Growing up in Mahatma Gandhi's Sevagram Ashram
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08 hindustantimes YEARS ON 1869 - 2019 PERSPECTIVE ABHAY BANG GROWING UP IN MAHATMA GANDHI’S SEVAGRAM ASHRAM n MK Gandhi in M A P P I N G GANDHI a horse-drawn carriage in Benares, 1916. ALAMY STOCK 1915-16: A tour PHOTO of the homeland Dhamini Ratnam over, as the community of Indians stood as one n [email protected] against the imperial powers. In India, how- ever, the differences were wide and various, ohandas Karamchand Gandhi was and Gandhi needed time to understand them. already a well-known political Thus began his tour of the country. He M activist when the ship, the S.S Ara- started his travels from Bombay and jour- bia, docked in Mumbai — then neyed across the length and breadth of the Bombay — on January 9, 1915. Gandhi and his country, from Kolkata to Ahmedabad, Delhi wife Kasturba, had returned to India, after to Chennai, attending meetings, and talking starting two settlements for Indians in South about indentured labour, an issue that he had Africa, and launching a successful satyagraha fought against in South Africa. When news of against unfair laws and taxes on the Indian his mentor, Gopalkrishna Gokhale’s death in community there. February 1915 reached him, Gandhi took a In India, however, Gandhi was advised by vow to not wear any footwear for a year. At a his mentor Gopalkrishna Gokhale — a free- stop in Haridwar some months later he took dom fighter who belonged to the ilk of Moder- another vow: To eat not more than five things ates within the Congress — to tour India for a in 24 hours, and no meal after sunset. year before embarking upon any political He and Kasturba, who accompanied him on work. Gokhale’s instructions suited Gandhi many of these travels, went by the third class well, as the latter realised that there was much railway compartment. Later, in July 1916, he about the country that he had not seen, or published a pamphlet deploring the manner knew about. In South Africa, differences of in which the Railways forced third class pas- religion, caste and language were often elided sengers to travel. ‘ ’ In July 1916, MK Gandhi wrote a pamphlet in Gujarati on the state of travel in third class compartments. An English translation, ‘Third Class in Indian Railways’ was published the following year. In it, Gandhi begins by describing a train journey that he undertook, and n The school generated humongous economic inequality, expands on the sorry state of passengers. He ends it with a suggestion that likely caused a started by MK RIGHT ENVIRONMENT Gandhi moved to Sevagram in as author Thomas Piketty and Oxfam’s great deal of consternation among the monied classes. An excerpt from the pamphlet: Gandhi and 1936, to pass, as he put it, “three seasons in a village”. What annual reports tell us. The modern mantra operated by is: greed is good. But unlimited greed has On the way, passengers got for tea tannin water with filthy sugar and a whitish looking Anand Niketan emerged was a rural ecosystem of village industry, animal resulted in corruption in the corporate and liquid miscalled milk which gave this water a muddy appearance. I can vouch for the at Sevagram political class. How to contain these ills of appearance, but I cite the testimony of the passengers as to the taste. Not during the Ashram capitalism is the first challenge. Modern care and education that left a lasting impact on generations whole of the journey was the compartment once swept or cleaned. The result was that Pratisthan in industry exists on the belief that more is bet- every time you walked on the floor or rather cut your way through the passengers Wardha, ter. We produce more, buy more, consume seated on the floor, you waded through dirt. The closet was also not cleaned during the Maharashtra. more, but in doing so, we harm the global cli- journey and there was no water in the water tank. Refreshments sold to the passengers SATISH BATE/HT mate more. Global temperature is rising. How are we to contain this? That is the sec- were dirty looking, handed by dirtier hands, coming out of filthy receptacles and ond challenge. Religious and cultural diver- weighed in equally unattractive scales. (…) Is it any wonder that plague has become sity is turning into suspicion, opposition, endemic in India? (…) Surely a third class passenger is entitled at least to the bare hatred and violence against each other. The necessities of life (…) Among the many suggestions that can be made for dealing with “Did you actually see Mahatma together constituted the Sevagram ashram. enemy is the other, who is hated. This is a the evil here described, I would respectfully include this: let the people in high places, Gandhi ?” I asked my mother But this list fails to capture the magic in the political programme today, and the third the Viceroy, the Commander-in-Chief, the Rajas, Maharajas, the Imperial Councillors and once. She is now 94. atmosphere, the ethos. challenge. What solutions does Gandhi others, who generally travel in superior classes, without previous warning, go through “After we got married, your The ashram was the laboratory where offer? the experiences now and then of third class travelling. We would then soon see a father and I used to live in Sev- Gandhi experimented with life. The manner We can turn to three of his works — The remarkable change in the conditions of third class travelling and the uncomplaining D millions will get some return for the fares they pay under the expectation of being agram. Every day I could see in which he and his colleagues lived every Story of My Experiments With Truth, Hind through the window Bapu on his evening day was not simply a routine, but a prayer; Swaraj, and Mangal Prabhat — as well as carried from place to place with ordinary creature comforts. walk.” I had goose pimples. Mahatma Gan- an effort to become purer. Nothing in life the most important book he wrote: his life. dhi walking in front of my house! “You were was insignificant for him. “My life is my message,” he had said. yet to be born,” she added. A scene from Richard Attenborough’s Even a cursory survey will reveal that “The generations to come will scarce 1982 film, Gandhi, captured the ethos of the Gandhi had foreseen these problems of the believe that such a one, in flesh and blood, place well. In the film, the Mahatma modern civilisation nearly hundred years ever walked on this earth,” Albert Einstein abruptly gets up to leave a political meeting. ago. His solutions were both external and BHITIHARWA had said. I was born in one of those future “Where are you going ?” Jawaharlal Nehru internal. He preached sarvodaya, the rise generations, but I faced no such difficulty. I asks him. “To apply hot mud pack to the and liberation of all, and satyagraha, a non- experienced him in Bapu Kuti, in Sevagram sprained ankle of my goat,” Gandhi replies. violent and loving way of conflict resolu- Champaran satyagraha ashram and in Wardha. For him, providing health care to animals tion, for a society based on alternative val- In 1936, Gandhi decided to personally live was indeed as important as national politics. ues. Equally important was changing one’s and work in villages. He wanted to redirect Gandhi was not an armchair intellectual. He inner world and the way one lived. “Be the the educated class in India towards villages. served and searched as he lived.Thus, Seva- change yourself that you wish to see in the turned into social reform He chose a small village Segaon — populated gram became a mirror of his mind. world,” he had famously said. mostly by lower castes, so-called untoucha- Not surprisingly, more than a dozen insti- Gandhi advised us to limit our wants. “The position is so bad that I dare not leave bles. It was later renamed as Sevagram. tutions — each dedicated to a specific cause “There is enough on this Earth for every- here even for a day. I have cancelled all Gandhi’s ashram stands there, eight kilo- — sprung up around his ashram and in body’s need, but not for everybody’s greed”. appointments,” Gandhi wrote in an April 29, metres from Wardha town. Wardha, in Wardha: women’s education, Khadi, rural He practised it. His living room in Bapu Kuti 1917 letter posted from Bettiah. those days, had become the emotional capi- health care, leprosy care, village industry, is hardly 10 by 8 feet. His one solution to the Gandhi established an ashram-school on tal of India. A letter once addressed to “The promotion of Hindi, a school for new educa- problem of wealth concentration in the land donated by a local priest, Baba Ram Nar- Emperor of India – Wherever He Is”, was tion he called Nayi Talim. Later on, from hands of a few was that the wealthy should ayan Das, which opened on November 20, delivered by post to Gandhi. How did the 1960-64, I studied in that school, barely a use their wealth as if they were trustees of 1917, a week after establishing a similar foun- n A hand grinder at emperor live in Sevagram? hundred metres from the Bapu Kuti. He was social capital. This solution, which dation school in Barharwa Lakhansen vil- Sevagram “The house you will construct for me no longer around, but his shadow lingered. appeared ridiculous to the radicals, is now lage 135 km away.