Gujarat | All that is not Gandhian about Sabarmati Ashram makeover

The Gujarat government’s ambitious initiative of re-developing the iconic Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad has left Gandhians aghast, with the latter alleging that the project is in sharp contrast to the principles that Mahatma Gandhi advocated so vociferously.

After the project finally kicked off this month, Ahmedabad City Police announced that an 800-metre stretch of road that connected the famous Dandi Bridge to the primary entrance of the ashram will be permanently closed.

The decision was taken following a request by the Sabarmati Ashram Restoration and Redevelopment Project, a body formed under the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) that will oversee the project.

Gandhian fury over makeover

A police notification also warned that anyone violating the closure will be prosecuted under law.

“It is such a travesty that the road connecting the ashram and Dandi Bridge was closed forever,” rued Mudita Vidrohi, granddaughter of the late Chunibhai Vaidya, a veteran Gandhian and a Sarvodaya movement leader.

The Dandi Bridge, just 1 km from the ashram, is an iconic structure and is historically linked to the Gandhi Ashram – another name for the place which the Mahatma had made his hub.

“It was the first bridge crossed by Mahatma Gandhi and his 75 volunteers as they embarked on the Dandi March from Sabarmati Ashram,” Vidrohi told The Federal.

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“This is why we were apprehensive of the redevelopment project. The project has just begun and it is already tampering with the history and ethos of Gandhi and his Ashram. The ashram needed repair and care but not at the cost of the ethos with which Bapu and his companions built it,” she added.

Initial revival plan junked by ‘CM Modi’

The plan to renovate the ashram and the area surrounding it was first proposed by the AMC in 2009. The estimated cost of the renovation then was set at Rs 400 crore.

The project, then titled ‘Revitalisation Plan for Gandhi Ashram Area’, was to be headed by the now late architect BV Doshi.

It had two phases. The first a proposed development of the Ashram Road and connectivity of the ashram with the new state highway.

The second phase involved the rejuvenation of the Dandi Bridge, improvement of the ashram precinct and the living conditions of the slum surrounding the ashram.

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But the project never took off as the plan was turned down by the then Gujarat government headed by chief minister Narendra Modi.

“We got a response from the government stating that plan was not considered viable and sustainable from the commercial angle as it looked too much into the socialism part of the Gandhian philosophy,” said an architect who was part of that project.

Project cost zooms to Rs 1,200 Cr

The proposal to redevelop the ashram came up again in 2019 when Modi, as the prime minister, visited it on October 2 to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

After a short meeting with select trustees, Modi gave a nod for a state-run project that would cost Rs 287 crore. The project was awarded to Ahmedabad-based architect Bimal Patel’s firm.

Later, in 2021, a revised plan was submitted to the Modi government by Patel’s firm with a revised budget of a whopping Rs 1,200 crore.

Slum razed; no rehabilitation offered

The revised plan – titled the Gandhi Ashram Memorial and Precinct Development project – added 55 acres of land to the existing premises of the ashram for which a slum and some heritage and private buildings surrounding the complex were to be acquired.

The revised plan proposed to build a safe house for dignitaries, a garden with 4,000 trees, a separate lawn, a food park, a cafeteria, parking for 200 cars, a water harvesting pond, souvenir shops, workshop space and a new grand entrance.

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As per the new plan, in early 2022, the slum surrounding the ashram was razed with no compensation or rehabilitation offer to the 55 families living there. Then, eviction notices were issued to those in the ashram – the Gandhian families residing on the premises for generations.

263 Gandhian families shown the door

“The government’s plan is to turn the Ashram into a commercial tourist place with food courts and parking. But that is not why Gandhi built it and lived with his wife Kasturba for 12 years,” says Sailesh Rathod. “Rs 1,200 crore is a huge amount to redevelop a place where the motto was simplicity,” he adds.

Rathod’s grandfather was one of the many who were brought into the ashram by Gandhi in 1930. Ever since, the families have been living there until their unceremonious eviction in September 2023.

“If the government intended to retain the ethos of the Ashram, they would not have forced out the 263 Gandhian families, mostly Dalits who are descendants of the families settled by Gandhi himself,” Rathod told The Federal.

‘We resisted, but left after police threats’

Initially, all the residents were offered Rs 60 lakh or a flat in Sardarpur area of the city. Seventy families agreed to the deal but the rest did not want to vacate their ashram home.

“We were all emotionally attached to the ashram. In 2022, the rest of us sought the intervention of the high court but our plea was not considered,” he said.

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Threats soon followed. The police began to visit the ashram inmates regularly, threatening residents to vacate. Eventually, everyone – whose ancestors had fought the British under Gandhi’s leadership – were forced out by the end of 2023, Rathod said.

Cries of protest fall on deaf ears

The announcement of the redevelopment project in 2019 had triggered protests across Gujarat.

In January 2020, 263 ashram residents and members of five trusts that were custodians of the land upon which the complex is built began a sit-in protest at Hriday Kunj – the residential quarter of Mahatma Gandhi – under the banner of Gandhi Ashram Bachao Samiti.

The Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust (SAPMT), responsible for the upkeep of the ashram, said the absence of a formal communication was causing concern and misunderstanding amongst the trustees.

The protest lasted about a year until the ashram residents were served a notification to vacate the premises.

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An affidavit signed by the families was then submitted in the high court as a petition seeking the judiciary’s intervention to stop the eviction. But the petition was not admitted by the court.

Gandhi’s grandson backs protesters; HC refuses to interfere

In October 2021, Tushar Gandhi, the great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, filed a PIL in the Gujarat High Court.

He argued that the manner and method in which re-development had been planned was not only diametrically opposed to personal wishes and bequeathal of Mahatma Gandhi but it would also alter the management structure of the ashram.

But in September 2022, the court refused to put a stop on the government’s plan.

In September 2023, 130 Gandhians and activists from across the country signed a petition against the project, calling it ‘a second assassination of Bapu’.

Ashram or theme park?

“The current plan will turn the Gandhi Ashram into a Gandhi theme park. It had been a place of pilgrimage for those who follow Gandhian philosophy and now all of it will be gone,” said Prakash N Shah, president of the Gujarat Sahitya Parishad, one of the Gandhians who signed the petition.

The Sabarmati Ashram currently stands on 100 acres of land on the banks of the Sabarmati river in central Ahmedabad.

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Post-independence, five trusts – Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust, Sabarmati Ashram Gaushala Trust, Harijan Sevak Sangh, Khadi Gramodyog Prayog Samiti and Harijan Ashram Trust – have been taking care of the Ashram and were custodians of the land.

Will history remain?

Forty-seven acres of the premises is what is called the ‘memorial’ which includes Hruday Kunj, Gandhi’s residence; Vinoba Kutir or Meera Kutir where Acharya Vinoba Bhave stayed briefly followed by Gandhi’s disciple Miraben, a Britisher who stayed until she died; Upasana Mandir, an open-air prayer ground where Gandhi would gather; and Magan Niwas, the home of Maganlal Gandhi, a cousin of Gandhi who also managed the ashram.

The rest of the 53 acres, which have been off limit to tourists, held other heritage structures as well as houses of 263 families who lived on the premises.

All these will be replaced, if the plan goes ahead, with a modern money-spinning tourist complex, something the Mahatma – who embraced humble living as well as simplicity all his life – would have never approved of.