Did you know? Mahatma Gandhi was nominated for Nobel Peace Prize 5 times - Here’s why he never won

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, and several senior leaders across party lines paid floral tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at Samvidhan Sadan in the national capital on the occassion of the 157th birth anniversary of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, on Friday, 2 October.

Numerous Indian diplomatic missions globally observed Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary on Friday by offering floral honours and recalling his enduring principles of truth, non-violence and peace.

International Day of Non-Violence

To mark Gandhi Jayanti alongside the International Day of Non-Violence, the High Commission of India in Australia placed floral tributes at the Mahatma Gandhi memorial situated within Canberra's Glebe Park.

"High Commissioner Nagesh Singh, along with officers and staff of the Mission, community leaders and members of the Indian community, paid floral tributes to Mahatma Gandhi, remembering his timeless ideals of truth, non-violence and peace," the Indian High Commission in Australia posted on X.

Mahatma Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869 in Porbandar, Gujarat. His birthday is commemorated in India as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Nonviolence.

Gandhi is considered to be the Father of the Nation in post-colonial India. During India's nationalist movement and in several decades immediately after, he was also commonly called Bapu, an endearment roughly meaning "father".

Gandhi, who played a prominent role in freeing India from the clutches of the 200-year-old rule of the British, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five times - in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947, and just days before his assassination in 1948. Despite his significant contributions to peace and non-violence, he was never awarded the prize - a topic that has been debated over the years, especially around his birthday.

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The omission has been publicly regretted by later members of the Nobel Committee. When the Dalai Lama was awarded the Peace Prize in 1989, the chairman of the committee said that this was “in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi”.

"However, the committee has never commented on the speculations as to why Gandhi was not awarded the prize, and until recently the sources which might shed some light on the matter were unavailable, according to www.nobelprize.org.

Primary reason for omission

One of the primary reasons often cited for mission was that Gandhi did not fit into the traditional categories identified by the Nobel Committee for potential recipients of the Prize.

According to the committee, as quoted by India Today, Gandhi was not a politician or proponent of international law, nor was he primarily a humanitarian relief worker or an organiser of international peace congresses.

In ‘The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History,’ a famous book, Michael H Hart, an American astrophysicist and alien-life researcher, also explained why Gandhi was not included in his top 100.

"… Gandhi was not the founder of the movement for Indian independence nor was he the main political leader at the time independence was finally achieved," Hart writes in the preface of the 1978 book.

Gandhi's approach to peace and non-violence was unique and groundbreaking, which may have made it difficult for the committee to evaluate his contributions within their established framework, the India Today report said.

The Nobel Committee had concerns about Mahatma Gandhi's pacifism and his involvement in the conflict between India and Pakistan in 1947, it said. “Some members of the committee believed that Gandhi was too strongly committed to one side of the conflict, and there were doubts about his consistent rejection of war. These factors likely influenced the committee's decision not to award him the prize,” it read.

What is Nobel Peace Prize process?

The Norwegian Nobel Committee selects the Nobel Peace Prize laureates. The selection is an eight-month evaluation managed by the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee.

A nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize may be submitted by any person who meets the nomination criteria. A letter of invitation to submit is not required. The names of the nominees and other information about the nominations cannot be revealed until 50 years later.

No prededent for posthumous awards

Another reason often sited significant issue was the lack of precedent for posthumous awards.Gandhi was assassinated two days (on January 30, 1948) before the closing date for the 1948 Nobel Peace Prize nominations.

While statutes of the Nobel Foundation at the time allowed for posthumous awards under certain circumstances, Gandhi did not belong to an organisation and had not left a will, making it unclear who would receive the prize money.

The committee ultimately decided against a posthumous award.

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According to an entry in Norwegian economist Gunnar Jahn's diary, the Nobel Committee had seriously considered a posthumous award for Mahatma Gandhi. But when the committee, for formal reasons, ended up not making such an award, they decided to reserve the prize.

The 1947 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to two Quaker organizations—the Friends Service Council (Britain) and the American Friends Service Committee—on behalf of all Quakers worldwide. The award honored the decades of impartial aid to victims of war, famine, and persecution (including both World Wars and refugee rescue) regardless of race or nationality.

The last nomination

Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on January 30, 1948, two days before the deadline for that year’s Nobel Peace Prize nominations. The committee received six letters nominating him, including from former Nobel laureates.

The committee ultimately decided against a posthumous award, leaving Gandhi's contributions to peace open to interpretation and regret.

But Gandhi’s death created an unprecedented question for the committee: could the Nobel Peace Prize be awarded to him posthumously? On November 18, 1948, the Norwegian Nobel Committee decided not to award the Peace Prize that year because “there was no suitable living candidate".