Image: Mahatma Gandhi, Wikimedia Commons.
Gopal Krishna Gokhale was one of the Indian leaders who influenced Gandhi after his return from South Africa. Their relationship combined political guidance, personal respect and a shared concern for public service.
Gandhi met Gokhale before returning to India
Gandhi had encountered Gokhale during his earlier visits to India and regarded him as an important political figure. After Gandhi’s final return from South Africa in 1915, Gokhale’s advice became especially significant.
Understand India before acting
Gokhale encouraged Gandhi to travel through India and learn about its conditions rather than immediately assuming a national leadership role. Gandhi followed this advice during his early years back in India.
This period gave Gandhi an opportunity to observe rural communities, workers, farmers and social conditions across different regions.
A different political generation
Gokhale belonged to an earlier generation of Congress leaders who generally favoured constitutional methods and political reform. Gandhi would later develop mass Satyagraha campaigns that took Indian politics into a different phase.
The relationship therefore offers an interesting link between two stages of the Indian nationalist movement.
Gandhi remembered Gokhale as a guide
Gandhi later wrote about Gokhale with considerable respect. He regarded him as a major influence on his understanding of Indian public life.
Gokhale died in February 1915, only weeks after Gandhi returned to India. His death meant that the mentoring relationship was brief in Gandhi’s Indian political career, but its influence remained important.
From mentorship to mass politics
Within a few years, Gandhi was leading campaigns in Champaran, Kheda and Ahmedabad. Those early campaigns helped establish the political style that would later become central to the national independence movement.
Read the Gandhi Heritage Portal chronology and our feature on Gandhi’s return to India.
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