The history of the afoxé group Filhos de Gandhy, which in 1999 completed 50 years. The group has paraded since 1949 on the streets of Salvador, during Carnival, having as its flag the pacifist ideals of the Indian political leader Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948), the Mahatma (the great soul). In fact, when it emerged, the bloc acted as a platform, a way of circumventing the then ban of the Brazilian Communist Party, provided in 1948.