Mahatma Gandhi in pop culture

Many schools across India celebrate Gandhi’s birthday, and the anniversary of India’s independence, by dressing up as the leader. Here students from a school in Rajasthan are dressed up as Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary in 2019. Costumes for Gandhi usually include a skin-colored rubber cap and instructions on how to best hide hair for an authentic Gandhi look.

Mahatma Gandhi was known to lead a frugal life. He changed his style to reflect that of the Indian masses and contributed almost all that he earned as a lawyer to Indians fighting colonial injustice. In short, he did not really care about money. Today, his image graces Indian rupee notes.

In colonial times, the British exported cotton from Manchester to India to boost England’s budding industry, destroying domestic textile producers. Gandhi asked Indians to shun cotton imports and make their own yarn with the spinning wheel. The material, called "khadi," is still widely used in India and leaders like Indian PM Modi often wear "khadi" clothes to show their dedication to the people.

Carnival songs are usually about having a good time, but singer Bernd Stelter used Gandhi's wisdom instead. His song, "Ma hat ma Glück, Ma hat ma Pech, Mahatma Gandhi," which translates as "Sometimes you have luck, sometimes you have no luck, sometimes you have Gandhi," intends to express the Cologne attitude of keeping your cool, come what may.

Needless to say, Gandhi said many things that provided inspiration for people across the world. Today, his statements appear as slogans on t-shirts, mugs, and even e-mail signatures. The most popular is, "Be the change you want to see in the world." This picture hangs at a Gandhi shrine in Kanyakumari in southern India.

Gandhi’s three monkeys — "Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" — make a comeback at a school festival in this picture. The monkeys are an old Japanese pictorial maxim and are called Mizaru, Kikazaru and Iwazaru. It is said that Gandhi, who did not own many material possessions, kept a statue of the three monkeys with him at all times. In India, the monkeys are synonymous with the leader.

Gandhi statues can be found in many places and streets across the world and are ubiquitous in India. But statues of the leader have also courted controversy: In 2018, a statue of the leader was removed from the University of Ghana in Accra after students protested its installation. In his time, Gandhi referred to Blacks using the term "kaffir," considered a racist slur.

Gandhi’s birthday, or Gandhi Jayanti, as it is referred to in India, is intended as a day to celebrate through a serious appreciation of the leader’s historical legacy. Alcohol is banned throughout the country, although the results are exactly the opposite: Vast crowds stand outside shops selling alcohol to secure their share of booze the evening before the dreaded "dry day."

Richard Attenborough's "Gandhi" (1982) is perhaps the most famous film about the leader. This scene shows a young Gandhi, played by Ben Kingsley, with his wife Kasturba (played by the Indian actor Rohini Hatangadi). Gandhi went to London to study law and moved to South Africa to practice among Indians, many of whom had come as indentured laborers from British India. He returned to India in 1914.

In the 2000s, Bollywood director Rajkumar Hirani decided to make a film about a mafia lord in Mumbai who is haunted by Gandhi’s ghost. Played by actor Sanjay Dutt, the gangster begins teaching people about non-violence. The film inspired many people in India, including traffic cops, who began distributing flowers to lawbreakers in an attempt to lovingly make them follow traffic rules.