On January 30, 2026, it will be 78 years since Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated. It works out to 936 months or 28,470 days roughly. The last time the name was invoked Indiawide was in December 2025, in reports about its removal from the social welfare scheme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
Eight decades after Independence, most roads don’t lead to the Mahatma, but some roads, across India, still bear his name. The oldest is in Bengaluru. It used to be called South Parade till 1948. V. Ravichandar, who calls himself an urban evangelist, says, “It was the dividing line between the old city and the cantonment area.”
After Bengaluru, Calcutta renamed a busy stretch after the Father of the Nation, an appellation that seems to have fallen into disuse in recent times. It connects two key railway junctions, Howrah and Sealdah. Earlier it was called Harrison Road. Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay’s fictional detective Byomkesh Bakshi’s initial address was — Presidency Boarding House, 66 Harrison Road.
Gujarat has many roads named after Gandhi. Ahmedabad’s Ashram Road leads to the Sabarmati Ashram. In the 1970s, Asaram Bapu built his ashram on the same road. “Now, many people think the road was named after it. My film Kaun Se Bapu? makes a reference to this,” says Mehul Devkala. “In the old city, Richie Road was renamed Gandhi Road during the freedom struggle. It was inaugurated by Jinnah. Parallel to it runs Tilak Road. Across Sabarmati River lies an arterial MG Road, which carries the city’s pulse.”
In Maharashtra, several arterial roads are named after Gandhi. Alpana Chowdhury, a Mumbai-based journalist, says, “Mahatma Gandhi Road in the erstwhile Esplanade area of Mumbai winds its way through the Flora Fountain crossroads, now known as Hutatma Chowk, past what used to be the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited tower, and on to the wide stretch that has the Bombay Gymkhana on one side and Fashion Street on the other, right up to the Art Deco cinema hall Metro.”
At the Flora Fountain end, the road has heritage buildings such as the Bombay High Court, Elphinstone College, the University of Mumbai and Cowasji Jehangir Hall, now known as the National Gallery of Modern Art. At 159-161 MG Road stands what was once known as the Prince of Wales Museum. Close by is Rampart Row where Progressive artists such as M.F. Husain and S.H. Raza held their exhibitions at the Bombay Art Society Salon.
Actor Ashok Kumar lived on Rampart Row and his couturier Stylo had its outlet there. Adds Chowdhury, “Steeped in history and also in sync with the times, Mumbai’s MG Road showcases the best of the city.”
That said, not all MG Roads are named after Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. These would be the Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road, New Delhi; Moledina Grant Road, Pune; and Munshi Ganj Road, Calcutta. Devkala says, “Pune’s famous MG Road, sometimes confused with the adjacent Moledina Road, is named after a wealthy Gujarati Muslim merchant.”
And then there are those roads that have no MG about them, only a Gandhian connect. There are two such in New Delhi — August Kranti Marg, named after the August Kranti Maidan in Mumbai from where Gandhi launched the Quit India Movement and Tees January Marg where the man breathed his last. He was 78.
J&K: Jammu 2.4km;
LADAKH Leh 1.5km;
PUNJAB Ludhiana 3km;
UTTARAKHAND Dehradun 2km;
NEW DELHI 55km;
UTTAR PRADESH Agra 6.8km; Allahabad 4.5km; Bahraich 2.2km; Kanpur 10km; Lucknow 4km;
MADHYA PRADESH Gwalior 2.2km; Indore 8.6km; CHHATTISGARH Raigarh 0.9km; Raipur 11.7km;
MAHARASHTRA Ahmednagar 3km; Akola 4km; Fort Mumbai 1.5km; Kandivali-West 2km; Ghatkopar East 2.5km; Borivali East 5km; Kandivali 3km; Goregaon 1.3km; Nashik 1.5km; Pune 3km; Thane 4km; Wardha 5km;
GOA 0.5km;
TELANGANA Secunderabad 1.21km;
PUDUCHERRY 3km;
ANDHRA PRADESH Guntur 6.34km; Ongole 2 km; Tirupati 2km; Vijayawada 4km; KARNATAKA Bengaluru 2.5km; Mangaluru 2.2km; Mysuru 11.9km; Tumkur 18.9km; Bellary 2.5km; Kolar 2.5km; Hassan 2.7km;
TAMIL NADU Chennai 3km; Coimbatore 2.6km; KERALA Kochi 4.5km; Kottayam 3km; Thiruvananthapuram 6km; Thrissur 2km; GUJARAT Ahmedabad-Vadodara 93.1km; Porbandar 2.1km; Surat 3.1km; Vadodara 1km; Veraval 6.5km;
RAJASTHAN Ajmer 3km;
JHARKHAND Ranchi 2.5km;
ODISHA Bhubaneswar 1.2km;
WEST BENGAL Calcutta 2.7km; Durgapur 6km;
SIKKIM Gangtok 1km;
ASSAM Dispur 4.4km; Uzan Bazaar 2.7km;
MEGHALAYA Shillong 2.5km;
ARUNACHAL PRADESH Namsai 0.5km;
MANIPUR Imphal 0.55km;
MIZORAM Aizawl 1km;
TRIPURA Udaipur 1.7km;
DAMAN AND DIU 7.8km;
LAKSHWADEEP Kavaratti Distance not known.
TOTAL: More than 377.3km
(The road lengths have been calculated with the help of a retired road engineer using
Google Earth and Google Maps.)
