Question 1

What is the difference between Gandhi and Mandela?

Accepted Answer

The greatest difference is over violence. Gandhi rejected violence: his satyagraha, nonviolent resistance, held that the means are everything. Mandela began with nonviolent protest but concluded that armed resistance could move the apartheid state, co-founding its armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe, in 1961. Both believed in truth and reconciliation, but parted on whether violence could ever be justified.

Mandela himself acknowledged the debt: he said a Gandhian philosophy of toleration had shaped the ANC's liberationist school of thought. The Mail & Guardian has called the two men twins in some ways and starkly contrasting figures in others.

Question 2

Did Gandhi win the Nobel Peace Prize?

Accepted Answer

No — Gandhi never won the Nobel Peace Prize. He was shortlisted in 1948, the year he was assassinated, and the committee seriously considered a posthumous award, but decided against it and gave no prize that year. Its secretary called it unfortunate that the leading spokesman for non-violence never received it.

Mandela did win it: he shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with F. W. de Klerk, the last white leader of South Africa, for the peaceful termination of apartheid. The joint award was itself controversial — many said Mandela should have won alone, while others said he could not make peace without a counterpart.

Question 3

How long was Nelson Mandela in prison?

Accepted Answer

Mandela spent 27 years in prison, from 1964 to 1990 — eighteen of them on Robben Island. He was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Rivonia Trial in 1964, and was released on 11 February 1990. Four years later he became South Africa's first democratically elected president. Gandhi was also jailed repeatedly, but never for so long.

Gandhi was jailed for two years for sedition in 1922, for further terms during the Salt Satyagraha years of 1930 to 1934, and from 1942 to 1944 after the Quit India Movement — long imprisonments by any measure, but measured in years rather than decades.

Question 4

Did Gandhi and Mandela ever meet?

Accepted Answer

No. Gandhi left South Africa in 1914 and returned to India in January 1915, three years before Mandela was born in 1918, so they never shared a country. Gandhi returned to India and led its independence movement until his assassination in 1948. The two men never met, but Mandela knew Gandhi's work well: he acknowledged Gandhi's influence on the ANC.

What links them is South Africa itself: Gandhi developed satyagraha there, founding the Natal Indian Congress in 1894, and Mandela's struggle against apartheid began in the same country half a century later. Gandhi's birthday, 2 October, is now the United Nations' International Day of Non-Violence, and Mandela's, 18 July, is Nelson Mandela International Day.

Question 5

Who was more influential, Gandhi or Mandela?

Accepted Answer

The question has no agreed answer, because they worked in different spheres. Gandhi's nonviolent resistance became a method adopted worldwide: Martin Luther King Jr. based his civil rights campaign on satyagraha. Mandela's influence was showing that a bitterly divided country could move to democracy without civil war. Each changed what the world believed possible.

Mandela put reconciliation into practice as president, establishing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1995 to examine apartheid-era crimes. Gandhi's Salt March of 1930 — a 400-kilometre walk to Dandi that broke the British salt monopoly — remains the most famous act of civil disobedience in history. This site publishes no scores and declares no universal winner.

Topic	Gandhi	Mandela
Profession	Political leader	Political leader
Nationality	Indian	South African
Born	2 October 1869 in Porbandar, Gujarat, British India	18 July 1918 in Mvezo, Transkei, South Africa
Died	30 January 1948 in New Delhi, India	5 December 2013 in Johannesburg, South Africa
Milestones	1869 — Born Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on 2 October in Porbandar 1891 — Called to the bar at the Inner Temple, London, in June 1893 — Arrived in South Africa, where he first organised resistance to racial discrimination 1894 — Founded the Natal Indian Congress 1906 — Launched his first satyagraha campaign in South Africa 1915 — Returned to India in January after 21 years in South Africa 1917 — Led the Champaran campaign for indigo farmers 1920 — Launched the Non-cooperation Movement; took leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921 1924 — Served as president of the Indian National Congress (1924-1925) 1930 — Led the Salt March from Sabarmati to Dandi, 12 March to 6 April 1942 — Launched the Quit India Movement on 8 August with the call 'Do or Die' 1947 — India became independent on 15 August, partitioned into India and Pakistan 1948 — Assassinated in New Delhi on 30 January by Nathuram Godse	1918 — Born Rolihlahla Mandela on 18 July in Mvezo, Transkei 1944 — Joined the ANC and co-founded the ANC Youth League 1952 — Led the Defiance Campaign against apartheid laws 1961 — Acquitted in the Treason Trial; co-founded Umkhonto we Sizwe 1964 — Sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rivonia Trial on 12 June 1990 — Released from prison on 11 February after 27 years 1991 — Elected president of the ANC 1993 — Shared the Nobel Peace Prize with F. W. de Klerk 1994 — Inaugurated as South Africa's first democratically elected president on 10 May 1995 — Established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission 1999 — Stepped down as president after one term 2009 — The United Nations declared 18 July Nelson Mandela International Day 2013 — Died in Johannesburg on 5 December, aged 95
Achievements	Founded the Natal Indian Congress in South Africa in 1894 and developed satyagraha, nonviolent resistance Led the Champaran campaign in 1917, his first major campaign in India Led the Non-cooperation Movement of 1920-1922 and took leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921 Led the Salt March of 1930, a 400-kilometre walk to Dandi that broke the British salt monopoly Launched the Quit India Movement on 8 August 1942, the final mass campaign before independence Wrote Hind Swaraj (1909) and The Story of My Experiments with Truth, his autobiography His birthday, 2 October, is observed worldwide as the International Day of Non-Violence	Co-founded the ANC Youth League in 1944 and helped turn the ANC into a mass movement Led the Defiance Campaign against apartheid laws in 1952 Co-founded Umkhonto we Sizwe, the ANC's armed wing, in 1961 Delivered the 'I Am Prepared to Die' statement at the Rivonia Trial in 1964 before being sentenced to life imprisonment Spent 27 years in prison, 18 of them on Robben Island, and was released on 11 February 1990 Shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with F. W. de Klerk for the peaceful termination of apartheid Became South Africa's first democratically elected president, inaugurated 10 May 1994, serving until 1999 Established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1995 The United Nations declared 18 July Nelson Mandela International Day in 2009
Known works	Hind Swaraj (1909) The Story of My Experiments with Truth (autobiography, 1927-1929) Satyagraha in South Africa (1928)	Long Walk to Freedom (1994, autobiography) I Am Prepared to Die (statement from the dock, Rivonia Trial, 20 April 1964) Conversations with Myself (2010)
Contributions	Gandhi's contribution was a method: satyagraha, the disciplined refusal to cooperate with injustice without resorting to violence. He showed that a mass movement could be built on ordinary acts — spinning, marching, making salt — and that fasting and imprisonment could be political tools. His ideas about truth, simplicity and self-reliance shaped Indian nationalism and, through the movements he inspired, the civil-rights struggles of the twentieth century.	Mandela's contribution was to make a negotiated end to apartheid possible. He held the ANC together through decades of repression, refused release on terms that would have renounced the armed struggle, and after his release led negotiations that produced a democratic constitution. As president he chose reconciliation over retribution, keeping the civil service and armed forces intact while extending the vote and basic services to the Black majority. His example of forgiveness after 27 years in prison became a reference point for conflict resolution far beyond South Africa.
Timeline	2 October 1869 — Born in Porbandar, Gujarat, British India 1883 — Married Kasturba in an arranged marriage 1891-06 — Called to the bar at the Inner Temple, London 1893 — Arrived in South Africa to work as a lawyer 1894 — Founded the Natal Indian Congress 1906 — Launched his first satyagraha campaign in South Africa 1915-01 — Returned to India after 21 years in South Africa 1917 — Led the Champaran campaign for indigo farmers 1920 — Launched the Non-cooperation Movement 12 March 1930 — Began the Salt March from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi 8 August 1942 — Launched the Quit India Movement with the call 'Do or Die' at Gowalia Tank, Bombay 15 August 1947 — India became independent; the country was partitioned into India and Pakistan 30 January 1948 — Assassinated at Birla House, New Delhi, by Nathuram Godse	18 July 1918 — Born Rolihlahla Mandela in Mvezo, Transkei 1940 — Expelled from the University of Fort Hare for taking part in a student protest 1941 — Moved to Johannesburg 1944 — Joined the ANC and co-founded the ANC Youth League 1952 — Led the Defiance Campaign against apartheid laws 29 March 1961 — Acquitted in the Treason Trial 1961-12 — Co-founded Umkhonto we Sizwe, the ANC's armed wing 5 August 1962 — Arrested near Howick, Natal 12 June 1964 — Sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rivonia Trial 11 February 1990 — Released from Victor Verster Prison after 27 years in prison 15 October 1993 — Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with F. W. de Klerk 10 May 1994 — Inaugurated as South Africa's first democratically elected president 5 December 2013 — Died at his home in Johannesburg, aged 95

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