Tushar Arun Gandhi is the grandson of Manilal Gandhi, son of journalist Arun Manilal Gandhi, and great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. Born on a train between Mumbai and Kolkata, he grew up in Santacruz, Mumbai, and attended Adarsh Vinay Mandir, a local Gujarati-medium school. He holds a diploma in printing from the Government Institute of Printing Technology, Mumbai.
Tushar Gandhi is renowned for founding the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation in Vadodara, Gujarat in 1998. Currently serving as its President, the foundation is now based in Mumbai. He has also been the President of the Lok Seva Trust since 1996, an NGO established by a nephew of Mahatma Gandhi for the welfare of textile mill workers in central Bombay.
His contributions extend beyond his philanthropic endeavors. In 2000, Tushar Gandhi portrayed himself in the Tamil-Hindi movie "Hey Ram," directed by Kamal Hassan. He also appeared in the semi-fictional film "Road to Sangam" in 2009, based on an episode from his own life. Tushar Gandhi authored the nonfiction book "Let's Kill Gandhi," which became a bestseller in India in 2007.
In 2008, he was appointed Chairman of the Australian Indian Rural Development Foundation (AIRDF). He played a significant role in successfully petitioning the Supreme Court of India in 2018 to enforce orders curbing cow-vigilante lynch mobs. Tushar Gandhi became a Director of the Gandhi Research Foundation in Jalgaon, Maharashtra in 2019, further contributing to the preservation and study of Mahatma Gandhi's legacy.