It was Tagore who gave `Mahatma' title to Gandhi: Guj HC

Ahmedabad, Feb 19: Seeking to end the confusion caused by the answer key of job exam held by a Rajkot local body, the Gujarat High Court today declared that it was poet Rabindranath Tagore who first used the title `Mahatma' for Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

Justice J B Pardiwala, while disposing of a petition, noted that all school textbooks give the credit for the Mahatma title of Gandhi to Tagore. Sandhya Maru, a candidate, had moved the HC challenging the answer key of the examination conducted by Rajkot District Panchayat Sikshan Samiti for the post of panchayat talati.

Maru said that due to ambiguity about who called Gandhi a Mahatma first, she lost marks as the examination had negative marking system. As per the key released by the Samiti, the answer to the question was an "unknown journalist".

Maru had also challenged the answers to two other questions: which is the longest river of India and which article comes before the word `Mt Everest'. As per the key, answers are Brahmaputra and `a'. The court made it clear that longest river of India is Ganga while the word Mt Everest will not have any article (a, an or the) before it.

The court directed the Samiti to make changes in the result of the petitioner by adding appropriate marks.

PTI