Kanu Gandhi

Kanu Gandhi (1917 – 20 February 1986) was an Indian photographer. He was a grandnephew of Mahatma Gandhi who lived with him in several of his ashrams and was a member of his personal staff. He is best remembered as Gandhi's photographer, recording many moments of Gandhi's life on film from 1938 until his assassination in 1948. Following Gandhi's death, Kanu and his wife Abha moved to Rajkot where they ran a rural centre named after Gandhi's wife Kasturba Gandhi. Abha was one of the companions with Gandhi at Birla House Delhi, when Godse shot Gandhi .

Early life Kanu was born to Narandas Gandhi, a nephew of the Mahatma's and a manager at his Sabarmati Ashram, and Jamuna Gandhi in 1917. Kanu spent his early life with his parents in the ashram at Sabarmati – where his parents moved to when he was only two – and, later, at Wardha. He received his education at the Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad.

With Gandhi Only 15, he was jailed for his participation in the Civil Disobedience Movement. Although he wanted to be a doctor, that was not to be and he joined Gandhi's personal staff at Wardha where he supervised clerical, correspondence and accounting functions from 1936 till 1948.

Gandhi's photographer It was Shivaji Bhave, Vinobha Bhave's brother, on a visit to Wardha, who first asked Kanu to take up photography to capture events at the Ashram. When Kanu approached Gandhi with the request, Gandhi turned him down due to paucity of funds. The industrialist GD Birla, an associate of Gandhi's gave Kanu 100 to buy his camera, a Rolleiflex, and a roll of film. From 1938 until Gandhi's death ten years later, Kanu took many personal photographs of the Mahatma.

Gandhi allowed Kanu to photograph him on three conditions: that he use no flash, that he never be asked to pose and that his photography would not be funded by the Ashram. Kanu met the costs of photography through a monthly stipend of 100 paid to him by Amritlal Gandhi of Vandemataram who had purchased a photograph of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel from him.

Kanu however was forbidden by Gandhi from capturing Kasturba's last moments as she lay dying on his lap during his incarceration at the Aga Khan Palace in Pune. Years later as Gandhi died in Abha's lap at Birla House, Delhi, Kanu was away at Noakhali where Gandhi had ordered him to stay. Kanu's original photographs remained in obscurity until they were acquired by a German collector, Peter Ruhe, in the 1980s who traced similar material and began to market them. In 2007, Ruhe proposed to sell his collection of photographs and film to the Sabarmati Ashram Trust for 5 million. These again came up for a private sale in 2012. The attempts to auction off Gandhi memorabilia generated much controversy in India.

After Gandhi Following Gandhi's assassination in 1948, Kanu and Abha Gandhi shifted to Rajkot where they ran the Kasturbadham and Rashtriyashala institutes. Kanu's ultimate legacy remains "as not just a photographer but a photo-biographer of Gandhi" who did through his camera "what Mahadev Desai and Pyarelal did to immortalise Gandhi through their memoirs and biographical writings".