The Hindu Business Line : Nothing heroic in violating the Sabarmati Ashram

Sometime in 1974, we visited the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad. Allwyn Fernandes, Dilip Raote and this writer were on a trip and Ahmedabad was the first halt. That morning the River Sabarmati flowed weak with little water, while the Ashram on the banks had a friendly quiet about it. The charkha which Gandhiji used sat still in the open hall.

We walked away after spending an hour and this writer has not gone back again. That visit lives on. To this writer, Gandhiji still makes sense even when the country at large applauds young cricketers priced at crores, appreciates corporates getting loan write offs from banks to keep the Sensex going and protests loudly when families of dead and dying farmers are taken off the loan registers of banks.

Surprisingly, balance sheets of banks do not get hit when monies lent to corporates never come back while bank chairmen are upset when dead and dying farmers cannot pay back (going by RBI norms the soured farm loans should have been fully provided for from profits and banks can write back the provisions). Now, one reads in newspapers and various sites, of youngsters breaking up pictures and other articles preserved in the Ashram apart from other assorted acts. Gandhiji is not fashionable. He is no brand. The man who brought in the first untouchable into his Ashram is a scary memory. There is nothing unbecoming in that. There is also nothing wrong if we learn to leave the Ashram alone, to align with a globalised world order. There is also nothing heroic in violating the place.

The first book one read on Gandhiji was his autobiography – An Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments with Truth – which one bought at Mani Book Centre, Station Road, Thampanoor, Trivandrum on May 12, 1976, while on a honeymoon. “In bidding farewell to the reader, for the time being, at any rate, I ask him to join with me in prayer to the God of Truth that He may grant me the boon of Ahimsa in mind, word and deed,” says Gandhiji winding up his life.

The story of the Ashram is interesting. Unlike rishis who ran away from living to meditate in forests, Gandhiji enjoyed living by loving man and God in equal measure. In that sense, Gandhiji went beyond all religions with their negative streaks. The first Ashram – Satyagraha Ashram – was founded on May 25, 1915, at Kochrab. A barrister friend, Jivanlal Desai, offered to let his one-storied bungalow in Kochrab, a small village near Ahmedabad and Gandhiji hired it.

“Several provinces claimed Gandhi. Swami Shraddhanand wanted him to settle in Hardwar. Friends in Calcutta strongly recommended Vaidyanathadham. Rajkot claimed him. Some friends pressed him to settle down in Ahmedabad and they volunteered to help him in every possible way. Being a Gujarati, his choice fell on the nerve-centre of Gujarat. Ahmedabad was a suitable place for his activities in many ways.

“As his chief programme was swadeshi and as Ahmedabad was an ancient centre of handloom weaving, it was likely to be the most favourable field for the revival of cottage industry. He thought he could influence the people most through his mother tongue, Gujarati. A no less important consideration was the monetary help offered.

“Ahmedabad being the richest trading centre in Gujarat, Gandhi thought its wealthy citizens could be easily induced to help in a new activity,” writes D.G. Tendulkar in Mahatma—Life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

Many names like Sevashram and Tapovan were suggested but Gandhiji came upon Satyagraha Ashram. “Our creed is devotion to truth, and our business is the search for an insistence of truth,” was the USP (in modern, marketing terms) of the Ashram. The Ashram started with 25 men and women, of which 13 were Tamilians with the rest coming from different parts of India. There was a common kitchen and the group was divided into three categories – managers, candidates and students.

Within a few months, Gandhiji got into trouble. A letter from Amritlal Thakkar sought admission for an untouchable family consisting of Dudabhai, who had been a teacher in Bombay, his wife Danibehn and their daughter Laxmi. Gandhiji agreed to take them in provided they followed the Ashram rules. They agreed.

Trouble started over the use of the well. The man in-charge of the water lift refused water, but Gandhiji stuck on and “told every inmate to put up with the abuse at all cost.” The Old Man won.

He ran out of cash and an anonymous donor left Rs 13,000 in his hands and went away. He was Ambalal Sarabhai, a millowner.

When plague broke out Gandhiji decided to shift out of Kochrab as the children were in danger. Punjabhai Hirachand, a merchant in Ahmedabad, helped Gandhiji with the site which came to be known as the Sabarmati Ashram. Being near to the Sabarmati Central Jail was an incentive “as jail-going was understood to be the normal lot of Satyagrahis…. And I knew that the sites selected for jails have generally clean surroundings,” says Gandhiji.

In about eight days, the sale was executed. There was no building on the land and no trees. “But its situation on the bank of the river and its solitude were great advantages,” writes Gandhiji in his Autobiography. The 40 or so inmates had problems settling down as the rains were expected and had no roofs over their heads.

Snakes were in plenty but “the rule of not killing venomous reptiles has been practiced for the most part at Phoenix, Tolstoy Farm and Sabarmati. At each of these places we had to settle on wastelands. We have had, however, no loss of life occasioned by snakebite.”

While living in the Ashram, Gandhiji expanded on a trivial lapse of Ba. Some stranger presented Ba with Rs 4. “Instead of giving away the money to the office, according to the usual rule, she kept it with herself. …The witness to Kasturbai’s theft informed Chhaganlal Joshi.

“Joshi went to Kasturbai trembling. Kasturbai felt repentant. In all humility, she gave back the money and vowed that such a thing would not be repeated,” wrote Gandhiji.

Tendulkar quotes verbatim the detailed public report of Gandhiji. Yet, Sabarmati Ashram is today being torn apart and the damage explains modern India.

P. Devarajan

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