Gopalkrishna Gandhi

• Name — Gopalkrishna Gandhi • Office2 — Governor of Bihar (additional charge) • 1blankname2 — Chief Minister • 1namedata2 — Nitish Kumar • Term Start2 — 31 January 2006 • Term End2 — 21 June 2006 • Predecessor2 — Buta Singh • Successor2 — R. S. Gavai • Office1 — 17th Governor of West Bengal • 1blankname1 — Chief Minister • 1namedata1 — Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee • Term Start1 — 14 December 2004 • Term End1 — 14 December 2009 • Predecessor1 — Viren J. Shah • Successor1 — Devanand Konwar (additional charge) • Birth Name — Gopalkrishna Devadas Gandhi • Born — 22 April 1945 • Birthplace — Delhi, British India • Party — Independent • Spouse — Tara Gandhi • Children — 2 • Alma Mater — St. Stephen's College, Delhi • Occupation — Professor of History and Politics at Ashoka University • Father — Devdas Gandhi • Relatives — Ramchandra Gandhi (brother) Rajmohan Gandhi (brother) Mahatma Gandhi (paternal grandfather) Kasturba Gandhi (paternal grandmother) C. Rajagopalachari (maternal grandfather)

Gopalkrishna Devadas Gandhi was born on 22 April 1945 in Delhi, to Devdas and Lakshmi Gandhi. His father was a journalist. Gandhi graduated with a master's degree in English literature from St. Stephen's College.

He joined IAS as an officer in 1968 and served in Tamil Nadu state till 1985. Thereafter, he remained secretary to the Vice President of India (1985–1987) and secretary to the President of India (1987–1992). In 1992, after retiring voluntarily from the IAS, he became minister (culture) in high commission of India, UK and director of The Nehru Centre, London, UK. This was followed by various diplomatic and administrative positions for the rest of his career, including high commissioner of India to South Africa and Lesotho (1996), secretary to the president of India (1997–2000), high commissioner of India in Sri Lanka (2000), and ambassador of India to Norway, and Iceland (2002). On 14 December 2004, he was appointed Governor of West Bengal following the expiry of the term of office of incumbent Viren J. Shah. He was succeeded by Devanand Konwar, who was given additional charge of West Bengal. For a few months in 2006 he also took on additional duties as the Governor of Bihar. He was the chairman of Kalakshetra Foundation, Chennai from December 2011 to May 2014. In 2015, he translated the Tamil classic, the Tirukkural, into English. He was the chairman of governing body of Indian Institute of Advanced Study, and president of its society on 5 March 2012 and served until May 2014. Gandhi teaches at Ashoka University, where he is a professor of history and politics.

While delivering the 15th D P Kohli Memorial Lecture for CBI on "Eclipse at Noon: Shadows Over India's Conscience" with nearly 3000 officers of the agency in the audience, Gandhi noted that "The CBI is seen as the government's hatchet, rather than honesty's ally. It is often called DDT — meaning not the dichloro diphenyl trichloroethane, the colourless, tasteless, odourless insecticide it should be, but the department of dirty tricks." In 2015, he wrote a letter to the then President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, to reconsider the rejection of the mercy plea of the 1993 Mumbai serial blast convict, Yakub Memon.

His paternal grandfather was Mahatma Gandhi and maternal grandfather was C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji). He is the son of Devadas Gandhi and Lakshmi Gandhi. Gopalkrishna Gandhi is the younger brother of Rajmohan Gandhi and Ramchandra Gandhi. He and his wife Tara have two daughters.