Arun Gandhi

Harilal Gandhi (1888-1948) was the eldest son of Mahatma Gandhi and Kasturba Gandhi. His relationship with his father was troubled and often publicly strained: Gandhi discouraged him from pursuing a formal legal education in England, a decision Harilal resented for the rest of his life. Harilal struggled with business failures, alcoholism, and a public conversion to Islam and later return to Hinduism, all covered extensively in the Indian press of the time. He married Gulab (Chanchal) Gandhi, with whom he had several children, including a son, Kantilal Gandhi. Estranged from his father for much of his adult life, Harilal died in Mumbai in 1948, shortly after Gandhi's own death.

Ramdas Gandhi (1897-1969) was the third son of Mahatma Gandhi and Kasturba Gandhi. He worked in business in central India, including a period managing a printing press and other enterprises in Nagpur, while remaining closely involved in his father's constructive-work and khadi (hand-spun cloth) programs. He accompanied Gandhi during parts of the independence movement and was present at various points in his father's later life. He married Nirmala Gandhi, and their daughter, Sumitra Kulkarni, went on to be associated with the preservation of Sabarmati Ashram, the Ahmedabad institution central to Gandhi's constructive-work philosophy. Ramdas died in 1969.

Devdas Gandhi (1900-1957) was the youngest son of Mahatma Gandhi and Kasturba Gandhi. Unlike his brothers, he pursued a career in journalism, working at Young India and later becoming managing editor of the Hindustan Times, one of India's leading English-language newspapers, a post he held until his death. In 1933 he married Lakshmi, daughter of the Indian statesman C. Rajagopalachari, in a match his father supported despite the families' different castes, seeing it as consistent with his opposition to caste restrictions on marriage. Devdas and Lakshmi had four children, Rajmohan, Ramchandra, Gopalkrishna and Tara, who became, respectively, a historian and politician, a philosopher, a diplomat and governor, and a writer, each prominent in independent India's public life. Devdas died in 1957.

Rajmohan Gandhi (born 1935) is an Indian historian, biographer and former politician, a grandson of Mahatma Gandhi through his son Devdas Gandhi and daughter-in-law Lakshmi Gandhi. A prolific author, he has written biographies of his grandfather, including 'Mohandas: A True Story of a Man, His People and an Empire', as well as works on other major figures in Indian history. He served as a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's Parliament, and has held academic positions at universities including the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he has taught history and political science. He is the brother of Ramchandra Gandhi, Gopalkrishna Gandhi and Tara Gandhi Bhattacharjee.

Gopalkrishna Gandhi (born 1945) is an Indian diplomat, writer and former civil servant, a grandson of Mahatma Gandhi through his son Devdas Gandhi and daughter-in-law Lakshmi Gandhi. He had a long career in the Indian Administrative Service and Indian Foreign Service, serving as High Commissioner to South Africa and Sri Lanka and Ambassador to Norway and Iceland, before serving as Governor of West Bengal from 2004 to 2009. He was also the Vice-Presidential candidate for a coalition of opposition parties in India's 2017 election. He is the brother of Rajmohan Gandhi, Ramchandra Gandhi and Tara Gandhi Bhattacharjee.

Tushar Gandhi (born 1960) is an Indian author and social activist, a great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi through the line of his eldest son, Harilal Gandhi, and Harilal's son, Kantilal Gandhi. He is best known for his book 'Let's Kill Gandhi', a detailed account of the events and conspiracy surrounding his great-grandfather's death, and he has served as president of the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation, an organization dedicated to promoting Gandhian values. He has been an outspoken public commentator on nonviolence, communal harmony and the political uses and misuses of his great-grandfather's legacy in contemporary India.

Karamchand Gandhi, known as Kaba Gandhi, was the father of Mahatma Gandhi and served as diwan (chief minister) to the princely state of Porbandar and later to Rajkot and Vankaner in the Kathiawar region of present-day Gujarat. A respected local administrator, he came from a family with a long tradition of holding ministerial posts in the small Kathiawari states. He married several times; his last wife, Putlibai, was Mohandas Gandhi's mother. Karamchand died in 1885, when Mohandas was a teenager, an event Gandhi later wrote about in his autobiography as a formative and painful memory of his youth.

Putlibai Gandhi was the mother of Mahatma Gandhi and the fourth wife of Karamchand Gandhi, diwan of Porbandar. A devout Hindu of the Pranami Vaishnava tradition, she was known for her deep religiosity, frequent fasting, and strict personal discipline, qualities that Gandhi later credited as a profound early influence on his own commitment to truth, self-restraint, and nonviolence. She raised Mohandas in Porbandar and Rajkot alongside his siblings. Putlibai died in 1891 while Gandhi was studying law in London, and he learned of her death only after returning to India, a loss he described as one of the deepest sorrows of his early life.

Tara Gandhi Bhattacharjee (born 1934) is a writer and social worker, a granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi through his son Devdas Gandhi and daughter-in-law Lakshmi Gandhi. She has spent much of her life engaged in Gandhian constructive-work programs and institutions dedicated to preserving and interpreting her grandfather's philosophy, including serving in leadership roles connected to Gandhi Smriti and related memorial trusts in Delhi. She has written and spoken widely on nonviolence and her grandfather's legacy, and is the sister of Rajmohan Gandhi, Ramchandra Gandhi and Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

Ramchandra Gandhi (1937-2007) was an Indian philosopher, a grandson of Mahatma Gandhi through his son Devdas Gandhi and daughter-in-law Lakshmi Gandhi. He taught philosophy at universities including the University of Hyderabad and Visva-Bharati, and was known for his work exploring Indian philosophy, Advaita Vedanta, and questions of nonviolence and spirituality in relation to his grandfather's legacy. He was a familiar public intellectual in Delhi's academic and cultural circles, engaging in wide-ranging writing and lecturing until his death in 2007. He was the brother of Rajmohan Gandhi, Gopalkrishna Gandhi and Tara Gandhi Bhattacharjee.

Kantilal Gandhi was a son of Harilal Gandhi and Gulab (Chanchal) Gandhi, making him a grandson of Mahatma Gandhi through the Harilal branch of the family. Comparatively little is documented about his own life and career, but he is recorded within the family's history as the father of Tushar Gandhi, the author and activist who has written extensively about his great-grandfather's life and, in particular, about the events surrounding Gandhi's death.