Mahatma Gandhi Coloring Pages
These printable sheets help students learn about India's leader of nonviolent resistance. You will find recognizable scenes for history lessons, including his peaceful marches, time at the spinning wheel, and interactions with villagers.
Mahatma Gandhi Coloring Pages
These sheets feature recognizable portraits of Gandhi wearing his round glasses, writing, and greeting people.
Salt March and Walking with the Staff
These illustrations show Gandhi leading his followers on peaceful protests and gathering salt by the sea.
Spinning Wheel and Ashram Life
Color scenes of Gandhi's daily life, including his time working at the traditional spinning wheel and sitting under a banyan tree.
More pages to explore
Related coloring pages on Color Confetti.
All 13 more: Martin Luther King (32), India (33), Portrait (29), Civil Rights (27), Peace Sign (20), Social Justice (20), Equality (21), Freedom (21), Kindness (33), Leadership (18), Wisdom (17), Respect (20) and Geography (26).
Ready to print for home, preschool and classroom.
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Teaching Nonviolent Resistance
When teaching about civil rights and peaceful protest, these coloring sheets provide a helpful visual aid for the classroom. Students can learn how Gandhi's philosophy of Satyagraha influenced other global leaders and movements. You can pair these printables with our Martin Luther King Jr. pages to discuss how nonviolent resistance shaped modern history. The illustrations of the Salt March specifically show how a simple act of walking to the Arabian Sea to gather salt became a powerful political statement against British colonial rule and unjust taxation.
The Significance of the Spinning Wheel
Many of these pictures show Gandhi sitting with a charkha, or traditional spinning wheel. He used this tool daily to spin yarn and make his own cloth, known as khadi, to encourage economic independence in India. Coloring the ashram life scenes gives teachers a chance to explain why making simple homespun cloth was a vital part of the boycott against imported British goods. Children will also notice the three wise monkeys in one of the drawings, a small statue Gandhi kept to represent the principle of seeing, hearing, and speaking no evil.
Coloring Tips for Historical Accuracy
For a realistic look, students can use earthy tones to color these historical scenes. Gandhi traditionally wore a white dhoti and shawl, so colorists can focus on shading the folds of the cotton fabric with light grays and soft blues. The backgrounds offer opportunities to use warm browns, greens, and dusty yellows to depict the Indian landscape, village crowds, and his iconic wooden walking staff.
- Use sepia or grayscale tones to make the portraits look like vintage historical photographs.
- Add vibrant colors to the flower garlands draped around Gandhi's neck by the village children.
- Keep the ashram settings natural with muted greens for the banyan trees and earthy browns for the low wooden desks.