7 Famous Paintings on Gandhi

Artists have captured Mahatma Gandhi, the symbol of non-violence and an embodiment of India’s independence struggle in their creations. He is the subject of artists from different ages and genres who have embodied his image in visual forms that depict the essence of his person and being in addition to what he stands for. Taken together, these paintings provide an expansive illustrative account of Gandhi that spans impressionistic to the classic in brush technique and also showcase how some Indian painters have commemorated India’s modern history. While these seven paintings bring forth the image of Gandhi they also reflect what his ideals have done to generations gone and followed.

1. Nandalal Bose – Created iconic images of Gandhi, especially for Congress publications and events during the freedom movement.

2. Jamini Roy – Painted Gandhi using folk art traditions, focusing on simplicity and moral strength.

3. M.F. Husain – Frequently depicted Gandhi in his works as a symbol of peace and non-violence.

4. Atul Dodiya – Contemporary artist who has explored Gandhi’s legacy in a series of installations and paintings.

5. Shobha Broota – Depicted Gandhi through abstract and symbolic forms, reflecting on his spiritual values.

6. R.K. Laxman – Although more known as a cartoonist, Laxman’s sketches of Gandhi, especially in political cartoons, have had a profound impact.

7. Paresh Maity: The painting is part of Maity’s larger body of work that celebrates India’s rich cultural and historical legacy. This artwork captures Gandhi’s enduring influence and his philosophy of non-violence and peace.

Icons of Mahatma Gandhi

The titan in the fight for independence was none other than the towering figure of Mahatma Gandhi who is too often remembered for his deeply-rooted principles of non-violence (ahimsa) and truth (satya). His sayings and his philosophy became entwined with a catalog of images representing nonviolent protest and self-sufficiency. From the spinning wheel to a fundamental respect for gentleness, these icons appeal not only as part of our political inheritance but also fault us into remaining seeking solace and self-respect in our everyday lives. In this essay, we will try to know some of the most visible symbols associated with Gandhi which helped in freedom struggle and has significance even after independence.

1. The Charkha (Spinning Wheel)

The concept of self-sufficiency is also well manifest in Mahatma Gandhi’s Swadeshi movement attribute — the charkha. It prompted Indians to spin their own cloth which would help develop rural industries (a clear example of the Gandhian idea that village by village must be developed) and foster non-violent resistance. Swadeshi movement said that for independence economic self-sufficiency needs to be there in India.

2. Khadi Cloth

Hand-spun on the charkha, Khadi cloth represents Gandhi’s stress on simplicity and self-sufficiency and his rejection of industrial British commodities. It symbolised defiance, economic self-reliance and solidarity between classes and regions. The term “Khadi” today epitomises purity, self-discipline and ethical behaviour.

3. Round Glasses

Gandhi’s round glasses, reflecting an intellectual profile remind us of wisdom, clarity and introspection; attributes of his vision of a free, harmonious and non-violent India. For many, the glasses have come to symbolise his commitment to self-discipline and ethical clarity, making them synonymous with the struggle for equality in the public consciousness.

4. The Walking Stick

The walking stick of Gandhi tells a story for simplicity, endurance and determination She was frail but she did something because of which millions followed her on the Salt March in 1930. Millions are inspired by the simple living and high thinking of Gandhi to follow his leadership in their freedom fight.

5. The old 500 rupees currency note

The Gyarah Murti monument, which honours Mahatma Gandhi’s leadership during the nation’s war for freedom, is situated in New Delhi, India. The artist recognised as its creator is Devi Prasad Roy Choudhury. Of the eleven monuments, ten show people who followed Gandhi as the leader and come from different sociocultural, religious, and economic backgrounds. The statue, which is commonly thought to represent the Dandi March, has been duplicated in several Indian locations and was included in the previous 500-rupee banknote.

6. The Three Monkeys

Thus the trilogy of Apes with — Speak no evil, Hear No Evil and See No Evil stands to perpetuate the belief Gandhi for a life-summoning moral integrity, discipline both personal and National if one wants to be just in actions, truthful in words or kind in thoughts in opposing wrongdoers establishing proper behaviour and not taking advantage as though that were benefiting from it.

7. Sabarmati Ashram

The ancient Sabarmati Ashram is the former residence of Gandhi in Ahmedabad, which embodies community living, non-violence, and spiritual discipline. It was a hub for Indian independence movement and the Raids of Salt. Non-violence protest and civil disobedience are the hallmarks of Gandhi’s Satyagraha philosophy, developed within its four walls. Now it serves as a monument.

Conclusion

The icons of Mahatma Gandhi – the charkha, khadi cloth, his round glasses, a walking stick, salt, the three monkeys and Sabarmati Ashram are more than just symbols. They mirror his lifelong commitment to seeking non-violent solutions to injustice. All these icons symbolise the adamantine faith of Mahatma Gandhi in non-violence, self-reliance and pursuit of truth. The example they have set continues to inspire movements for justice, equality and freedom across the globe. It is this powerful symbolism of Gandhi that still resonates in the collective memory and national conscience of India, which remains the light shining on peaceful resistance and the everlasting struggle for human respect.

Gandhi as a Fashion Designer: A Vision of Simplicity and Identity

Most of us think of Mahatma Gandhi and we are reminded how he helped India gain Independence and his teachings on Ahimsa (Non-Violence) but little do we realise he also did wonders to the fashion hemisphere. Gandhi was also ahead of his time in a different respect: he became a fashion designer, changing how people dressed and thought about their clothes as expression of identity, defiance and the higher reaches of their own values. His fashion was directly connected to his political philosophy, and used as a medium for social change in the super bold revolution against colonial suppression. Gandhi’s fashion sense mirrored his bigger philosophy of plainness, autonomy and swadeshi.

The Political Power of Simplicity

As a young man, Gandhi favourd Western dress as an emblem of learning and prestige to befit his beginnings behind the bar as a lawyer in London and South Africa. But as his political and spiritual creed deepened, he found that clothes could serve as a potent rebellion. However, his metamorphosis into a man draped in uncomplicated khadi signified so much more, not only within himself but the national identity of India. This resonated with his belief that khadi clothing was simple, standing as a statement to Ganhdi’s modern dress appeal to wear simplistic and in an environmentally friendly way.

Back in 1915 after he returned from South Africa, Gandhi replaced the Western suits that were once a mark of his education and sophistication. In this, by embracing khadi, Gandhi did not just challenge the British Raj; he also took on the deep-rooted and complex social hierarchies in India. It wasn’t as much about rejecting colonial ideas of dress, though that mattered to Gandhi very much, as it was about self-sufficiency and economic independence. Gandhi thought that Indian-made clothes made from British-imported fabrics somehow fed India’s economic dependency on its colonszers. Through the instrument of promoting that khadi be spun and worn, Gandhi turned fashion itself into a mode of autonomy and dignity.

Khadi: More than a Fabric

The Swadeshi movement made Khadi, the natural and hand-spun or hand-woven cloth in India a symbol of Indian resistance. Gandhi was not wearing khadi to be stylish; for him, it was a moral and political requirement. He wanted people to grow their own yarn and weave their own clothes — essentially, he was trying to revive India’s rural economy which had been destroyed by British industrialisation. It was the first direct threat to British monopolisation of textile production that had hamstrung local artisans and weavers.

Gandhi made khadi a sign of nationalism and urged millions of Indians to eschew foreign goods, by simple design the philosophy behind. And the spinning wheel, the charkha, became a powerful sort of visual and cultural imagery of self-reliance. Khadi embodied the deliberate defiance not just to British economic hegemony, but also to Indian society’s class and caste divisions. Gandhi turned the idea of fashion on its head — dressed in homespun, simple attire he argued for clothes as a means of political and social solidarity.

Fashion as Identity and Resistance

The broader idea of Swaraj — self-rule — also fed into Gandhi’s vision of fashion. He argued that political independence alone would not ensure real freedom unless it was combined with cultural and economic self-determination. So once again during 1907, dress became a sign of far more than sartorial whimsy — it was essential to the project of restituting Indian selfhood. To Gandhi, fashion was an outlet to show that one was committed to self-reliance and living ethically. You were literally donning India’s poor when you wore the fabric, and wearing this was a statement against vanity and luxury in fashion.

During that era, when Indian elites and British colonizers wore ornate and luxurious clothing, Gandhi dressed in a manner that was sought to directly challenge the status quo. His sartorial decisions stripped the connection between levels of wealth and or power and identity away from what it presented. Gandhi wanted to use clothing as an equalizer; something that could relate him with the masses in India and, especially in the rural areas, they had nothing but their bare essentials clothes and couldn’t afford fine textiles imported from Britain. These simple clothes denoted a direct way of talking with regular people, making him the one who destroyed social frontiers and taught everyone to have a common stakes and goal.

Gandhi’s Aesthetic Legacy

Though young people found themselves drawn to Gandhi due to his political and moral philosophy, there is no denying that he had a lasting impact on fashion at the time. His Fashion has been a monumental part and has altered fashion to its core in India as well as around the globe. The pureness of his dress that focused on organic fabric, minimalism and utility values became the source through which designers the world over took their inspiration. Khadi has today become a byword for sustainable, ethical production and has found its place in the fashion narrative, turning up on runways and in clothing lines with themes harking back to history.

From the likes of Ritu Kumar and Sabyasachi Mukherjee knew Indian designers to have brought khadi and handloom under their collections making Indian manoosh a key for haute couture. The emphasis on local production and natural fibers that Gandhi advocated also sounds a lot like the current approach to sustainability in fashion. He championed ethical production, talked about minimalism and the decimation of fast fashion — themes which today are even more pertinent with regard to fashion’s environmental and social footprint.

Conclusion

Though unordained, Gandhi’s work as a fashion designer was so much more: it helped redefine how we regard and live in our clothing. Gandhi turned his clothing into a political protest and fashion statement that reimagined meaningful dressing. His use of khadi was not only a reversion to indigenous Indian dress, but also a declaration about the country’s spirit, self-reliance and austerity. Fashion so often represents status, wealth, and power, yet in his case Gandhi uses fashion as a means for social change leaving behind not just an example others can follow but also influencing the way designers and activists alike see the industry today. At its heart, his sartorial behaviour was in some ways symptomatic of a future he envisioned for a society avowedly more equitable and self-sustaining.

Kanu Gandhi Captured Gandhi: An Intimate Perspective through the Lens

And the man who was and still is synonymous with non-violence and truth came to be alive in images captured by Kanu Gandhi — Grand Nephew of Mahatma Gandhi. His photos take us through a personal view of the everyday at Mahatma Gandhi as there are probably not many. This essay explores how Kanu Gandhi used his camera to capture Mahatma Gandhi and the images becoming not just documentation but also an aesthetic expression of a public man in private.

The Photographer and His Subject: An Unparalleled Access

Kanu Gandhi was no ordinary lensman. During his formative years he lived with Mahatma Gandhi at his ashram and was related to him. This granted him the unique opportunity of being able to move in spaces where professional photographers or journalists could never barely hope to be — Gandhi’s offices, his personal living quarters and so on. It was that closeness which lent Kanu’s pictures the inimitable feel; they are not pictures of a distant leader but of one living being encapsulate into an ideology of simplicity, humility and non-violence. Kanu was granted permission to photograph Gandhi but with certain conditions: no flash, the cost was on him (equipment and film- he had to fund himself) While these constraints are confirmed through some unremarkable images, Kanu has managed to supply us with a powerful series of shots that cumulatively merge the simplicity of Gandhi, his daily drills and his rare academic-reflexive moments. Growing up, his photographs show us a Gandhi who, at the same time that he was consumed with spiritual and national work, was equally venerable and human.

Capturing the Essence of Gandhi’s Ideals

Kanu Gandhi’s click are not only photographs but also strong emotions on the principles of truth, non-violence (ahimsa) and self-discipline that Gandhi practiced in his life. Among the most iconic is his photograph of Gandhi with his spinning wheel. Gandhi through the charkha (spinning wheel) called out for self-reliance and it went on to become an emblem of Swadeshi movement. Here, Gandhi is simply lost in mindfulness, his concentration as fixed as the spinning.

Nothing more perfectly captures the effortless union of action and reflection that was at the heart of Gandhi’s philosophy. The circular wheel capable of rotation is a Plucky that occurs consistently across Kanu’s images and represents the continuously-shaped wheels in Gandhi’s life and his battle again the British monopolisation of India. Kanu could relay, in images, the roots of Gandhi’s principles and how this played out in his daily life. In these portraits, Kanu was not simply clicking a person but collecting the spirit of a movement which bore promise of bringing masses to power through self-sustainability.

The Human Side of a Global Icon

Millions looked up to Gandhi as a political and spiritual leader, but Kanu Gandhi’s photos offer us a rare glimpse of his personal, human face. Among Kanu’s subjects were Gandhi while he was in prayer, meditative, playing with children. Another striking image shows Kasturba massaging Gandhi’s feet; it’s a rare display of the couple showing emotional intimacy between them.

These pictures are a startling reminder that behind the larger-than-life image that Gandhi has, he was still somebody’s husband, father and friend. Kanu used his photography to provide a visual representation of the often conflicting public and private persona of Gandhi. In this, they humanise him, offering us a man with emotions and failures to give someone everyone can relate to. Still in these moments, we can sense how fully committed he was to his principles even in the most day-to-day walks of life.

The Aesthetic Simplicity of Kanu’s Photography

The simplicity in the style of Kanu Gandhi’s photography is as minimalistic as the way life was followed by Gandhi. His images are bare, just like the life that Gandhi lived. The majority of the photographs are in black and white, which accentuates line, form, texture, and light. But as technology was of no use to Gandhi, Kanu needed to rely on the essence of the moment and click him in available light without creating any fiction.

The photos are straightforward which invites the viewer to contemplate completely on the subjects; Gandhi. Through his silence in prayer or musings with his followers, Kanu captures the minimalism of each moment and minute spirituality within. At the same time, however, these images move beyond their historical specificity to give us a vision of Gandhi that speaks more directly— These images speak across time and history in ways that brings forth connections to Gandhian ideals.

Kanu Gandhi’s Role as a Historian

One of the most tumultuous times in India’s fight for independence has been beautifully captured by Kanu in his photographs which today have a historical significance beyond their aesthetic and personal value. Photographer Bhavnani captured key moments of Gandhi’s association with the freedom struggle such as Salt Satyagraha, fasts and travelling across India. Kanu thereby retained these slices of Indian history that might have been lost otherwise.

Mahatma Gandhi in Famous works of Art