A: Mohandas “Mahatma” (Great-Souled) Gandhi -– the Susan Lucci of Nobel Peace Prize contenders –- was routinely nominated for the award: 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947, and 1948. He certainly deserved it; his nonviolent methods helped oust the British from India, and he became the model for future Peace Prize laureates like Martin Luther King, Jr.
When Gandhi received his final nomination in 1948, he was the odds-on favorite to win (Jimmy the Greek was paying 2 to 1 in Vegas). Unfortunately, Gandhi was assassinated just a few days before the deadline. Since the Nobel Prize is never awarded posthumously, the committee chose not to award the peace prize to anyone that year on the grounds that there was “no suitable living candidate.”
Also factored in was the fact that Gandhi left no heirs or foundations to which his prize money could go. However unfortunate we may think it is that Gandhi never lived to claim his prize, one imagines that he himself would’ve been okay with it. After all, as he succinctly put it: “Peace is its own reward.”
Article comments
1 - Mayank Austen Soofi
Thank God he never became a Nobel laureate. Gandhiji is too big for the Nobel. He do not belong to the community of mortal men and women.
2 - richard napier. ( YEOVIL)
YOU SILLY FOOL COURSE HE DID
3 - connor swain (has no friends)
i am a crazy animal
4 - Christopher Rose
Maybe because you're really a wazzock called Johnny Nomates from Yeovil?
5 - Truth
If Gandhi didn't get the Nobel Peace Prize then I feel the Nobel Peace Prize is a JOKE. The most undeserving candidate was Obama. What did he do that he got the peace prize in just 6 months of his presidency?
6 - AKHIL
he is great
7 - Igor
I don't think Gandhi ever gave it a thought. He was smart, smart in a way that few appreciate.
I remember when I was a kid in the 1940s we'd go to the theater for a movie and they'd show "Movietone News", which had the greatest all-time intro as a movie camera pivoted around so that you were looking right into the lenses!
Often they'd show film of this skinny little guy running around talking to people! All he had was a white toga, not even a hat. No uniform, no battle ribbons, no sword dangling at his waist! And people lined up to hear him. Famous people from around the world. He wasn't a king, he wasn't a general. That was Gandhi.
8 - Glenn Contrarian
Igor -
You were a kid in the 1940's - man, but I'd love the chance to sit down and hear some of your stories! You really should write them down, that the rest of us can benefit from your experience.
9 - Igor
Better hurry: I'm 76 and not getting better!
What I notice the most is the tremendous amount of revisionist history that we get. Sometimes it's just because of ignorance, but often it's people with an axe to grind, or people ashamed of their own past.