The Sabarmati will weep

The Sabarmati Ashram

Now that India has proved its might to the world by flexing her muscles on its pet enemy’s national borders as well as TV screens, she can get on with regular affairs like rewriting history. One of the places where history is going to be reshaped is Mahatma Gandhi’s own beloved Sabarmati Ashram. A sum of INR1200 crore (12,000 million) has been allocated for the purpose.

The Mahatma Gandhi’s great-grandson, Tushar Gandhi, has filed a petition against the project in the court saying that “the proposed project will alter the topography of the century-old ashram … and corrupt its ethos.” Some 200 buildings in the place will be destroyed or rebuilt. In other words, Sabarmati won’t have anything to do with Mahatma Gandhi’s spirit after the project is completed.

In other words, the project aims at evacuating Gandhi from his own home.

Shakespeare’s birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon is preserved as a museum and tourist destination. All efforts have been made to maintain and restore the historic buildings and artifacts. 

Russia maintains Tolstoy’s legacy at his birthplace through the Yasnaya Polyana estate which is now a museum and cultural centre dedicated to the writer. 

The Yasnaya Polyana estate

The above are two examples from pre-Gandhi history. Gandhi may lose his soul from his own beloved Sabarmati when the new project will be completed in two years from now because the project doesn’t intend to keep the old buildings. New and ostentatious ones will come up. Gandhi’s ideals of simplicity, austerity, and non-materialism will be taken over by a sanitised, tourist-friendly monument. Gandhian minimalism and self-reliance will be cast into the Sabarmati River.

Gandhian scholars and the ashram associated have not been taken into confidence while the project was planned by the Modi government. Instead people associated with the Ashram as well as families who have lived and worked at the ashram for generations face eviction and loss of their traditional roles in the place.

Well-known Malayalam writer Gracy opines in her brief article in a periodical that the project is part of a political conspiracy to replace Mahatma Gandhi as the national father-figure with someone else. She doesn’t say who will occupy the position. Let’s hope it won’t be Mahatma’s assassin. 

Source: India Today

Post-Script

The state of Gujarat, where this gargantuan project is being enforced, is grappling with significant issues of poverty and malnutrition, particularly affecting children under five. A substantial number of children in the state are underweight and a significant percentage of women face anaemia. For details: Gujarat Among Worst In Child Nutrition And Hunger: NITI Aayog. Recall that the Mahatma was a person who viewed poverty as a moral collapse of society, stemming from what he called ‘seven social evils,’ including wealth without work and commerce without morality.