Pyarelal Nayar (1899-1982) was born in Kunjah, India (now a part of Pakistan). Pyarelal first saw Gandhi give a talk when he was a college student and attended a meeting of the Indian National Congress in 1919. The next year, Pyarelal decided to quit graduate school (he had been studying for his Master’s degree in English literature at Government College, Lahore) to join the Noncooperation Movement. The Noncooperation Movement, which was led by Gandhi from 1920-1922, was a nonviolent anticolonial campaign wherein Gandhi asked his fellow Indian citizens to boycott colonial rule by refusing to buy imported British products and by withdrawing from colonial-run schools and positions of employment. 

Pyarelal was drawn to Gandhi’s nonviolent activism and his idealism, and he soon joined the Sabarmati Ashram community. While living there, Pyarelal was increasingly incorporated into Gandhi’s inner circle. In 1930, when Gandhi launched the Salt March from Sabarmati Ashram, Pyarelal was one of the seventy-eight residents who was selected to march at Gandhi’s side throughout the nonviolent march and to help lead the protest.

Pyarelal Nayar also lived at Sevagram Ashram. During these years he continued to serve as a close aide to Gandhi, and became one of Gandhi’s personal secretaries. His professional duties in this role entailed keeping a record of all of Gandhi’s correspondence and talks, as well as copyediting his writing; he also engaged in personal service of Gandhi such as cooking and cleaning for him. Pyarelal spent a total of twenty-seven years living with Gandhi. After Gandhi’s assassination in 1948, Pyarelal remained devoted to him, spending the next several decades writing a multi-volume biography of Gandhi, among other works.