Tushar Gandhi
June 5, 2026
I read with horror in the ‘Hindustan Times’ about how the recently-inaugurated AI holographic avatar of Mahatma Gandhi was ‘answering’ visitors’ questions. The fact that Bapu’s voice has been synthesised from recordings of his speeches and evening prayers, and that his answers were based on his speeches and writings, create a dangerous ability to selectively quote him and make it appear to be unchallengeable. After all, the answers are in his voice and based on his words.
This is the danger AI poses. It is based on some truth but it can twist it in a manner that suits the requirements of the day.
“My writings should be cremated with my body. What I have done will endure, not what I have said or written… Even so, what I have said and written is useful only to the extent that it helps you to assimilate the great principles of Truth and Ahimsa. If you have not assimilated them, my writings will be of no use to you.”
– MK Gandhi, ‘Harijan’, May 27, 1939.
Bapu said this. Prophetically.
The news report gives two examples of facts being twisted to suit political needs. When AI Gandhi is asked about his views on Partition, he simply says he was “completely against it”. This is true; Bapu was vehemently against Partition – under British rule. He wanted independence first and then, after the British had left, for the Congress and Muslim League to work out what came next. This was not to be. The British wanted to inflict a wound on the subcontinent, which would fester and bleed both nations. So, they ensured that both India and Pakistan would never forget, never allow the wounds to heal and that the tragedy of Partition would be eternally exploitable.
But the AI Gandhi only says: “I was opposed to Partition.” An oversimplification, which can’t be dismissed as utter fiction but is not the entire truth either.
After 2014, when Narendra Modi assumed power, he institutionalised hate-filled memories of Partition by declaring that India would commemorate August 14 as ‘Partition Horrors Remembrance Day’, milking the terrible memory to enhance the separatist ideology of his parent organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
According to the report, the other question to which the sarkari AI Gandhi maintains a diplomatic silence is the one about his murder and murderer, Nathuram Godse, and the larger conspiracy behind it. AI Gandhi says he does not wish to speak about it. It is surprising that Bapu, who embraced truth even when it was bitter, would shy away from stating facts.
The AI’s creators may get away by claiming that Gandhi could not have known the identity of his murderer. Sure, but several attempts were made on his life from 1934 onwards, the last one 10 days before his murder at Birla House during a prayer meeting. At that time, one member of the gang was caught and the identities of the conspirators had been revealed. So, by the time he was murdered, Bapu knew of the conspiracy, the identity of those trying to murder him and the ideological inspiration and organisation behind his murder. The roles of VD Savarkar and the RSS have been debated and in focus since then.
But today, stating these facts does not suit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government and definitely not Modi. So, I am not surprised that AI Gandhi shies away from stating facts.
“They might kill me, but they cannot kill Gandhism. If truth can be killed. If non-violence can be killed, Gandhism can be killed. For what is Gandhism but winning Swaraj by means of truth and non-violence?”
– MK Gandhi, ‘Young India’, April 12, 1931
If the creators were honest, they would have stated that since there were no references to Gandhi’s murder in his own writings, the answer given by the AI was based on interpretations of historic facts and not derived from Gandhi’s writings or his spoken words. But doing this would need a rare form of honesty and adherence to the absolute truth, two characteristics completely absent in the RSS and the Modi government, as well as in the Prime Minister himself who is more known for his jumlas than for the truth.
It is not that such attempts to falsify Bapu were not made in the past. During the tenure of the first National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by Atal Behari Vajpayee, an attempt was made to corrupt the ‘Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi’. This is the primary source of Gandhi’s speeches and writings, his authenticated works collated and published in a set of 100 volumes. This is used by Gandhi scholars in their study and is considered a prime reference since it is purely his words. The reprinted version published during the first NDA government’s tenure had many inaccuracies and many motivated additions that were unauthenticated.
Fortunately, at that time there were Gandhians who noticed these intentional or ‘innocent’ errors and raised a hue and cry over it, forcing the government to appoint an expert committee. The committee went through the new edition painstakingly, compared it with the first edition, line by line, word by word and marked the errors. Fortunately, it happened during the tenure of the government headed by Vajpayee; he immediately implemented the suggestion of the committee, which recommended the recall and destruction of the new edition. He established a task force headed by Dina Patel, daughter of the editor of the original compilation, to go through and correct the 100 volumes and ordered the Publication Division to carry out the exercise under her supervision. It would have been impossible if Modi had been prime minister.
I believe that no matter how much noise we make against the inaccuracies and manipulated opinions expressed by AI Gandhi, in residence at the Pradhan Mantri Sangrahalaya, Modi is too arrogant and egotistical to correct the wrong. Now he and his government have a compliant sarkari Gandhi with whom they can live comfortably, one they can manipulate to say what they want him to say. One who speaks a convenient truth, not the purna satya Bapu espoused.
“Let Gandhism be destroyed if it stands for error. Truth and Ahimsa will never be destroyed; but if Gandhism is another name for sectarianism, it deserves to be destroyed. If I were to know after my death that what I stood for had degenerated into sectarianism, I should be deeply pained.”
– MK Gandhi, ‘Harijan’, March 2, 1940.
At the birth of the sarkari AI Gandhi, Bapu would have as turned cartwheels in his grave.
I have opposed Modi’s project to revamp the Sabarmati Ashram, Kasturba and Bapu’s abode in Ahmedabad and the bootcamp for Satyagrahis. I am still worried that the new Sabarmati Ashram will be a showcase of a khaki knickerwala Gandhi, not Bapu. Modi and his minions will portray a Gandhi who talked about simplicity but lived in an opulent abode. The five-star chamak-dhamak wala ashram, which is slowly emerging under the project, has confirmed my fears.
Unfortunately, neither the institutions entrusted with protecting the Gandhi legacy and his ashrams are bothered, nor could I convince the courts to step in and protect the memorial. Now, after knowing how the AI Gandhi has been manipulated, my fears are turning into a horrifying reality.
“My conception of Swaraj is not mere political independence. I want to see Dharma Raj, establishment of the kingdom of heaven on earth, the reign of truth and non-violence in every walk of life. That alone is independence to the starved masses of this vast country.”
– MK Gandhi, ‘Hindustan Times’, June 20, 1945.
Alas, under Modi, India is assiduously embracing authoritarianism and untruth.
Tushar Gandhi, great grandson of the Mahatma, is an activist, author and president of the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation. Reach him here: Me@tushargandhi.in.
