Mahadev Desai

Mahadev Haribhai Desai (1 January 1892 – 15 August 1942) was an Indian independence activist, scholar and writer best remembered as Mahatma Gandhi’s personal secretary. He has variously been described as “Gandhi’s Boswell, a Plato to Gandhi’s Socrates, as well as an Ananda to Gandhi’s Buddha”.

He is highly regarded as a translator and writer in Gujarati. He wrote several biographies such as Antyaj Sadhu Nand (1925), Sant Francis (1936), Vir Vallabhbhai (1928) and Be Khudai Khidmatgar (1936) which was a biography of Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan and his brother Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan. He was also a regular contributor to Gandhi’s publications Young India, Navjivan and the Harijanbandhu. He wrote several works in English including Gandhiji in Indian Villages (1927), With Gandhiji in Ceylon (1928), and The Story of Bardoli (1929).