In India, the first major public appearance of Mahatma Gandhi was in

Mahatma Gandhi returned to India from South Africa in January 1915 [6]. On the advice of his political mentor, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, he spent his first year traveling across the country to understand the land and its people [6]. His first major public appearance occurred in February 1916 at the inauguration of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) [6]. During this event, Gandhi delivered a significant speech where he criticized the elite nature of Indian nationalism and expressed his desire to make the movement more representative of the poor peasants and workers [6]. While his first active leadership in a satyagraha movement took place in Champaran in 1917, followed by Kheda and Ahmedabad in 1918, the BHU inauguration remains his first significant public platform in India [6].

Sources

1. [4] THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY PART III, History CLASS XII (NCERT 2025 ed.) > Chapter 11: MAHATMA GANDHI AND THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT > 1. A Leader Announces Himself > p. 287
2. [6] https://ncert.nic.in/textbook/pdf/lehs303.pdf
3. [5] THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY PART III, History CLASS XII (NCERT 2025 ed.) > Chapter 11: MAHATMA GANDHI AND THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT > 1. A Leader Announces Himself > p. 288
4. [1] THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY PART III, History CLASS XII (NCERT 2025 ed.) > Chapter 11: MAHATMA GANDHI AND THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT > Fig. 11.17 > p. 314
5. [2] India and the Contemporary World – II. History-Class X . NCERT(Revised ed 2025) > Chapter 2: Nationalism in India > New words > p. 31
6. [3] THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY PART III, History CLASS XII (NCERT 2025 ed.) > Chapter 11: MAHATMA GANDHI AND THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT > 2. The Making and Unmaking of Non-cooperation > p. 289