Manilal Gandhi
Manilal Mohandas Gandhi was the second son of Mohandas Gandhi and Kasturba Gandhi.Life
Manilal was born in Rajkot, British India. His early years were spent in Rajkot, and in 1897 he traveled to South Africa for the first time. The family lived for a time in Durban and Johannesburg. Between 1906 and 1914 he lived at the Phoenix Settlement and Tolstoy Farm, both settlements established by his father.
After a brief visit to India, in 1917 Manilal returned to South Africa to assist in printing the Indian Opinion, a Gujarati-English weekly publication, at Phoenix, Durban. By 1918, Manilal was doing most of the work for the press and took over in 1920 as editor.
In 1927, Manilal married Sushila Mashruwala, and had two daughters, Sita and Ela ; and one son, Arun.
Like his father, Manilal was also sent to prison several times by the British colonial government after protesting against unjust laws. He was one of the initial 79 marchers to accompany Gandhi on the 1930 Salt March, for which he was imprisoned.
He remained editor of Indian Opinion until 1956, the year of his death. Manilal died from a cerebral thrombosis following a stroke.Legacy
Manilal's children Arun and Ela are also social-political activists. Uma D. Mesthrie, Sita's daughter, recently published a biography on Manilal.
