How and When Mahatma Gandhi became the Father of Nation Who Gave Father of Nation Title to Gandhi

How and When Mahatma Gandhi became the Father of Nation
Who Gave Father of Nation Title to Gandhi

Lucknow -

class VI student Aishwarya Parashar filed an application under Right to Information Act find the answer, her question was simple and every Indian thinks that he knows the answer.



Her question is that
when Mahatma Gandhi was conferred with the title of 'Father of the Nation?

From the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to the National Archives of India (NAI), none appear to know when, why and who named Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi the 'Father of the Nation'.

She told to media that
“I was reading my Class 5 social studies textbook which had a lesson about Mahatma Gandhi.
It said that Mahatma Gandhi is referred to as Father of the Nation. So, a question came to my mind regarding the year when he was conferred with this title.
There was nothing mentioned in my book. So, I asked my teachers, they had no clue.
Then, I asked my parents, they did not know either.
I could not find the information on Google so my parents suggested that I file a Right to Information (RTI) to the Prime Minister’s Office,”

In February last year she filed an RTI in PMO office regarding this but reality is that no one knows the answer.

She said that
When I sent my query to the Prime Minister’s Office, they sent a reply saying that they had no specific information on the issue. Then my RTI was forwarded to the home ministry and they had no answer so then it was forwarded to National Archives and they, too, did not have any information.

Now the question remains
when Mahatma Gandhi was conferred with the title of 'Father of the Nation?

Let’s try to find the answer legally or historically to this question.

Article 18 (1) of the Constitution specifically provides that "no title, not being a military or academic distinction, shall be conferred by the state."

Year 2004
L K Advani in one of the letter which he wrote said that
I may clarify that although Mahatma Gandhi is popularly known as "Father of the Nation," no such title was ever formally conferred on him by the government."

Year 1944
it was Subhas Chandra Bose who used the term for Mahatma Gandhi, in a radio address from Singapore in 1944

Netaji sent the following message to the Mahatma on Azad Hind Radio, Rangoon on 4th June, 1944.

"...........Nobody would be more happy than ourselves if by any chance our countrymen at home should succeed in liberating themselves through their own efforts or by any chance, the British Government accepts your `Quit India' resolution and gives effect to it. We are, however proceeding on the assumption that neither of the above is possible and that a struggle is inevitable.

Father of our Nation in this holy war for India's liberation, we ask for your blessings and good wishes".

When Gandhi was assassinated, India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, in a radio address to the nation, had announced that the Father of the Nation "is no more."

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Thursday, April 05, 2012

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