The Untold Journey of Hiralal Gandhi: A Critical Review

 

The Untold Journey of Hiralal Gandhi: A Critical Review.

                                                                                                ©Dr.K.Rahul, 9096242452

Abstract:

This working paper presents a detailed biographical and critical examination of Hiralal Gandhi (1888–1948), the eldest son of Mahatma Gandhi. Unlike his illustrious father, Hiralal led a tumultuous life, often marked by rebellion, estrangement, and personal struggles. This study delves into his life events chronologically and thematically, exploring his education, family relationships, perspective on India’s independence, connections with key figures like Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, his married life, and eventual death. The paper ends with a critical review of his legacy, juxtaposing the expectations placed upon him as the son of a national icon against his complex human struggles.

Birth and Early Childhood

Hiralal Gandhi was born in 1888 in Rajkot, in the princely state of Kathiawar, Gujarat. He was the eldest of the four sons of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Kasturba Gandhi. His early life was spent in South Africa and India, moving with the family during Mahatma Gandhi’s legal and political career. As the first child of a future Mahatma, Hiralal was initially exposed to a disciplined, morally upright, and reform-oriented household. 

Education and Intellectual Development

Hiralal’s formal education was inconsistent. He studied in South Africa for a while but soon dropped out, dissatisfied with the rigid structure of schooling and influenced by a desire to chart his own course. He reportedly demanded to go to England to study law, like his father, but Gandhi refused due to his immature behavior and lack of discipline.

This refusal became a turning point. Hiralal felt betrayed and began distancing himself from his father’s expectations. He eventually ran away from home and lived in Calcutta and Bombay, working odd jobs. His educational trajectory remained incomplete, and unlike his siblings, he never achieved academic or professional stability.

Relationship with Parents and Siblings

The father-son relationship between Mahatma Gandhi and Hiralal Gandhi was deeply strained. Hiralal openly rebelled against his father's authority, lifestyle, and moral standards. In contrast to Mahatma Gandhi’s celibate and ascetic lifestyle, Hiralal indulged in alcohol, non-vegetarian food, and a wayward social life.

Their ideological clash extended beyond the personal to the spiritual and political. While Gandhi was building his life around truth (Satya) and non-violence (Ahimsa), Hiralal became the symbol of contradiction within the Gandhi family. Mahatma Gandhi wrote about Hiralal's waywardness in his autobiography and letters, often expressing sorrow rather than anger.

Mahatma Gandhi on Hiralal:

Mahatma Gandhi began writing his autobiography in 1921, serializing it in Navjivan weekly. While the book focuses on Gandhi’s spiritual and moral development, he touches upon family matters with discretion, particularly Harilal's rebellion.

Gandhi’s tone in the autobiography is not accusatory but filled with regret and detachment. He acknowledges Harilal’s demands to go to England for higher studies, just as Gandhi had done decades earlier. However, he refused Harilal’s wish. His reasoning was not financial but moral: “I could not bear to send him to a place where he might be exposed to temptations and distractions that might prove too much for his young and unformed mind.” (Autobiography, Part V, Chapter 7)

This decision proved pivotal. Gandhi was already on the path of asceticism and public service, and he expected his son to follow suit. But Harilal, already frustrated with what he perceived as denial of opportunity, began a cycle of rebellion.

In a later passage, Gandhi remarks: “Harilal’s ways were not to my liking. He had fallen into bad company, and he tried to deceive me in many ways... I have no doubt that he did so because he could not reconcile himself to my ideal of a simple life.” (Autobiography, Part V, Chapter 8)

Here, Gandhi tries to understand his son’s perspective but also subtly asserts the superiority of his ideals over Harilal’s choices. He admits to a failure to understand Harilal's emotional needs, even while justifying his decisions as morally right.

Gandhi’s Letters to Harilal: A Father’s Painful Plea"

While the autobiography offers a restrained and philosophical account, Gandhi’s letters to Harilal are emotionally raw and deeply revealing. Several of these letters, published in collections like The Mahatma and the Poet, Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (CWMG), and later compiled in Gujarati and English publications, highlight the pain of a father who sees his son spiral into alcoholism, financial ruin, and emotional estrangement.

One particularly poignant letter dated 5^th June 1915, reads: “You are my son. I love you deeply. But that love is not blind. You are on a path of destruction, and I can’t walk that road with you. My silence does not mean approval. It is sorrow.” (Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 13, p. 152)

In this, Gandhi balances compassion with correction. He does not sever the relationship but sets a moral boundary.

In a later letter, Gandhi warns Harilal: “You have written to me in anger. I forgive you. But I must tell you, if you think I will ever support your indulgences, then you do not know me. I can’t help you ruin yourself.” (CWMG, Vol. 47)

These letters also reveal Harilal’s resentment, often expressed through letters accusing Gandhi of neglecting his duties as a father in favor of the nation. Harilal reportedly accused Gandhi of sacrificing his family at the altar of his public image; a charge that Gandhi never explicitly denies, but always tries to justify through his moral compass.

In a 1924 letter, Gandhi writes: “My dear Harilal, I would be failing in my duty as a father if I pretended not to see your fall. You have taken to drink, falsehood, and a life unworthy of any man; let alone a Gandhi. I pray for you every day.”(CWMG, Vol. 27, p. 332)

The pain in these words is undeniable. Gandhi sees Harilal not just as a son but also as a symbol of moral failure. This dual burden — that of a father and a public figure;  permeates these writings.

Gandhi on Harilal’s Conversion to Islam

One of the most heartbreaking moments in Gandhi’s personal life was Harilal’s conversion to Islam in May 1936, when he adopted the name Abdullah Gandhi. The news created a public sensation and was exploited by communal elements.

Gandhi responded not with rage, but with deep sorrow and introspection. In a letter to a friend, he wrote: “If Harilal’s conversion is genuine, then I must bow before his right to change his faith. But if it is out of rebellion or to shame me, then it is an act of great tragedy, not religion.” (CWMG, Vol. 62)

He made no public condemnation of Islam, staying true to his ideals of religious pluralism, but privately, he was shaken. He saw the conversion as another step in Harilal’s journey away from the values of self-restraint, truth, and moral discipline.

Eventually, Harilal reconverted to Hinduism under the Arya Samaj, but the relationship with his father never fully healed.

Gandhi’s Final Remarks about Harilal

In Gandhi’s final writings, including his last will and conversations with ashram members, he hardly mentions Harilal. The silence is itself a testament to the emotional chasm that had grown between father and son.

However, one note survives, written shortly before Gandhi's death in January 1948: “My heart grieves for Harilal. But I can do no more. A father can show the path, not walk it for his son.” (CWMG, Vol. 89)

After Gandhi’s assassination in 1948, Harilal did not attend the cremation. Reports say he was found drunk and wandering the streets of Bombay. He died just a few months later, alone and impoverished.

However, Hiralal’s relationship with his mother Kasturba remained more affectionate. But her inability to resolve the father-son conflict added to the family’s emotional burden.

With his siblings Manilal, Ramdas, and Devdas; Hiralal shared an increasingly distant relationship, as they followed Gandhi’s path of disciplined activism while he continued to rebel.

Views on India’s Freedom Movement

Hiralal Gandhi did not share his father's enthusiasm for the non-violent independence movement. His engagement with India’s freedom struggle was ambiguous and inconsistent. At times, he attempted to join nationalist circles, and at other times, he appeared disconnected from the cause.

In the 1930s, he made headlines by converting to Islam and adopting the name Abdullah Gandhi, an act that further estranged him from the family and the nationalist community. While Hiralal stated this conversion was genuine, many, including Mahatma Gandhi, viewed it as a reactionary move against his father. After some years, Hiralal reportedly reconverted to Hinduism, but the damage to his public image remained.

Married Life and Children

Hiralal Gandhi was married to Gulab Gandhi, and the couple had children, including Kantilal Gandhi. However, the marriage was marred by financial difficulties, alcoholism, and Hiralal’s irresponsible behavior.

Gulab Gandhi passed away relatively early, and her death was a turning point for Hiralal, who reportedly tried to reform himself afterward. Still, his relationships with his children were reportedly strained, and they did not play a major public role in Indian society. Hiralal’s lifestyle and reputation prevented him from establishing a stable family environment.

Final Years and Death

Hiralal Gandhi spent his later years in poverty and obscurity, living in Bombay (now Mumbai). He was seen as a tragic figure—an alcoholic, often homeless, and suffering from illness. He died in June 1948, only a few months after his father’s assassination in January 1948.

He died in the Sewri Hospital in Bombay, reportedly of tuberculosis and complications arising from his long-term alcoholism. At the time of his death, he was alone, largely forgotten by the public, although some Gandhians and social workers ensured he received a proper cremation.

Critical Review of Hiralal Gandhi’s Life

The story of Hiralal Gandhi is one of lost potential, familial tragedy, and psychological rebellion. While judged by the moral yardstick of his father, Hiralal appears a failure; yet when considered independently, he emerges as a tragic anti-hero, a man crushed under the burden of his father’s greatness.

Several scholars and writers have attempted to redeem Hiralal’s image by portraying him as a victim of unrealistic expectations. The 2014 Gujarati play and biographical film titled "Gandhi vs. Gandhi" and "Gandhi My Father" (2007) by Feroz Abbas Khan bring forward Hiralal’s inner struggles and emotional disconnect with his father. These works argue that the Mahatma’s personal decisions—especially celibacy, moral rigidity, and public detachment—left scars on his family life, and Hiralal bore the worst of it.

His journey is also reflective of a psychological cost paid by families of public figures. Gandhi’s national family—India—received all his attention, but his biological family often suffered emotional neglect. Hiralal’s life serves as a powerful counter-narrative to the Gandhian mythos, forcing historians to confront the human flaws behind national legends.

Conclusion

Hiralal Gandhi's life was riddled with contradictions, rebellion, and sorrow. He failed to rise to the public expectations that came with being Gandhi’s son, but his story provides critical insights into the burden of legacy, parent-child dynamics, and the human cost of idealism. In the end, he was neither a villain nor a hero, but a complex figure caught between tradition and modernity, between personal identity and inherited legacy.

Gandhi’s writings on Harilal reveal a tragic irony: the father who became a “Mahatma” to millions could not save his own son from moral decline. The letters are full of forgiveness, appeals, and warnings, but also of detachment, as Gandhi ultimately chose principles over paternal indulgence.

While Gandhi often believed that truth and love would eventually redeem all, Harilal’s story challenges that faith. His writings leave us with uncomfortable questions about parental responsibility, emotional deprivation, and the cost of greatness.

Mahatma Gandhi’s reflections on Harilal remain one of the most humanizing and heartbreaking aspects of his legacy, showing that even a Mahatma could not shield his family from the trials of human fallibility.

References:

1.      Gandhi, M. K. (1927). An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth. Navajivan Publishing.

2.      Fischer, Louis. (1950). The Life of Mahatma Gandhi. Harper.

3.      Khan, Feroz Abbas. (2007). Gandhi, My Father [Film]. Anil Kapoor Films Company.

4.      Trivedi, Harish. (2009). “The Tragedy of Hiralal Gandhi.” Economic and Political Weekly.

5.      Mehta, Uday. (1999). Gandhi and the Politics of the Soul. University of Chicago Press.

6.      Gandhi, M.K. (1927). The Story of My Experiments with Truth. Translated by Mahadev Desai. Navajivan Publishing House.

7.      Tushar Gandhi. (2007). Let's Kill Gandhi!. Rupa Publications.

8.      Parekh, Bhikhu. (2001). Gandhi: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.