Rajmohan Gandhi

Rajmohan Gandhi was born 7 August 1935 in New Delhi, to Devdas and Lakshmi Gandhi. His father was the managing editor of the Hindustan Times. Rajmohan Gandhi attended St. Stephen's College. His maternal grandfather was C. Rajagopalachari, the last Governor General of India (succeeding Lord Louis Mountbatten), who was one of the foremost associates of Mahatma Gandhi.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, Gandhi played a leading role in establishing Asia Plateau, the conference centre of Initiatives of Change in Panchgani, in the mountains of western India.{{cite web|url=http://www.in.iofc.org/ap |title=Initiatives of Change |website=in.iofc.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070223075109/http://in.iofc.org/ap |archive-date=23 February 2007 |access-date=21 October 2017 }}

In 2002, Gandhi received the Sahitya Akademi Award for Rajaji: A Life, a Biography of Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (1878–1972), about his maternal grandfather, a leading figure in India's independence movement.See [https://southasia.uchicago.edu/node/344028 "Discussion of Modern South India: A History from the 17th Century to Our Times"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200925231919/https://southasia.uchicago.edu/node/344028 |date=25 September 2020 }}

His other works include Ghaffar Khan: Nonviolent Badshah of the Pakhtuns (Penguin 2004); Revenge & Reconciliation: Understanding South Asian History (Penguin, 1999); Patel: A Life, a Biography of Vallabhbhai Patel (1875–1950), Deputy Prime Minister of India, 1947-50 (Navajivan, Ahmedabad, 1990); and Eight Lives: A Study of the Hindu-Muslim Encounter (SUNY, 1987). One of his earlier books, The Good Boatman: A Portrait of Gandhi, was published in 2009 in a Chinese translation in Beijing. Most recently, Gandhi has published a book titled, Punjab (Aleph Book Company 2013), which is a historical account of undivided Punjab, from the death of Aurangzeb to the Partition.{{cite web|url=http://www.thehindu.com/books/life-of-letters/article4034454.ece|title=Life of letters|work= The Hindu|date=26 October 2012}}

Before teaching at the University of Illinois, he served as a research professor with the New Delhi think-tank, Centre for Policy Research. From 1985 to 1987, he edited the daily Indian Express in Madras (now Chennai). In 2004 he received the International Humanitarian Award (Human Rights) from the city of Champaign, Illinois, and in 1997, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of law from the University of Calgary, and an honorary doctorate of philosophy from Obirin University, Tokyo. He currently serves as a Jury Member for the Nuremberg International Human Rights Award and co-chair of the Centre for Dialogue & Reconciliation in Gurgaon. In 2019 he was a contributor to A New Divan: A Lyrical Dialogue Between East and West (Gingko Library).

In 2018, he opposed the partition of the British India at the Oxford Union and said, “To welcome Partition is to imply that people with different backgrounds and different blood-lines cannot live together in one nation. A regressive suggestion.”{{cite web |title=Oxford Union debate: House regrets the partition of India |url=https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/news/oxford-union-debate-house-regrets-the-partition-of-india-salman-khurshid-rajmohan-gandhi-mridula-mukherjee-ashis-ray |work=National Herald |access-date=4 July 2020 |date=23 March 2018 |quote=He went on to say, 'To welcome Partition is to imply that people with different backgrounds and different blood-lines cannot live together in one nation. A regressive suggestion.' He lamented that the 'Muslim majorities who got Pakistan did not need it; Muslim minorities remaining in India who needed security became more insecure.' 'If tyranny had ended with partition, I would have welcomed division. In fact, however, tyranny was multiplied by partition.'}} He opined that "The corollary that those possessing a common religion or common race enjoy blissful companionship in their homes, nations or regions is, well, hilarious."{{cite web |last1=Roy |first1=Amit |title=At Oxford, a stereotype on Partition is busted |url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/at-oxford-a-stereotype-on-partition-is-busted/cid/1339828 |work=The Telegraph |access-date=4 July 2020 |date=26 March 2018}} He holds that "tyranny was multiplied by partition". Gandhi further believes that "India belongs to all who live in it."{{cite web |title=Rajmohan Gandhi writes on textbook deletions: You can't delete Gandhi's truth |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/rajmohan-gandhi-textbook-deletions-mahatma-gandhi-8542909/ |work=The Indian Express |access-date=24 June 2024 |language=en |date=8 April 2023}}

In 1989, Gandhi unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha election from Janata Dal against Rajiv Gandhi in Amethi.{{cite web|url=http://eci.nic.in/eci_main/StatisticalReports/LS_1989/Vol_I_LS_89.pdf|title=Statistical Report on General Elections, 1989 to the Ninth Lok Sabha|page=265|publisher=Election Commission of India|access-date=30 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140718183934/http://eci.nic.in/eci_main/StatisticalReports/LS_1989/Vol_I_LS_89.pdf|archive-date=18 July 2014}} He served (1990–92) in the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of the Indian Parliament) and led the Indian delegation to the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva in 1990. In the Indian Parliament he was the convener of the all-party joint committee of both houses addressing the condition of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

On 21 February 2014, he joined the Aam Aadmi Party.{{cite news|title=Mahatma's grandson Rajmohan Gandhi joins AAP, will contest from east Delhi|url=http://ibnlive.in.com/news/mahatmas-grandson-rajmohan-gandhi-joins-aap-may-contest-from-delhi/453374-37-64.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140226142618/http://ibnlive.in.com/news/mahatmas-grandson-rajmohan-gandhi-joins-aap-may-contest-from-delhi/453374-37-64.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=26 February 2014|publisher=IBN Live|date= 21 February 2014}} He contested the 2014 general election from the East Delhi constituency and lost.{{cite news | url = http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/politics/aap-to-field-rajmohan-gandhi-from-east-delhi/article5732494.ece | title = Rajmohan Gandhi to lead AAP battle in Delhi East | date = 27 February 2014 | newspaper = The Hindu }}{{cite web | title=Election results 2014: Many offsprings of politicos get a thumbs down in polls | website=The Economic Times | date=18 May 2014 | url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/election-results-2014-many-offsprings-of-politicos-get-a-thumbs-down-in-polls/articleshow/35291392.cms?from=mdr}}

Rajmohan Gandhi is married to Usha. They have two children.{{cite web|title = Short Biography -Rajmohan Gandhi|url = http://www.rajmohangandhi.com/short-biography|access-date = 22 February 2014}}

{{Reflist}}

• [http://rajmohangandhi.com Rajmohan Gandhi's website]
• Crossette, Barbara, [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE7D9103BF93AA15753C1A96F948260 "In an Impatient Pocket of Rural India, Gandhi Fights for His Political Future"], Special to The New York Times Sunday, 29 October 1989
• Gandhi, Rajmohan, [http://rediff.co.in/news/oct/31raj.htm Biographical Essay on C. Rajagopalachari]
• {{C-SPAN|1028075}}

{{Mohandas K. Gandhi}}

{{Sahitya Akademi Award for English}}

{{Aam Aadmi Party}}

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Category:1935 births

Category:Aam Aadmi Party candidates in the 2014 Indian general election

Category:Aam Aadmi Party politicians

Category:Delhi politicians

Category:Janata Dal politicians

Category:Living people

Rajmohan

Category:Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in English

Category:St. Stephen's College, Delhi alumni

Category:University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty

Category:20th-century Indian historians