US church baptises Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi has been baptised in proxy by a US church.

Mahatma Gandhi has been baptised in proxy by a US church.

Gandhi was baptised by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) — popularly known as Mormon Church and headquartered in Salt Lake City in Utah — on March 27, 1996. The confirmation was completed on November 17, 2007 at Sao Paulo Brazil Temple, according to researcher Helen Radkey.

Radkey, who has been excommunicated by the Mormons, made the revelation in an email to Nevada-based Hindu activist, Rajan Zed.

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Radkey said she viewed the record on Gandhi's baptism on February 16 but it had since disappeared and was no longer available in the church’s database.

Radkey has been in news because of bringing out in public unknown facts of the Mormon Church, one of the fastest growing churches in the US.

“My copies of the Gandhi record are dated February 16, 2012. The record disappeared shortly after that date. I assume Mormons did not want others to know about Gandhi's baptism,” she told PTI.

Arun Gandhi, a grandson of Gandhi who lives in New York, told The Huffington Post he was “surprised” to hear about the posthumous baptism. “It bothers me in the sense that people are doing something when a person is dead and gone and there is nobody to answer for that person,” he said.