Ravi Speaks:
Last year visited Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad.
It was boiling last Friday in Ahmedabad. People were expecting a much-awaited Monsoon but to their utter surprise, the day was too hot to be tolerated normally with a lot of stuffiness in it. I had planned to spend my days fully traveling across the Tier One city of India with a lot of developed projects already reflecting the fast completion on their part. Yes, one new thing which I observed there was the simultaneous construction going on with an exceptional pace, especially on the front of the Metro Rail spreading its network across the city on Delhi pattern. Come 2023-24-we may see another major facelift of Ahmedabad with the latest Metro and other projects already completed and in action giving huge revenue to the exchequer that way.
[bctt tweet=”Yes, each one of us in India is deeply influenced by the Mahatma”]
Yes, each one of us in India is deeply influenced by the Mahatma and not only India, but the whole universe is also trying to go deep into the Mahatma’s philosophy of non-Violence and even the crystal-clear perceptions regarding simple living and high thinking purely on the truthful ways. The three monkeys’ concept was put deep into our psyche during our adolescence itself and that being passed on from generation to generation in the subsequent phases unfolding the tremendous impact it had upon all of us.
Imagine a very minuscule-looking thing but deep in its meaning, like the above mentioned three Monkeys’ concept being perpetuated from one earlier generation to another and yet again subsequently to the different generations-really put a deep-down everlasting impact on the personality. That is how Gandhian philosophy is being analyzed. Doing no violence and still expressing our discomfort along with non-acceptance of the atrocities against our poor Indian-countrymen by the so-called world conquerors-the Englishmen-leading even the so-called advanced thinking Englishmen to concede and retreat to their places of origin-is not a small accomplishment by the Indians under this mahatma’s leadership. Even the concept of Untouchability being very impactful in our downtrodden communities and the upper-caste people-was the brainchild of this great Mahatma.
The charismatic presence and the simplified expression of this outstanding personality were simply satisfying every Indian those days during the slavery times to follow him and reach the brighter pole of victory. Thus, in no way a hard task was achieved victoriously by this thin person known as the Mahatma.
We reached around 10.00 AM and entered directly into the Ashram. There were only a few to be counted on fingers-seen in the ashram. So we could see and read his textures calmly and with a lot of time at our side. We could understand to some extent the level of the intense fight which he had been carrying on his back in leading this great nation through a constant, non-violent approach.
On his return from South Africa, Gandhi’s first ashram in India was established in the Kochrab area of Ahmedabad on 25 May 1915. The Ashram was then shifted on 17 June 1917 to a piece of open land on the banks of the river Sabarmati. Reasons for this shift included: he wanted to do some experiments in living e.g. farming, animal husbandry, cow breeding, Khadi, and related constructive activities, for which he was in search of barren land. The Sabarmati Ashram (also known as Harijan Ashram) was home to Mohandas Gandhi from 1917 until 1930 and served as one of the major centers of the Indian freedom struggle. Originally called the Satyagraha Ashram, reflecting the movement toward passive resistance launched by the Mahatma, the Ashram became home to the ideology that set India free. Sabarmati Ashram, named for the river on which it sits was created with a dual mission. To serve as an institution that would carry on a search for truth and a platform to bring together a group of workers committed to non-violence who would help secure freedom for India. It was from here on March 12, 1930, that Gandhi launched the famous Dandi march.
Over the years, the Ashram became home to the ideology that set India free. It aided countless other nations and people in their battles against oppressive forces. Today, the Ashram serves as a source of inspiration and guidance and stands as a monument to Gandhi’s life mission and a testimony to others who have fought a similar struggle.
The different rooms of his staying with the family and meeting the different guests have been simply but cleanly maintained. His different minor items like the specs, the stick, his books, his working table, and so on have been kept in a manner as if he had gone somewhere and would be returning to resume his left-over work. The gallery of his various photos shown with the top-notch leaders of those times speaks enormously about his level of acceptance even by the literates like Rabindra Nath Tagore, Albert Einstein, and even some internationally known writers of class.Some of his columns written in Gujrati, especially for the daily newspapers those days have also been displayed very well and one could read out the whole stuff easily from the clamp boards on the walls of the museum.
I could only read his small scribblings on the pieces of paper in English -which were also clamped on the walls of the museum. Those small writings, too were very thoughtful quotes for me.
The different halls depicting his whole struggle for freedom and his writings, as well as certain happenings like Dandi-March, certain vital meetings held with national leaders, etc have been very well maintained. It took almost a couple of hours for me to read out and see all those things in the museum. One could easily understand the depth and outstanding leadership qualities of this mahatma from all those depictions in these halls. A genuine feeling of sacrifice by him for the freedom struggle of our nation is automatically taken as the inference from this ashram. We feel proud to be part of that nation which taught the entire world the road of victory through nonviolence under this great soul from India.
We may read many conflicting stories about his last days where he had gone for some steps-enjoy asking for 55 crores as the due revenue share for Pakistan to be given on the occasion of its formation. But the fact is he fought for the unity of Muslims and Hindus in India and never wanted the partition. Some people might think that he had an inclination or a soft corner for Kaid-E-Azam-Jinnah the then President of Pakistan-which we the Indians would not like to listen to but there is a famous statement between Mahatma and Jinnah-where Mahatma says to him that “he has mesmerized the Muslims” and Jinnah replies that “mahatma had equally hypnotized the Hindus”. On January 13, 1948, Gandhi finally announced his fast unto death. This was Gandhi’s last fast in public life. It was against the dread of “killing by inches” that Gandhi wished to undertake his usual method of penance for restoring peace in the hearts of Hindus and Muslims
If one goes deep into the reality leading to certain eventual happenings in such a vast country after the freedom-we may conclude one thing for sure -“But for him, Freedom would not have been possible that early and convincingly for us”.
===============================================