Why was Mahatma Gandhi’s nomination for the Nobel peace prize ignored or rejected though nominated five times? The topic came up again on 7th October 2016 when The Norwegian Nobel Committee declared the Nobel Peace Prize for 2016 to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. The essence of the debate is the same every year.

    At least eight global leaders who got Nobel peace prize viz., Albert Luthuli (1960), Martin Luther King Jr. (USA), Dalai Lama (Tibet), Aung San Suu Kyi (Myanmar), Nelson Mandela (S. Africa) Adolfo Perez Esquivel (Argentina) Barack Hussein Obama (US) and Kailash Satyarthi (India) have acknowledged the fact that they were influenced by the philosophy of Gandhi. Yet, Mahatma Gandhi; the man who inspired these Nobel Peace Prize winners, never got a Nobel Prize! Unfortunately, people who actually deserve recognition often get ignored.

   Øyvind Tønnesson, Nobelprize.org Peace Editor, 1998-....