When Gandhi Taught Islam to a Canadian Muslim: Journalist Ali Velshi Shares His Family Connection with Mahatma Gandhi

Key Point:

Canadian journalist Ali Velshi’s rise to the spotlight did not happen overnight. Velshi has been a professional journalist for decades. From starting as a general assignment reporter to becoming a business reporter, he was recently promoted to chief data reporter at MS NOW. The veteran journalist's rise to the top was supported by his widely known contributions to CNN’s news show Your Money, Al Jazeera America, among other milestones.

However, what many people are not aware of is the lesser-known connection that Ali Velshi has with Indian freedom fighter Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, predominantly known as Mahatma Gandhi. Velshi has shared the story of how his great-grandfather was “buddies” with Gandhi and how his achievements today have been shaped by his ancestral history and his predecessor's brush with democracy years ago.

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Velshi recently spoke about his family connection with Mahatma Gandhi on The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart. The episode, titled The State of Things with Ali Velshi, posted on YouTube on February 26, 2026, revealed a lesser-known part of his family history, when his grandfather was the youngest member of Gandhi’s commune. Hearing this, Stewart reacted with surprise.

Velshi and Stewart were discussing the financialization of the media following the evident financialization of the economy and elections. Velshi stated, “The media was always political.” Stewart joked, “Whoever owned pamphleteers were the Elon Musk of their time.”

Velshi proposed a solution to protect freedom of speech in the media by forming a collective in which funding would not be entirely dependent on external sources. Stewart then shouted, “Are you asking me to join a commune?” At this point, Velshi shared a piece of family lore, revealing that his grandfather was the youngest member of Gandhi's commune.

He shared the story of the time when his great-grandfather sent his seven-year-old grandfather to live in Gandhi's commune among 70 other people. Velshi told Stewart that his great-grandfather was “buddies” with the renowned freedom fighter.

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The veteran Canadian journalist has always been open about his immigrant roots and has shared the story of how his family moved from India to Kenya, South Africa, Canada, and the United States. He has spoken on several occasions about the challenges and struggles faced by Indian immigrants living abroad. Ali Velshi is a Muslim of Gujarati descent whose family moved to Kenya in 1961.

Velshi’s great-grandfather and Gandhi were from Gujarat and were living in South Africa at the time. Gandhi was a practising lawyer when he met Velshi’s great-grandfather, a businessman whom he met through a common Gujarati-speaking bookkeeper. When Gandhi went to Pretoria, the capital of South Africa, to fight the government, he stayed at Velshi’s great-grandfather’s house. Around the same time, in 1907, Gandhi told him about starting an ashram and asked his son (Velshi’s grandfather) to live in the commune.

“I want your son to be an inmate,” Velshi narrated.

Stewart paused and laughed hysterically at the “inmate” part of the story. Velshi joked, “No, I am calling him an inmate because it was a horrible place, right? You had no running water. You had no meat. Nothing.” Stewart laughed at Velshi’s wording and said, “Not a good sales pitch!”

As the story continued, Velshi noted that his great-grandfather was fond of Gandhi but “did not want his son getting involved with this rabble-rouser.” So he came up with an excuse to dismiss Gandhi's offer. Velshi’s great-grandfather pulled the religion card and told Gandhi that he was a Hindu and his son was a Muslim. “Who will teach him his religion?” Velshi’s great-grandfather asked.

Gandhi replied with a witty response, saying that he would learn the child’s religion and teach it to the seven-year-old. Velshi concluded the story by saying, “So my family learned Islam from a Hindu.”

Stewart called Ali Velshi’s family history with Gandhi the “best buried lead story” he had ever heard.

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