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An educator to national unity, Gandhi aimed at providing contemporary India with a new common platform of work and thought. While certain points in his program sounded familiar to all Indians, some others did create problems of understanding specially in certain provinces and among the westernized educated élite. Although the wide and quick diffusion of Gandhi's campaigns made it imperative for regional leaderships to get in tune with the all-India dimension of the movement, leaders and activists in different regions maintained a varied approach on account of their respective cultural and social background. This paper illustrates the experiences of prominent Gandhians in Bengal, and focuses both on the educated Bengalis' perception of the Mahatma, and on the most important institutions of rural reconstruction in the province. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]