Devdas Mohandas Gandhi (22 May 1900 – 3 August 1957) was the fourth and youngest son of

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

. He was born in the

Colony of Natal The Colony of Natal was a British colony in south-eastern Africa. It was proclaimed a British colony on 4 May 1843 after the British government had annexed the Boer Republic of Natalia, and on 31 May 1910 combined with three other colonies to ...

and came to India with his parents as a grown man. He became active in his father's movement, spending many terms in jail. He also became a prominent journalist, serving as editor of

Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia. It was founded by Sunder Singh Lyall ...

. He was also the first ''pracharak'' of the

Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha is an organisation whose main goal is to improve Hindi literacy among the non-Hindi speaking people of South India. The headquarters are located at Thanikachalam Road, T. Nagar, Chennai. The organisation was ...

(DBHPS), established by Mohandas Gandhi in Tamil Nadu in 1918. The purpose of the Sabha was to propagate Hindi in southern India''.''

Family

Devdas fell in love with Lakshmi, the daughter of

C. Rajagopalachari Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (10 December 1878 – 25 December 1972), popularly known as Rajaji or C.R., also known as Mootharignar Rajaji (Rajaji'', the Scholar Emeritus''), was an Indian statesman, writer, lawyer, and independence activis ...

, Devdas's father's associate in the

Indian independence struggle The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged from Bengal. ...

. Due to Lakshmi's age at that time – she was only 15 and Devdas was 28 – both Devdas's father and Rajaji asked the couple to wait for five years without seeing each other. After five years had passed, they were married with their fathers' permissions in 1933. Devdas and Lakshmi had four children,

Rajmohan Gandhi Rajmohan Gandhi (born 7 August 1935) is an Indian biographer, historian, and research professor at the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, US. His paternal grandfather is Mahatma Gandhi, ...

Gopalkrishna Gandhi Gopalkrishna Devadas Gandhi (born 22 April 1945) is a former administrator and diplomat who served as the 22nd Governor of West Bengal serving from 2004 to 2009. He is the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji). As a former ...

Ramchandra Gandhi Ramchandra Gandhi (9 June 1937 – 13 June 2007) was an Indian philosopher. He was the son of Devdas Gandhi ( Mahatma Gandhi's youngest son) and Lakshmi (daughter of Rajaji) and also brother of Rajmohan Gandhi, Gopalkrishna Gandhi and Tara Ga ...

and Tara Gandhi Bhattacharjee (born 24 April 1934, New Delhi).

Legacy

When

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

started seeking help for establishment of Jamia Millia Islamia, Devdas also came forward on the call of Gandhi. He started teaching Hindi there and also cotton spinning.

References

1900 births 1957 deaths

Devdas ''Devdas'' ( bn, দেবদাস, transliterated as ''Debdās'') is a Bengali romance novel written by Sarat Chandra Chatterjee. The story pivots a tragic triangle linking Devdas, an archetypal lover in viraha (separation); Paro, his forbidd ...

Gandhians Indian independence activists Indian expatriates in South Africa Indian Hindus Prisoners and detainees of British India Gujarati people Colony of Natal people {{India-activist-stub