Mahatma Gandhi’s Photo on Indian Currency: Who Captured His Iconic Smile? Know FULL History

We all instantly recognise the smiling face of Mahatma Gandhi when we look at our Indian currency notes. You will find his picture on everything from a 10 rupee note to the 500 and 2000 rupee notes.

Do you know when and where they took this photo?

The Gandhi photo on our currency notes is not an illustration or a painting. An unknown photographer clicked this real picture in 1946 at the Viceroy House in Delhi, which we now know as Rashtrapati Bhavan. Mahatma Gandhi went there to meet British politician Lord Pethick-Lawrence. People loved his calm expression and natural smile in this picture. Officials later cropped just his face, mirrored the image, and used it for our currency note design.

How did our currency look right after Independence?

India continued using British-era notes featuring King George VI for a few days after getting Independence in 1947. The Indian government then issued the first 1 rupee note in 1949. They added the Ashoka Pillar (Lion Capital) symbol as a watermark on it. The Reserve Bank of India printed symbols of our cultural and technological progress on notes from the 1950s to the 1980s. You could see the Aryabhata satellite, the Konark Sun Temple wheel, farmers ploughing with tractors, and various animals on these old notes.

How did Gandhi's photo finally reach our currency?

The Reserve Bank of India first printed Mahatma Gandhi's photo with a Sevagram Ashram background in 1969 to mark his 100th birth anniversary. They later introduced a new 500 rupee note featuring his picture in October 1987.

Permanent design from 1996

Counterfeiters started making fake notes easily in the 1990s because digital printing and scanning technology improved. The RBI realised that copying human facial expressions, especially the fine lines of Gandhi's smile, is much harder than copying non-living objects. They officially launched the 'Mahatma Gandhi Series' notes in 1996, since he was a universally accepted great leader across the country. His picture remains on our currency notes continuously from that time until today.