When Gandhiji sought permission to practice as barrister...

Gandhiji's 1891 application to the Bombay High Court on display at the High Court bench at Dharwad

Gandhiji's 1891 application to the Bombay High Court on display at the High Court bench at Dharwad. Photo: Special Arrangement

In the month when the nation remembers the Father of the Nation, the immediate picture that comes to one’s mind is that of an elderly person clad in half dhoti and shawl and wearing spectacles.

While whole world knows about Mahatma Gandhi’s simple life style and his struggle for Independence, not many know about his days as a legal professional and the his days as a barrister. Now, the Dharwad Bench of High Court of Karnataka has on display a memorabilia related to the beginning of Gandiji’s legal career.

As a 19-year-old, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi had left India for the first time on September 4, 1888, to get enrolled in the centuries-old law institute Inner Temple in London. Having become a barrister, M.K. Gandhi returned to his homeland in June 1891 and shifted from Rajkot to Mumbai after having decided to practice in the Bombay High Court.

At Mumbai (then Bombay) Mr Gandhi submitted an application written in his own handwriting to the ‘Prothonotary and Registrar of High Court of Judicature, Bombay’ on November 16, 1891. The application in which Mr M.K. Gandhi mentions that he is “desirous of being admitted as advocate of the high court” is now on display at the bar association of High Court at Dharwad, thanks to the initiative taken by senior criminal lawyer V.G. Patil.

Inspiring the young

Mr. Patil told The Hindu that the objective was to make the young generation of lawyers to feel proud that they belonged to the same profession as that of Mahatma Gandhiji. The application along with the barrister certificate of Mr Gandhi was found in the archives of Bombay High Court, which subsequently published it. “What is on display now is a copy of the application and the barrister certificate,” he said.

Last week when Chief Justice of Karnataka Justice D.H. Waghela visited High Court Dharwad Bench, Mr Patil presented a framed memorabilia containing the application to him, who evinced interest in the historical document.

Mr V.G. Patil is hoping that the memorabilia gets displayed in all the courts across the nation as a means to motivate the younger lawyers.