Gandhi: The Man Who Needed No Postal Address

I recall a few months ago not receiving a critical mail delivery because the postal address on the envelope was incomplete. Did you know that Mahatma Gandhi received letters addressed to him but without his postal address? The name was adequate. Being a Mahatma or a famous personality certainly has its perks. M. K. Gandhi sailed and returned from South Africa to India on 9th January in 1915. He with his wife, Kasturba Gandhi first landed at the Apollo Bunder in Bombay. Then in the same year he went to Gujarat and on May 25, 1915, Gandhi built his first ashram in India in the Kochrab neighborhood of Ahmedabad. Later after a few years on 17 June 1917, the ashram was relocated to a plot of open land along the banks of the Sabarmati River and it came to be known as the Sabarmati Asharam. However, Gandhi faced a number of challenges in order to retain this ashram. His friend, Ambalal Sarabhai who was one of the leading industrialists in Ahmedabad through his financial assistance helped Gandhi to save his ashram. Also, because Gandhi was politically active, so he would often travel to various places and there were occasions when he would be incarcerated because of his freedom struggle movements. For instance, on 8 August 1942, when the Quit India Movement was launched by Gandhi at the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee, the British colonial government arrested him along with other Congress leaders and Gandhi was held in the Agha Khan Palace in Pune (MH). His participation in the freedom struggle movement and mobilization of the masses helped him garner widespread popular support, not just in British India but also internationally. He would receive letters of admiration from all over. Here are some utterly interesting letters sent to Gandhi which had no mention of his address. 

Sabarmati Ashram, Sabarmati, Ahmedabad, Gujarat (GJ)

Source: Dr. Richa Singh

In one letter, he was called "The King of India" and the postal address mentioned was simply P. O. Yerawada Jail which is located in Pune (MH). It was at the Yerawada Central Jail that the famous Poona Pact was signed between Gandhi and Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar on 24 September 1932. In many such letters, Gandhi's name would be mentioned and the place such as Delhi, Kolkata, Wardha, Shimla, Mahabaleshwar, Juhu (Bombay), etc. or the name of the jail where he was imprisoned.    

Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad

Source: Dr. Richa Singh

In the above picture, as you can read, in one of the letters sent to him the address of Gandhi written is simply "wherever he is" along with the name of the place i.e. Wardha.

Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad

Source: Dr. Richa Singh

Indeed, Mahatma Gandhi was a man who had no need for a postal address. The letters reached him wherever he was!