Mahatma Gandhi Ashram at Sabarmati, Ahmedabad, Gujarat

Gandhi Ashram Introduction

People from all over the world come to see this ashram spread over 36 acres on the banks of Sabarmati river in Ahmedabad. Since it is located near Sabarmati river, it is also called Sabarmati Ashram is open 365 days, where people can visit anytime between 8:30 am and 7:30 pm. There are three important sites around this ashram. On one side is the huge holy Sabarmati River, on the other side is the crematorium ghat and on the third side is the prison.

Hriday Kunj 

The main place of this ashram is Hriday Kunj where Gandhiji used to spend his time. The items used by Gandhiji have been preserved even today.

Magan Niwas

This was the residence of Maganlal Gandhi, who was Bapu's cousin, who took care of the Sabarmati Ashram.

Vinoba cottage / Meera cottage

Acharya Vinoba Bhave is called Gandhiji's national teacher and spiritual successor. He used to sit in this place and discuss with Gandhiji.

This cottage is called Meera cottage because Miraben, a British woman influenced by Gandhi, spent her time at this place.

Nandini

This is the place in the ashram where guests were staying. It can be called a guest house.

Upasana Temple

Gandhiji had built a place named Upasana Mandir under the open sky, mainly between Magan Niwas and Hriday Kunj, to pray in the ashram. Gandhiji used to sit and preach here after prayer.

Gandhi Museum

The Gandhi Museum is divided into five units, with a library, book store, two photo galleries and an auditorium.

The area of ​​the museum is 24,000 square feet with 54 blocks of 20 'x 20'.

History of Gandhi/Sabarmati Ashram

When Mahatma Gandhiji returned to India from Africa, he joined the Indian National Congress and wanted to stay in Gujarat with his wife, for which he built the Satyagraha Ashram on 25 May 1915 in his Kochrab bungalow at the behest of his friend Jeevanlal Desai. . Gandhi started living here with his wife and close relatives. It was good in terms of living, but it was not possible to do activities like farmyard, animal husbandry, construction of village industry.
He then re-established the Gandhi Ashram on 17 June 1917 on a large area of ​​about 36 acres on the banks of the Sabarmati River. Later this ashram came to be called Sabarmati Ashram by the name of river. It is said that this ashram was built by engineer Chales Korea.



Earlier, 40-50 people were hardly able to live in the ashram, but gradually the situation improved and the number of people increased with convenience. Here education related to agriculture, importance of human labor was made known to the people. With this, Gandhiji did a lot of work to increase the trend of village industry and Khadi. In this ashram, Gandhi used to make khadi clothes by spinning a charkha, as well as teaching others.

Gandhiji started the Dandi March from Sabarmati Ashram on 12 March 1930 with about 78 people. This movement was called 'Salt Satyagraha'. The Dandi Yatra is called because he traveled from Sabarmati Ashram to the seaside town of Dandi, which was about 241 kilometers. He completed this journey against the salt law in 24 days. After reaching there, he had salt in his hand. At the time of the journey, only 78 people left, but by reaching the stop, lakhs of people joined them.

The British government was completely shaken after this incident. Thousands of people were put in prison bars along with many big leaders associated with this Satyagrahi movement. It is said that around 60 thousand Satyagrahis were put in jail in the meantime by the British Government. Simultaneously, the Sabarmati Ashram was sealed by the British government. He believed that this was the framework of the movement.

The movement started by Gandhi lasted till March 1931, due to which the British government also had to accept Gandhi's demand. But after the Gandhi-Irwin Pact in March 1931, Gandhiji ended this movement.

It is noteworthy that the British government had increased the tax on Indian salt in 1930, as well as snatching the right of salt from the sea from Indians, which would increase the demand for foreign salt in India and benefit the economy. But this movement disturbed the economy of the British government.

Gandhi lived his life in this historic ashram from 1917 to 1930. After leaving here, he along with his wife and close people started living in Sevagram Ashram in Maharashtra. Sabarmati Ashram is one such historical site, which has closely observed the fight behind the independence of the country. Gandhiji and his fellow freedom fighters used to sit here and plan against the British government for the independence of the country.

After some time, Gandhiji requested the British Government to remove and return the governmental possession from this ashram, but the British Government did not accept his demand and kept the Sabarmati Ashram in their possession. Gandhiji could not return to this ashram even after independence in 1947, his dream came to an end with his death in 1948. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru converted this ashram into Gandhi Museum in 1963.