Kallenbach (a white farmer) had deep admiration for Leo Tolstoy’s writings who advocated non-violence as an appropriate response to aggression and suggested the need for equitable treatment of the poor and working class.

In 1910′ Hermann Kallenbach donated his farm near Johannesburg to Gandhi where he established an ‘ashram’ named Tolstoy Farm.

Q) Who advised Gandhi to be on a ‘probation’ period of one year and travel throughout India before leading India’s political movement?
Answer: Gopal Krishna Gokhle

Q) Who gave the title “Mahatma” to Gandhi and referred to him as “Maharaj”?
Answer: Rabindranath Tagore

Indian Poet and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore use to refer to Gandhi as the Mahatma (Great Soul) in his letters addressed to Gandhi.

Q) In 1915′ Gandhi was awarded a medal which he returned to the Government in 1920 as a gesture of non cooperation towards the British Government. Name the medal.
Answer: Kaiser-i-Hind

Q) In May 1916′ Gandhi was invited to speak at laying of the foundation stone of which university?
Answer: Banaras Hindu University

Q) At which place was Gandhiji arrested for the first time by the British Government for sedition?
Answer: Ahmedabad

Q) On which date Gandhiji started with a band of chosen volunteers on his famous Dandi March to break the law by manufacturing illegally, but openly, salt from the sea?
Answer: March 12, 1930

Q) When was the Gandhi – Irwin Pact signed?
Answer: March 5, 1931

Q) Subhash Chandra Bose was elected President of the Congress in 1938 with Gandhiji’s goodwill. He wanted a second term, but Gandhiji did not approve of it. Despite the disapproval, Bose fought the election and won it, defeating the official candidate by over 200 votes. Gandhiji took it as a personal defeat. Identify the candidate.
Answer: Pattabhi Sitaramayya

Q) On being arrested for his “Quit India” programme, where was Gandhiji detained?
Answer: Agakhan Palace Jail

Q) The book “Unto This Last” greatly captivated and transformed Gandhiji. So much so that he translated it into Gujarati. Who was its author?
Answer: John Ruskin

Q) Which of the following, according to Gandhiji, is an essential principle of satyagraha?
Answer: Infinite capacity for suffering, Non-violence, Truth

Q) Gandhiji’s autobiography “The Story of My Experiments with Truth” was originally written in Gujarati.
Answer: Mahadev Desai

Q) Which one of the following books is the work of Gandhiji?
Answer: Hind Swaraj and My Experiments with Truth

Q) Identify the year in which Birla House, New Delhi, where Gandhiji very often used to stay and where he was shot dead, was turned into a government-run Gandhi museum.
Answer: 1971

Q) In February 1933 Gandhiji started the publication of a weekly paper, Harijan, to promote the anti-untouchability campaign. Its first issue, published on February 11, 1933 was released in which city?
Answer: Poona

Q) What did Gandhiji mean by ‘Swaraj’?
Answer: freedom for the meanest of the countrymen

Q) When did Gandhiji take the vow of brahmacharya or celibacy of life?
Answer: 1906

Q) When did Gandhiji get his head shaved, discard his clothes and settle for a loin cloth?
Answer: 1921

Q) Which mythological character impressed Gandhiji for life when he saw a play on his life?
Answer: Harishchandra

Q) Which of the following did Gandhiji describes as his two lungs?
Answer: Ahimsa and Truth

Q) Who worked as a Private Secretary to Mahatma Gandhi?
Answer: Mahadev Desai

Q) “Like the historic march of Ramchandra to Lanka, the march of Gandhi will be memorable”. Name the leader Who described Gandhi’s march to Dandi in these words?
Answer: Motilal Nehru

Q) The historic August session of the All-India Congress Committee, at which the Quit India Resolution was passed, was held at Gowali Park. where is this place located?
Answer: Bombay

Q) Subhas Chandra Bose’s differences with Gandhiji led to Subhas resigning the Presidentship of the India National Congress in 1939. He left Congress and formed a new party. What was the name of the party?
Answer: Forward Bloc

Q) “Mr Gandhi’s religious and moral views are, I believe, admirable, but I confess that I find it difficult to understand the practice of them in politics,” Name the Viceroy who wrote these words after his first meeting with Gandhi.
Answer: Lord Reading

Q) Lord Mountbatten arrived in India on 22nd March 1947 as the new Viceroy in the place of Lord Wavell to finalise the process of the transfer of power. His first act was to invite Gandhiji to meet him in that connection. When did Gandhiji meet him for the first time?
Answer: March 31, 1947

Q) When on August 15, 1947 the transfer of power took place, the Congress President issued a message to the nation and saluted Mahatma Gandhi as “the maker of freedom achieved in a unique way.” He said “never before was so great an event consummated with such little bloodshed and violence.” Who was the Congress President?
Answer: J B Kripalani

Q) Gandhiji accorded very high priority to communal harmony in his programme of actions. In which city did he undertake his last fast for communal harmony?
Answer: Delhi (on January 13, 1948)

Q) After India achieved independence, towards the end of January 1948, Gandhiji sketched a draft constitution for an ‘association’ of servants of the people in which he wanted the Indian National Con­gress to dissolve itself, as he felt Congress had outlived its usefulness. What was the name of the association?
Answer: Lok Sevak Sangh

Q) Gandhiji, the votary of nonviolence was shot dead on January 30, 1948 at Birla House, New Delhi, shortly after 5 p.m. while going to the prayer meeting. Which was that fateful day of the week?
Answer: Friday

Q) Identify the leader who las met Gandhiji for about an hour and left him just few minutes before he was shot dead on January 30, 1948 while on his way to the prayer meeting.
Answer: Vallabhbhai Patel

Q) How old was Gandhi when he was shot dead by Nathu Ram Godse on January 30′ 1948?
Answer: 78 years

Read: Mahatma Gandhi — Useful Study Resources / Web Resources