Bapu's first ashram was shunned for letting in dalit

Paul John, TNN | May 20, 2013, 12.31 AM IST

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AHMEDABAD: It was on May 20, 1915, that Mahatma Gandhi made Ahmedabad his home. A city-based lawyer, Jeevanlal, offered his bungalow in Kochrab village on the outskirts of Ahmedabad's walled city to Bapu on rent to start his first settlement. The Mahatma christened it 'Satyagraha Ashram.'


                                                              

Mahatma Gandhi Photo Gallery
1915 &1932

Satyagraha Ashram at Kochrab, Ahmedabad, founded May 25, 1915

 This fact is mentioned in Chandulal Dalal's book, 'Gandhiji ni Dinwari'. Bapu performed vaastu puja on this day at the Kochrab bungalow and settled there with some people.

Ahmedabad was Bapu's home in India after he came back from South Africa in 1915. It was from here that he wanted to launch the movement to free India from foreign rule and start his fight against untouchability. Bapu transformed the Ashram into an antithesis of everything Ahmedabad stood for in those days. Here was a city of moneyed mill owners and professionals who lived a life of opulence. In stark contrast, the Satyagraha Ashram at Kochrab was defined by austerity. Bapu put into practice his ideas about bramhacharya, physical labour, swadeshi and untouchability. The most famous incident at Kochrab was Bapu admitting Dudabhai, an untouchable, and his family, despite protests from some of his own followers.

This upset a neighbouring community and even Vaishnav businessmen who refused to fund the ashram. Bapu told ashram inmates that if a boycott was declared and they were left without funds, they would shift to the untouchables' colony. A car stopped at the ashram gates one morning when the ashram did not have funds to last even a month. A businessman expressed his desire to help Bapu and left Rs 13,000 the next morning which was enough for a month. That was Ambalal Sarabhai
 
 who ensured that Bapu's first venture in Ahmedabad does not go bankrupt.

Function to mark 99 years of Kochrab

On the occasion of the 99th year of the Kochrab ashram, a function is being organized at the venue to remember Bapu's firm resolve to win freedom. The event will see discourses by academicians on Mahatma Gandhi and his contemporaries including Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. City-based historian Rizwan Kadri will give a lecture and release two books one of which explores the subject of Mahatma and Tilak. An interesting incident mentioned in Kadri's book refers to August 1, 1920 when news of Lokmanya Tilak's death reached Ahmedabad. In his report on Tilak's funeral later published in 'Navjivan', Bapu wrote how a Muslim youth had jumped into Tilak's pyre and committed suicide.