There is much evidence that in his last years Gandhi was in a kind of spiritual retreat and, with all his endless praying and fasting, was no longer pursuing (the very words seem strange in a Hindu context) "the public good." What he was pursuing, in a strict reversion to Hindu tradition, was his personal holiness. In earlier days he had scoffed at the title accorded him, Mahatma (literally "great soul").
But toward the end, during the hideous paroxysms that accompanied independence, with some of the most unspeakable massacres taking place in Calcutta, he declared, "And if the whole of Calcutta swims in blood, it will not dismay me. For it will be a willing offering of innocent blood." And in his last days, after there had already been one attempt on his life, he was heard to say, "*I am a true Mahatma.*"
Cordially,
Gandhi stayed away from Delhi to stop the bloodshed in Calcutta & elsewhere while India gained independence.He was on one of his numerous fasts to death to prevent the bloodshed in Calcutta-so I don't know where you got that nugget from.About the "I am a Mahatma" part,well what he said was if he took an assasin's bullet with the name of God on his lips,ONLY THEN can I be considered as a true Mahatma-which he did.