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Mahatma Gandhi, ‘Father of the Indian Nation’... and UCL graduate? |
University challenged over ‘Gandhi was graduate’ claim
A STONE’S throw from University College London’s Gower Street campus in Bloomsbury, a small hunched figure sits through the seasons, weathering the wind and rain.
The location of the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Tavistock Square is no mere coincidence for UCL: the university proudly claims the “Father of the Indian Nation” as one of its most famous alumni.
In fact, it is one of the favourite boasts of the university’s bigwigs. Only last week, as UCL showcased everything it has to offer, including a new academy school in Camden and a campus in Australia, at a ball at Mansion House, the claim that Gandhi had been one of the university’s former students was repeated.
But to Gandhi scholars it is by no means clear that the star student ever graduated from UCL – or indeed that he was there at all.
Experts, including Gandhi’s grandson, Rajmohan Gandhi, question whether the Indian leader had any ties to the university, which revels in its rank as the seventh best in the world. “He completed his Bar studies at Inner Temple,” Mr Gandhi, president of human rights NGO Initiative for Change, told the New Journal on Tuesday. “He also passed the London Matriculation examination. I do not know whether or not that examination was in any way connected to University College.”
George Paxton, editor of The Gandhi Way, the newsletter for the Gandhi Foundation, said: “Gandhi was not a graduate of UCL. In fact, he was not a graduate of any university, mainly, I would say, because he had to get through his studies as quickly as possible and return to India to start earning to pay back what he borrowed from his family, especially his older brother.”
According to Mr Paxton, Gandhi sat the university’s matriculation exams in 1890 while training to be a barrister at the Inner Temple – not part of UCL.
Research into the college archives undertaken by UCL law professor Andrew Lewis confirms a single alumnus record for “Mahatma Karamchand GANDHI”, later corrected to Gandhi’s given name, Mohandas, registered for the 1888-89 session.
But, according to Mr Lewis’s report published in a UCL Laws newsletter, Gandhi’s name is nowhere to be found in the surviving class registers for law or any other subject, meaning he may have attended lectures at UCL and not signed in. Or he might have never set foot on campus.
The university seems far more certain of the connection, however.
UCL literature for undergraduate courses reads: “By graduating from UCL you will join a group that includes Mahatma Gandhi, the poet Robert Browning, author Lynne Truss, artists Dora Carrington and Antony Gormley, the inventor Alexander Graham Bell and the band Coldplay.”
Elsewhere, programme notes on the Legal and Political Theory MA state the course “counts Mahatma Gandhi among its alumni”.
Gandhi’s autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with the Truth, provides no answers, only further questions. There are no endorsements of UCL. In fact, it is not mentioned once in the book.
The mystery is compounded by the university’s definition of alumnus, traditionally used to mean a graduate of a school or university.
A UCL spokeswoman said: “We consider the term alumnus as being synonymous with ‘former student’.
“Therefore, we do on occasion use it to describe people, such as Gandhi, who have studied here but have not necessarily completed a UCL degree.”
Gandhi is not the only famous name who did not graduate at the university but who is regarded as an alumnus by UCL.
UCL literature says opera director and writer Sir Jonathan Miller, who lives in Camden Town, is “a distinguished alumnus” because he received a research fellowship from the university in the 1970s – but Dr Miller graduated from St John’s College Cambridge in 1959. Dr Miller was also a research fellow in neuro-psychology at the University of Sussex, though it makes no claim that he is an alumnus.
The lack of clarity over Gandhi’s student status has caused confusion before – often because people from UCL repeatedly make the claim.
In February last year, the Guardian newspaper was forced to print a correction to an article that suggested Gandhi gained a law degree as an external student in India with the University of London (now UCL).
The newspaper was challenged over the claim by Ramen Bhattacharya, a former Camden mayor who lives in Belsize Park.
As glasses of champers were circulated at Mansion House last week, the confusion continued during the glittering event.
In a long list of university alumni featuring Nobel scientists and space pioneers, Lord McNally, the Lib Dem leader of the House of Lords, gave a speech which once again name-checked Gandhi, that small but powerful figure, a man who pledged to speak only truth and simply asked that others do the same.
In the records, a man called Gaudhi
THERE are three references to Gandhi in UCL’s records – the main one being an index card/student record card giving the academic year 1888-1889. It has been amended at a later date to reflect his assassination in 1947.
The spokeswoman added: “The other reference can be found in the Professors’ Fees Book for 1888-89, where he appears to be listed for two terms under Professor Henry Morley, who taught English.
“There is also a reference to ‘Gaudhi’, a spelling mistake which is believed to refer to Gandhi, in the calendar for 1889-90, which details students from the preceding year. Students of arts, laws and the sciences are all grouped together rather than under subject headings on this document.”
And six who gained UCL degrees
* Alexander Graham Bell: Scottish innovator credited with the invention of the telephone was a student at UCL during the 1860s.
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Raymond Briggs: Illustrator and author of The Snowman, graduated from the Slade in 1957.
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Chris Martin: Coldplay singer and Belsize Park resident gained a first in Greek and Latin.
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David Gower: The former England cricketer-turned-TV commentator headed to UCL after missing an Oxford offer.
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Fiona Millar: Journalist and educational campaigner, is a former economics and economic history student.
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Ricky Gervais: Star of The Office intended to study biology but switched to philosophy, later leaving with an upper second. |
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