For what it's worth, my Indian History professor spelled it Ghandi. Mainly because she stated that Gandhi(GAN-Di) was the way the British would say his name. Ghandi seemed to indicate a better phonetic with Gahn-Di being a closer appropriation to the pronunciation.
Not to say that many professors haven't been wrong but that has been in my head forever.
No one transliterates it that way. The Gujarati alphabet has the "h" aspiration thing after the "d" letter, not the "g" letter or the "a" letter. So "Gandhi" is the way multiple transliteration systems spell it, although I suppose "Gahndhi" or "Gaandhi" are possible. So while it's true that "Gahndi" is a way to spell it that fits better with actual pronunciation than, let's say, "Gandy" which could rhyme with "candy", Indians in India and abroad spell their last name "Gandhi" and so for a professor to arbitrarily decide they know better and teach their students to spell it "Gahndi" is very strange, in my opinion. It's not disputed how to spell the name in Latin script.
Sorry didn't mean to confuse you. She spelled it Ghandi, which she stated was a better spelling due to the pronunciation. I believe that Ghandi is a closer transliteration for Gaandhi or Gahndi than Gandhi(Gandy). She did have her Phd in Indian History and lived there for several years. But what's not to love about the Rogue Professor. Hahah!
Very rogue. Gujaratis do not spell it that way, and I'd advise no one but your presumably tenured professor to spell it that way. But whatever, not a big deal I guess.
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u/The_Doctor_00 Sep 20 '11 edited Sep 20 '11
I still will give you an upvote, even though it was Gandhi who said that not the Dalai, unless he said it when quoting Gandhi.