Virchad R Gandhi A Gandhi before Gandhi

Author(s): Bipin Doshi, Pankaj Hingarh
Publisher: Bipin Doshi, Pankaj Hingarh

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Personality
ally and internationally felicitated with and independent, I affirm that we should many medals. seek to establish and for ever maintain peaceful relations with all nations of the world." Today this statement appears as a prophecy that Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) proved in attaining India's freedom with peaceful means.
VRG was admired by personalities such as Mahatma Gandhi, Lokmanya Tilak, Mark Twain, Governor Lord Reay, Col. Watson, Herbert Warren, Mrs. Charles Howard, Dr. Paul Carus, Alexander Fullerton, Miss Lilian Whiting, Annie Beasant, H.S. Olcott, Swami Vivekananda, Chief Justice Govind Ranade, High Court Justice Sir Narayan Ganesh Chandavarkar, William Pipe, George Francis Train, V. Gasenapp, and many others. The Indian National Congress was founded in 1885 in Mumbai. VRG, Ranade and Chandavarkar were key members of the party.
The Indian Postal Department recently issued a stamp and brochure to commemorate him. A coffee table book compiled by Dr Bipin Doshi and Priti Shah, titled Gandhi before Gandhi, of selected speeches of VRG in the USA and Europe, has also been released by Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat.
Virchand
Gandhi was a visionary too. He talked about economic and political freedom five decades before India became independent. In one of his speeches to the American public he declared: "You know, my brothers and sisters, that we are not an independent nation, we are subjects of Her Gracious Majesty, Queen Victoria, the 'Defender of the Faith'. But if we were a nation in all that that word implies, with our own government and our own rulers, with our laws and institutions controlled by us free
"If we were a nation in all that that word implies, with our own government and our own rulers, with our laws and institutions, I affirm that we should seek to establish and for ever maintain peaceful relations with all nations of the world."
Virchand Raghavji Gandhi (August 25, 1864 - August 7, 1901) was born in an upper middle class merchant family of Mahuva, Gujarat. His mother had had a series of auspicious dreams before his birth. His parents were very pious by nature. VRG graduated with honours from Elphiston College in 1884. During his preparation for solicitors' examination, VRG and MK Gandhi were in intimate contacts. From My Experiments with Truth, Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography, we learn that VRG and Mahatma Gandhi were together for their experiments in dietetics. VRG used to
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