Ela Gandhi

Ela Gandhi (born 1 July 1940), is a South African peace activist and former politician. She served as a Member of Parliament in South Africa from 1994 to 2004, where she aligned with the African National Congress (ANC) party representing the Phoenix area of Inanda in the KwaZulu-Natal province. Her parliamentary committee assignments included the Welfare, and Public Enterprises committees as well as the ad hoc committee on Surrogate Motherhood. She was an alternate member of the Justice Committee and served on Theme Committee 5 on Judiciary and Legal Systems. She is the granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi.

Early life Ela Gandhi was born in Durban, South Africa. Her father Manilal Gandhi was editor of the Indian Opinion and ran the Phoenix Settlement; it had been founded by her grandfather Mahatma Gandhi and it was where she grew up. She received her B.A. degree at the former Natal University and later received a B.A. in social science with honors from UNISA. Following graduation, she worked as a social worker with the Verulam Child and Family Welfare Society for 15 years and the Durban Indian Child and Family Welfare Society for five years.

She married Mewa Ramgobin and had five children. One son was shot dead in a home invasion in 1993 and their daughter Ashish Lata Ramgobin was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to seven years imprisonment in 2021. During apartheid, Gandhi was banned in 1975 from political activism and subjected to house arrest for a total of nine years.

Awards and recognitions

In 2002, Gandhi received the Community of Christ International Peace Award. In 2014, she was also honoured as a veteran of the Umkhonto we Sizwe. The Embassy of India Student Hub, Washington, D.C., invited Ela Gandhi to speak to over 15,000 graduating students in the Class of 2020 during a virtual graduation ceremony.