Why Mahatma Gandhi never received Nobel Peace Prize? Despite numerous nominations, Mahatma Gandhi was never given the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Nobel accolade panel gave an explanation of why Mohandas Gandhi, who became the 20th century’s poster child for nonviolence, was not given the accolade on the day of his 154th birthday.
He received nominations in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947, and then just a few days prior to his murder in January 1948.
Many people believe it was a mistake not to present Mahatma Gandhi with the award prior to his passing in 1948.
He was chosen as one of the thirteen candidates in 1937 after being recommended by Norwegian parliamentarian Ole Colbjornsen.
Why Mahatma Gandhi never received Nobel Peace Prize?
Gandhi was criticised by several members of the panel who claimed that he wasn’t always pacifist and that some of his nonviolent activities against the British would turn violent and terrorising.
They used the first Non-Cooperation Movement as an example, which occurred in 1920–1921, when a mob attacked a police station in Chauri Chaura, in the United Provinces of British India’s Gorakhpur region, and killed numerous officers.
Some, according to the panel, were of the view that his ideals were primarily Indian and not universal. The Nobel committee’s adviser Jacob S Worm-Muller said, “One might say that it is significant that his well-known struggle in South Africa was on behalf of the Indians only, and not of the blacks whose living conditions were even worse.”
The recipient of the 1937 prize was Lord Cecil of Chelwood. In 1938 and 1939, Colbjornsen once more nominated Mahatma Gandhi, but it would be ten years before Gandhi was again on the short list.
One of the six candidates on the committee’s short list in 1947 was Mohandas Gandhi.
In spite of the conflict between India and Pakistan, three of the five members were adamantly opposed to Gandhi receiving the medal. The Quakers won the prize in 1947.
Two days before the deadline for nominations for the 1948 Nobel Peace Prize, on January 30, Mahatma Gandhi was killed. Six letters of nomination—some of which came from previous laureates—were forwarded to the committee.
However, no one had ever received a posthumous Nobel Peace Prize. In accordance with the Nobel Foundation’s then-current laws, posthumous awards of the prizes were permitted in some situations.
August Schou, the former director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, sought input from the Swedish organisations that bestowed prizes.
The responses were unfavourable because they believed that posthumous awards shouldn’t be given out until the laureate passed away after the committee had made its choice.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee decided that “there was no suitable living candidate” in that year, hence there was no award given.
Mahatma Gandhi’s spot on the list of laureates was discreetly but respectfully left empty, contrary to popular belief.
Furthermore, until 1960, Europeans and Americans received the Nobel Peace Prize nearly exclusively.
The panel explained that Gandhi was very different from earlier laureates. “He was no real politician or proponent of international law, not primarily a humanitarian relief worker and not an organiser of international peace congresses. He would have belonged to a new breed of Laureates,” it said.
“There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for.”
Remembering Mahatma Gandhi the evening before his 154th birthday. Gandhi was nominated for the #NobelPeacePrize on 12 occasions.
Read more: https://t.co/Q3cniIiZG9 pic.twitter.com/bwu4CnOP72
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 1, 2023
