Mahatma Gandhi Special Features - World of Biography, Media Matrix, India

The Satyagraha Ashram

The Satyagraha ashram was a focal point of Gandhiji's initial activities on his return to India, Leaders and intellectuals from all parts of the country came here to seek his guidance. Between 1915 and 1930, the year of the Dandi March, the ashram witnessed many events of local as well as national importance. Gandhiji's experiments in the field of truth and action originated here. Thus, his stay in Ahmedabad is an important phase of his life.

Gandhiji's Probation

Gandhiji was always prepared to learn from others. He acknowledged Gokhale as his political guru. Before Gandhiji returned in 1915, from South Africa with the intention of staying in India, Gokhale had made Gandhiji promise that he would express no opinion on public questions for one year. Of this he writes in his autobiography, "For one year I am to do nothing. Gokhale took from me a promise that I should only travel in India for one year and form or express no opinion on public questions during that time. I fully intend to keep this promise."

Founding the Ashram

Ø Was ashram life an outcome of Gandhiji's whim?
"Ashram here means religious community living. Such ashram life was part of my nature."
(After returning to India, Gandhiji went round the country and decided to established an ashram near Ahmedabad. On the lines of Tolstoy farm and phoenix Ashram he had set up in South Africa, he started the Kochrab ashram on 22, May 1915. The well-known Sabarmati Ashram was founded in 1917.)

Ø Was Gandhiji parochial in locating the ashram in Gujarat?
Being a Gujarati I should be able to serve the country through the Gujarati language… (As) Ahmedabad was an ancient center of handloom weaving. It was likely to be the most favorable field for the revival of the cottage industry of hand spanning. There was also the hope that the city, being the capital of Gujarat, monetary help from its wealthy citizens would be available."

(Sheth Mangaldas volunteered to bear the expenses of the ashram for one year) (9-3-1915)

Ø The Ashram established by Gandhiji was distinct from other conventional religious ashrams in that economic and social activities were an indispensable part of it, Gandhiji's aim was to make the ashram self-reliant through these activities and also make it reflect the simplicity of village life. He thus grafted on the ancient ideal of ashram life a new meaning and provided the India of the future a modern idea of ashram life.