Express Focus -- JMM CASE -- by Indian Express

October 03, 2000

The school that Gandhi built

SRAVANI SARKAR visits Sevagram Ashram in Wardha district,
where time has stood still and there are few takers
for Mahatma Gandhi’s dreams

‘‘Chando mama ghar tujhe chhan chhan chhan...’’ (Oh moon, your home is very beautiful). The lilting chant of a home-spun rhyme cuts through the stillness of the early morning at Sevagram Ashram, Wardha. It’s being sung by 25-odd children between three and five years of age, who troop into the Ashram everyday to learn the basics of the alphabet. They then sing some rhymes, under the watchful eyes of two teachers, and return the way they came.

The children, most of whose fathers are employees of the Ashram Pratishthan, are the only students at the Nai Talim Sangh, the independent educational wing of the Sevagram Ashram Pratishthan, the trust that runs the ashram. They are students at a balwadi (pre-primary school) run by the Kasturba Trust, which is now run at the Ashram. This is the school that Mahamta Gandhi set up, a school where he dreamt of laying down in concrete the concept of self-sustained and simple living. But like several Gandhian institutions in Wardha, the school has gone to seed and with it, Gandhi’s ideals.

Maruti Raut, the administrator of the Nai Talim Sangh, rewinds his memory 35 years back in time, to other mornings on the same grounds, when 700-odd resident students including him would be pottering around the premises. Some would be learning their ka kha and ek do, others would be in the fields learning traditional agriculture, in the special Charkha (spinning wheel) room or in the kitchen, cooking up community meals.

Then, the Nai Talim Sangh was known as the Hindustani Talim Sangh, set up in 1938 to implement the concept of ‘basic national education’. But the school — which Gandhiji envisioned would create generations of youth who would ‘contribute to building a truthful and non-violent society’ and would learn ‘through the intelligent scientific practice of a useful productive craft’ — was shut down in 1974. However, till date, it hasn’t closed down its office. Thus, the signboard at the northernmost entrance of the Ashram gives the impression that the school is still running.

The signboard is probably the perfect symbol of the fate of several Gandhian institutions in Wardha, Gandhi’s karmabhoomi, which have been badly affected by the near absence of devoted workers and the failure to change with time.
The Sarva Seva Sangh, for instance, which was once the major platform of the Bhoodan movement, is now content with organising a stray satyagraha against multinationals. The Gram Seva Mandal is the only Charkha manufacturing centre in Maharashtra state and even has Khadi emporia of its own, but it’s hardly heard of outside the area. Other organisations like the Harijan Sevak Sangh and Adim Jati Sevak Sangh have shifted their headquarters to New Delhi. A leather-art project, conceptualised by a Gandhian called Walunjkar, failed to take off.

The Sevagram Ashram itself wears a desolate look, almost like a memorial. Common people visit it as if it were a pilgrimage centre, but very few actually stay back to become a part of it. Following the death of Nirmalaben Gandhi, the last member of the Gandhi family staying in the Ashram premises, last month, the Ashram has almost emptied out.

The biggest failure was probably on the part of the Gandhian workers involved, who failed to follow Gandhi’s basic teaching of ‘changing with time’. A Gandhian scholar pointed out that while the Mahatma himself emphasised action suited to the times, most of his followers felt content with simply rigidly following his thoughts.

And of course, the government hasn’t helped much. Though the country was governed for practically 40 years by the Congress party, Gandhian institutions barely recieved any support from them.

It’s ironic, but again, a sign of the times, that Wardha was once declared a ‘Gandhi district’ and was brought under prohibition. Now, the whole of Wardha, Sevagram included, badly reeks of liquor.