Barack Obama, Democratic front-runner for the US Presidential nomination, sees Mahatma Gandhi as an inspiration and has a portrait of the apostle of peace in his office to remind him that ordinary people can do extraordinary things.

“In my life, I have always looked to Mahatma Gandhi as an inspiration, because he embodies the kind of transformational change that can be made when ordinary people come together to do extraordinary things,” he wrote in a yet to be published article in the ethnic ‘India Abroad’ newspaper.