By Kalim Ahmed

The image of a letter from a book has been widely circulating on social media and on Whatsapp with the claim that it is the copy of the memorandum through which the British Raj officially recognized the title of ‘Mahatma’ assigned to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

The letter dated September 2, 1938, is addressed to various departments of the province and says, “In future, Mr. Gandhi should be referred to in all correspondence as ‘Mahatma Gandhi’.”

A request was forwarded to the Alt News helpline (+91 7600011160) with an accompanying caption that read, “Gandhi was made Mahatma by Britishers n not by PPL of India. Do u need any other proof?” Alt News has also received a request on its official app to verify the authenticity of this claim.

Prominent Twitter users like Rishi Bagree who has a history of sharing factually inaccurate information, have also shared the text on the platform. Bagree’s tweet read, “It is interesting to see the memorandum of the British government through which Mr. Gandhi became Mahatma Gandhi officially.”

https://twitter.com/rishibagree/status/1610212015951450112?t=2lKe8Z54egpGeZXNoqTd3Q&s=19

The claim is circulating widely on Facebook. Below we have added a screen recording to show the virality of the post.

Fact Check

We first noticed that the viral memorandum was issued by the Government of the Central Provinces and Berar in the year 1938. The letter appears to be part of some historical text and it also has a description at the end that says, “An office order of the Congress government in the Central Provinces in 1938, instructing all (and especially British) officials to henceforth refer to Gandhi as ‘Mahatma’.

In the book ‘History of the Central Provinces and Berar‘, published in 1917, it is mentioned that the formation of the Province happened in 1861 as Nagpur, Saugor and Nerbudda territories were too remote from the headquarters of any local government to be efficiently administered (p.156). Berar became a part of the province after an agreement had been entered into with the Nizam of Hyderabad. It came into effect in October 1903, when Berar was transferred to the administration of the chief commissioner of the Central Provinces (p.166).

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https://www.altnews.in/who-gave-the-title-mahatma-to-mk-gandhi-certainly-not-the-british/