Gandhi's Boyhood City on the Kathiawar Peninsula — the young Mohandas Gandhi studied at Alfred High School here, Rajkot's katlami pastries and rotla flatbreads are the taste of Saurashtra, and the Watson Museum preserves one of Gujarat's finest colonial collections
Rajkot is the largest city in Saurashtra (Kathiawar Peninsula) — a city of 1.5 million in western Gujarat where Mahatma Gandhi spent his formative years (1880–1891), attending Alfred High School and developing the moral foundations of his philosophy. Kaba Gandhi No Delo (Gandhi's childhood home) and Alfred High School (now Mohandas Gandhi High School) are the principal Gandhi heritage sites in the city. Rajkot was the capital of the Rajkot State (a Kathiawar princely state) under the Jadeja Rajput dynasty — the Watson Museum (1888, funded by the British Commissioner) preserves an extraordinar…
Rajkot was founded in 1620 by Vibhoji Jadeja — the chieftain of the Jadeja Rajput clan who established the Rajkot State. The city became significant under British influence as the capital of the Western India States Agency — the administrative centre for 222 Kathiawar princely states. The young Mohandas Gandhi lived here when his father Karamchand Gandhi was diwan (chief minister) of the Rajkot State. Gandhi's stay in Rajkot ended after a confrontation with the British Political Agent — an incident Gandhi described as formative in developing his resistance philosophy. After Indian independenc…