ABSTRACT
There are strange similarities in the pattern of Lenin’s and Gandhi’s birth and death. They were born within a few months of each other and in middle-class families. Gandhi was assassinated by anti-revolutionary forces. Lenin’s premature death was the result of a similar attempt. Both died within a few years of achieving their first objective, their people’s freedom. Both Lenin and Gandhi helped their nations to face these crises creatively, but when the time came for them to apply their ideas to the reconstruction of their countries, both died. Many characteristics of Lenin’s and Gandhi’s concepts of future society are identical. Lenin knew that ‘the transition to Socialism requires complete transformation of thinking, a whole period of cultural development’. The works of Lenin and Gandhi provide a most fascinating basis to make the debate meaningful and not limit it to being just another academic exercise.
