Workshop sessions on Gandhi and Community Living

Workshop on Community 

Living  

and 

Gandhi’s vision of Ashram

On  18 th of July 2024 two workshop sessions were organized on  the following themes. The first one was Gandhi and experiments in Community Living and second one was his vision of an ashram .It was held    at the premises of Library and Research Centre of Sevagram Ashram Pratishthan, Wardha. The workshop sessions were guided by Dr. Siby K. Joseph, Director of the Centre. It was conducted for a small group of enthusiastic young fellows from different parts of the country with varied interest and expertise . They are connected to Youth Alliance, New Delhi and Ritambhara, Kotagiri. The programme started with a brief introduction of participants. It was followed by a presentation of Dr. Siby K. Joseph on the themes. A number of questions related to themes were placed before the speaker and some of the questions were discussed during the session. It was decided to have follow-up sessions online. Shri Naveen Vasudevan of Ritambhara, an enthusiast in community living, was instrumental in coordinating the group. It was followed by an explorative visit to the Ashram to understand its historical significance. 

On request from the participants the following concept was made available for further study and exploration.

 Concept Note 

Session -1

GANDHI'S  EXPERIMENTS IN COMMUNITY LIVING

Siby K. Joseph

Gandhi established four living communities or ashrams during his life time. Of which two communities were in South Africa which he established during his twenty-one years of work and stay there. The remaining two were established in India. The first ashram in India was established after his return to his home country in 1915 and the last one in 1936 at the age of 67 years. The ashram living experiments of Gandhi continued till his last breathe. The establishments of these experimental communities or ashrams  were results of particular historical contexts and as a solution to the challenges he had to confront in his eventful public life and action. Ashrams were necessitated due to his larger engagement in socio-economic and political work he was engaged in those days. His concept of community living or ashram was an ever evolving one. By examining his evolving thoughts on ashram living one can see how he improved upon on his vision of good life in his consistent quest for truth. These ashram communities were established to enact upon the ideal of sarvodaya or universal welfare, which gripped his mind at a younger age.

 Gandhi's home at Phoenix  Settlement, Inanda, Durban

 Let us look how the idea of community  living germinated in his mind in a foreign land or it was ingrained in his persona?  Young Mohandas Gandhi went to South Africa in search of better prospects as a lawyer in 1893.  Even after   the completion of the work within a year he could not come back to India because he decided to fight against racial discrimination staying back in South Africa.   However, he started living with his family in the beautiful Beach Grove Villa in Durban only in 1897. His life even those days was not an ordinary householder who was leading a life of enjoyment. It can be observed that during this period his clerks often stayed with him and his house was open to the most distressed person usually neglected by the society.  He was happy to welcome a person afflicted with leprosy in his house and take care of him for some time.  Gandhi himself explained his inclination for an ashram way of living in the following words “As soon as I had a house of my own, my house was an ashram in this sense, for my life as a householder was not one of enjoyment but of duty discharged from day to day. Again besides the members of my family I always had some friends or others living with me, whose relation with me was spiritual from the first or became such later on.”1 But this went on unconsciously till the establishment of his first experimental community known as Phoenix Settlement at Inanda, Durban in 1904. 

Phoenix  Settlement  Community 

The Phoenix Settlement

It was established in December 1904 on a farm which is situated on the north-western edge of Inanda, approximately 26 kilometers away from Durban in South Africa. It is considered as the first ashram of Gandhi. This Settlement was established to put into practice the ideals of John Ruskin’s work Unto This Last and to run Indian Opinion, a publication which he started in the year 1903 to serve the interests of Indian community there. His ideas on community living emerged from this experiment and it took definite shape in the course of time during his life in South Africa and later in India

 Gandhi in his Autobiography recalls how he arrived at the idea of settlement. When  he was about to leave for Durban from Johannesburg, his friend H.S.L. Polak gave  him a copy of  John Ruskin’s “Unto This Last.” The train journey was of twenty four hours and Gandhi read the whole book during the journey. The reading of Ruskin’s work brought about an instantaneous and practical transformation in the life of Gandhi.  He took a firm resolve change his life in accordance with the ideals of the book. The main teachings of the book according to Gandhi were

1. That the good of the individual is contained in the good of all.

2. That a lawyer's work has the same value as the barber's inasmuch as all have the same right of earning their livelihood from their work.

3. That a life of labour, i.e. the life of the tiller of the soil and the handicraftsman is the life worth living.

He knew the first of these and the second one he had dimly realized. The third one never occurred to him.  Ruskin’s   work made it clear to him as daylight that the second and the third were contained in the first. Gandhi discussed with Albert West effect Unto This Last produced on his mind. Gandhi proposed the idea of a settlement on which everyone should labour, drawing the same living wage. He also suggested that Indian Opinion should be removed to a farm and the inmates attending to the press work in spare time. It was only practical solution to run Indian Opinion which was facing financial problems. The monthly allowance per head, irrespective of colour or nationality was laid down as £3.

Thereafter Gandhi advertised for a piece of land situated near a railway station in the vicinity of Durban and an offer came in respect of Phoenix. He   purchased the 100 acres of land, with a spring and few orange and mango trees, for1000 pounds. In the editorial of Indian Opinion in December1904, Gandhi announced the decision to move the paper to Phoenix in which “the workers could live a more simple and natural life, and the ideas of Ruskin and Tolstoy be combined with strict business principles”. The writings of Leo Tolstoy, who gave up all his wealth and embraced a life of poverty and labour had an important influence on Gandhi. A visit to the Mariannhill Trappist Monastery in 1894 had also left a deep impression on Gandhi’s mind about community living. The Phoenix community consisted of daily workers who were paid an outright wage and the “schemers” who were given an acre of land each, a house, and a monthly allowance of £ 3 per month for working in the press and a share of the profits, if any.  This Settlement was based on principles of self-reliance, the value of labour  and communitarian living for the common good of people. In addition to the   International Printing Press which brought out the Indian Opinion, the settlement featured a school and homes, including his cottage, where he lived with his family. The inmates made houses with corrugated iron with rough wooden supports. No fencing was made in order to demarcate the plots of inmates other than narrow paths and roads.

 Gandhi himself admits the fact that neither the inmates nor anyone else called it as an ashram in the beginning. However it had ‘religious basis’, and its “visible object was purity of body and mind as well as economic equality.” Brahmacharya (chastity) was not essential for becoming a member of the Settlement .On the other hand “it was expected that co-workers would live as family men and have children.”

A momentous decision was taken in the life of Gandhi 1906. It was nothing but the vow of Brahmacharya. The same year also marked the birth of Satyagraha this was land mark in the life of Gandhi. These developments contributed a lot in the gradual evolution of Phoenix from a settlement to an ashram. Gandhi himself explains about it in the following words. “I learnt in the school of experience that brahmacharya was a sine qua non for a life devoted to service. From this time onward I looked upon Phoenix deliberately as a religious institution. The same year witnessed the advent of Satyagraha which was based on religion and implied an unshakable faith in the God of Truth. Religion here should not be understood in a narrow sense, but as that which acts as a link between different religions and realizes their essential unity. … All these years the Phoenix Settlement was progressing as an ashram though we did not call it by that name.”

The Phoenix Settlement also provided an opportunity for Gandhi to experiment his ideas on education in a school environment.  He worked out the details of every aspect relating to the   school in a note published in Indian Opinion January 9, 1909. Reflecting on Curriculum, he wrote “The main object of this school is to strengthen the pupils’ character. It is said that real education consists in teaching the pupil the art of learning. In other words, a desire for knowledge should grow in him. Knowledge, however, is of many kinds. There is some knowledge which is harmful. If, therefore, the boys’ character is not formed well, they will acquire the wrong kind of knowledge. Because of lack of proper planning in education, we observe that some persons grow to be atheists and some, though highly educated, fall a prey to vices. It is therefore the main object of this school to assist in building the moral character of boys.”

It is believed that the name for the settlement viz.   Phoenix was not given by Gandhi. It was Thomas Watkins who owned this farm gave this name.  The story behind giving the name was that his first crop of sugarcane was destroyed by fire and he replanted it in the ashes of the crop. Gandhi wrote in a letter to Maganlal Gandhi, on 24 November 1909 about the appropriateness of the settlement’s name.

“Phoenix is a very good word which has come to us without any effort on our part. Being an English word, it serves to pay homage to the land in which we live. Moreover, it is neutral. Its significance, as the legend goes, is that the bird phoenix comes back to life again and again from its own ashes, i.e. it never dies. The name Phoenix, for the present serves the purpose quite well, for we believe the aims of Phoenix will not vanish even when we are turned to dust.”

In 1913, Gandhi made a trust for the management of the Phoenix property.  Gandhi’s son Manilal Gandhi played an important role in   the running of Indian Opinion and Phoenix Settlement till his death in 1956. The publication of Indian Opinion was discontinued in 1961.

During the apartheid era, it became a busy hub of resistance facilitating the activists who were engaged in the fight for justice, peace and equal rights for all citizens.  Large portion of this settlement was damaged during 1985 Inanda riots. South Africa’s first democratic elections were held in the year 1994.Following this the Settlement was rebuilt and it was formally reopened on February 27, 2000, at a ceremony attended by the President of South Africa.

At present the settlement comprises of Gandhi’s house ( Sarvodaya),  International  Printing Press (which now houses the Inanda Tourism office), Gandhi’s son Manilal’s house and the Phoenix Interpretation Centre, where lectures are being conducted. Next to the Phoenix settlement is the Kasturba Primary School, named after Gandhi’s wife. On the eve of 151st birth anniversary of Gandhi, that is, October 2, 2020, the Phoenix Settlement was declared as a National Heritage Site by the South Africa Heritage Resources Agency.  

 

 Tolstoy Farm, Johannesburg

Tolstoy Farm

Tolstoy Farm was the second experiment in community living undertaken by Gandhi which was established near Johannesburg, as a corollary to Phoenix Settlement during the second Satyagraha campaign   against the Asiatic Registration Bill popularly known as Black Act. It was mainly to accommodate families of Satyagrahies and to lead a communitarian life which Gandhi described as “cooperative common wealth.” Gandhi wrote in Satyagraha in South Africa “There was only one solution for this difficulty, namely, that all the families should be kept at one place and should become members of a sort of co-operative commonwealth. …the families of Satyagrahis would be trained to live a new and simple life in harmony with one another. Indians belonging to various provinces and professing diverse faiths would have an opportunity of living together.”  Gandhi was looking for a suitable place suitable for a settlement of this nature in the Transvaal and near Johannesburg which was mainstay of Satyagraha. He explains the reasons for the selection of the particular site.“ To live in a city would have been like straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel. The house rent alone would perhaps amount to the same sum as the food bill, and it would not be easy to live simple life amidst the varied distractions of a city. Again in a city it would be impossible to find a place where many families could prosecute useful industry in their own homes. It was therefore clear that the place selected should be neither too far from nor too near a city. There was of course Phoenix, where Indian Opinion was being printed and where there was some cultivation being carried on. Phoenix was convenient in many other ways, but it was three hundred miles away from Johannesburg and to be reached by a journey of thirty hours. It was therefore difficult and expensive to take the families such a distance and bring them back again. Besides, the families would not be ready to leave their homes for such a far off place, and even if they were ready it seemed impossible to send them as well as the Satyagrahi prisoners on their release.”It was Herman Kallenbach, a Lithuanian born Jewish South African architect   and a close friend of Gandhi,who  bought a farm of about 1,100 acres and gave the use of it to  the Satyagrahis free of any rent or charge on the  condition that they will vacate the site  on the termination of satyagraha struggle . Thus Tolstoy Farm was established on May 30, 1910 in a site which is located in a southwestern corner of the Johannesburg municipal area, approximately 35 kms from Johannesburg, 2 kms from the Lawley Station.   

The name Tolstoy Farm for the settlement was given by  Kallenbach in consultation with Gandhi. Like Gandhi Kallenbach was also highly influenced by the teachings of Tolstoy.Gandhi wrote in his letter to Tolstoy  the impact of his teachings on Kallenbach.  "No writing has so deeply touched Mr. Kallenbach as yours; and as a spur to further effort in living up to the ideals held before the world by you, he has taken the liberty, after consultation with me, of naming his farm after you."

 The Tolstoy farm differed from Phoenix in many respects.  It shows Gandhi’s progress and evolution towards Ashram life.In the Farm everyone had only shared accommodation separately for men and women. Further instead of each settler cultivating a separate plot of land, it was decided to cultivate jointly to ensure economy in production process and to develop co-operative spirit. It was insisted that not to have any servants either for the household work or as far as might be even for the farming and building operations. Everything starting from cooking to scavenging was done by the inmates.  Gandhi wrote “The work before us was to make the Farm a busy hive of industry, thus to save money and in the end to make the families self-supporting.” Tolstoy Farm was an ideal laboratory for fostering community spirit. “The settlers learned to look upon one another as members of the same family, the Satyagrahis secured a pure place of refuge, little scope was left for dishonesty or hypocrisy and the wheat was separated from the tares.” 

 The farm provided Gandhi to undertake further experiments in   the field of education. He wrote “As the Farm grew, it was found necessary to make some provision for the education of its boys and girls. There were, among these, Hindu, Musalman, Parsi and Christian boys and some Hindu girls. It was not possible, and I did not think it necessary, to engage special teachers for them. It was not possible, for qualified Indian teachers were scarce, and even when available, none would be ready to go to a place twenty-one miles distant from Johannesburg on a small salary. Also we were certainly not overflowing with money. And I did not think it necessary to import teachers from outside the Farm. I did not believe in the existing system of education, and I had a mind to find out by experience and experiment the true system. Only this much I knew - that, under ideal conditions, true education could be imparted only by the parents, and that then there should be the minimum of outside help, that Tolstoy Farm was a family, in which I occupied the place of the father, and that I should so far as possible shoulder the responsibility for the training of the young.” His experiment in coeducation was the boldest one and his emphasis was on building character. : “I had always given the first place to the culture of the heart or the building of character, and as I felt confident that moral training could be given to all alike, no matter how different their ages and their upbringing, I decided to live amongst them all the twenty-four hours of the day as their father. I regarded character building as the proper foundation for their education and, if the foundation was firmly laid, I was sure that the children could learn all the other things themselves or with the assistance of friends.”

This settlement played an important place in the prosecution of Satyagraha.  Gandhi wrote " Tolstoy Farm proved to be a centre of spiritual purification and penance for the final campaign.I have serious doubts as to whether the struggle could have been prosecuted for eight years, whether we could have secured larger funds, and whether the thousands of men who participated in the last phase of the struggle would have borne their share of it, if there had been no Tolstoy Farm."

The farm was disbanded after the completion of Satyagraha struggle. The ownership was moved from one hand to another in the course of time. At the present the site is owned by a  Corobrik brick factory.  However, taking note of Tolstoy Farm’s strategic and historic importance  the company has given around three and half acres of the land to develop as Gandhi Memorial Garden .

Satyagraha Ashram, Kochrab, Ahmedabad

Satyagraha Ashram, Sabarmati, Ahmedabad

Satyagraha Ashram

His third ashram, which is known as Satyagraha Ashram, was established at Kochrab near Ahmedabad on 25 May 1915 on his return to India from South Africa. It was later shifted to the banks of river Sabarmati on 17 June 1917.Gandhi’s Phoenix party arrived in India before his arrival and they were staying in Rabindranath Tagore’s Shantiniketan. Gandhi too stayed there for a brief period of time and undertook some experiments in self-help which Tagore described as ‘key to swaraj.’  Places like Hardvar, Vaidyanathadham and Rajkot were suggested to him as the location of his ashram but he had a predilection for Ahmedabad “Being a Gujarati I thought I should be able to render the greatest service to the country through the Gujarati language. And then, as Ahmedabad was an ancient centre of handloom weaving, it was likely to be the most favourable field for the revival of the cottage industry of hand-spinning. There was also the hope that, the city being the capital of Gujarat, monetary help from its wealthy citizens would be more available here than elsewhere.”But one has to keep in mind that it was busy hub of mill cloth too. The inmates were accommodated Kochrab bungalow of Jivanlal Desai, a barrister in Ahmedabad, which was hired for the establishment of the ashram.

Gandhi explains in his Autobiography how he arrived at the name Satyagraha Ashram “The first thing we had to settle was the name of the Ashram. I consulted friends. Amongst the names suggested were 'Sevashram' (the abode of service), 'Tapovan' (the abode of austerities), etc. I liked the name 'Sevashram' but for the absence of emphasis on the method of service. 'Tapovan' seemed to be a pretentious title, because though tapas was dear to us we would not presume to be tapasvins (men of austerity). Our creed was devotion to truth, and our business was the search for and insistence on truth. I wanted to acquaint India with the method I had tried in South Africa, and I desired to test in India the extent to which its application might be possible. So my companions and I selected the name 'Satyagraha Ashram', as conveying both our goal and our method of service.” The object of this Ashram was that “its members should qualify themselves for, and make a constant endeavour towards, the service of the country, not inconsistent with universal good.”

For the conduct of the Ashram a code of rules and observances was necessary and Gandhi himself drafted the same, it included Truth, Non-violence, Brahmacharya , Control of the Palate Non-Stealing, Non-Possession, Swadeshi, Fearlessness, Removal of Untouchability,Varnashrama Dharma and Tolerance. Physical labour was added by Gandhi later. It is significant to note what Gandhi wrote about Varnashrama Dharma. He out rightly rejected caste distinctions. “ In the Ashram caste distinction has no place. It is believed that caste distinction has caused harm to the Hindu dharma. The ideas of the superior and inferior status and pollution by contact implied in caste distinction serves to destroy the dharma of non-violence. However, the Ashram does believe in Varna and the Ashram dharma. The division of Varna is based upon occupation. One who follows that division lives by his parents’ occupation, not inconsistent with larger dharma, and spends his spare time in acquiring and advancing true knowledge as well as performing service. The Ashram believes, as in the Varna, so in the four Ashrams of the Brahmacharya, Grihastha, Vanprastha, and Sanyasa. But the Ashram does not believe that life of renunciation can be lived in a forest only or by giving up performance of one’s duties. The Ashram believes that dharma of renunciation can be and should be observed while leading a normal life and that it alone is true renunciation.”

The new location of the Ashram at the banks of river Sabarmati according to mythology was the ashram site of Dadhichi Rishi who had donated his bones for a righteous war and was engaged in such war through the weapon of nonviolence.It is located between a jail and a crematorium and Gandhi believed that a satyagrahi has to invariably go to either place. The Ashram at Sabarmati was the  home of  Gandhi from 1917 until 1930.It served as epicenter of the India’s struggle for freedom. It was also from here on the 12 March 1930 that Gandhi launched the famous Dandi march 241 miles from the Ashram (with 78 companions) in protest of the British Salt Law that  finally led to disbanding of the ashram and rededicating it for the cause of Harijans . Therefore, it is also known as Harijan Ashram.

The places of attraction in this ashram include a small cottage which is now known as 'Hridaya (Heart) Kunj  where Gandhi lived in Nandini,old Ashram guest house,Vinoba Kutir named after Acharya Vinoba Bhave who stayed here, and also known as Mira Kutir after Madeline Slade (Miraben), Gandhi's disciple, daughter of a British Admiral. Upasana Mandir-an open-air prayer ground, situated between 'Hridaya Kunj' and 'Magan Kutir' (the hut where Maganlal Gandhi, the ashram manager, used to stay. An important feature of the Ashram is Gandhi Sangrahalaya, a museum whichhas five units and a library, two photo-galleries and an auditorium.The Ashram remains as a source of inspiration and guidance, and stands as a monument to Gandhi’s life mission and a testimony of his nonviolent struggles.

Sevagram Ashram, Wardha

 Mahatma Gandhi in front of his hut  at Sevagram

Sevagram Ashram

Sevagram is the fourth ashram established by Mahatma Gandhi. The word Sevagram literally means the village of service. Mahatma left Satyagraha ashram on 12th March 1930 in the wake of historical Salt March with a solemn vow that he will return to the Ashram only when India gets independence from the foreign yoke or the British rule. It goes to the credit of Jamnalal Bajaj, who is regarded as the fifth son of Mahatma, for persuading Gandhi to settle down in Wardha and support Gandhi in the establishment of Ashram at Sevagram . Gandhi on his release from Yervada Jail came to Wardha on September 23, 1933. He stayed in Bajajwadi that was the residence of Jamnalal Bajaj, which later turned into a national guest house for workers and leaders of freedom struggle. He started his Harijan tour from here on November 7 and it was in Nagpur he declared on the 8th that “removal of untouchablity is my religion”. He returned to Wardha again on August 7, 1934 and stayed in Satyagraha Ashram of Vinoba Bhave at Wardha, presently the Mahila Ashram. It was during this period Gandhi decided to retire from the Indian National Congress. Finally, he resigned from the Congress on the 29th of October. He decided to devote all his energies for the uplift of villages. On December 15, 1934, the All India Village Industries Association was formed at Wardha.  Jamnalal Bajaj had donated twenty acres of land and a house to Gandhi which was later renamed as Maganwadi in the memory of Maganlal Gandhi, which became the headquarters of All India Village Industries Association.

The first village development work under the guidance of Mahatma was started at a small village known as Sindi.  But he was in search of a typical village and it was Madeline Slade (Miraben),a disciple of Gandhi from Britain,  who selected  the village Segaon, about  four miles to the east of Wardha town. This village is in central part of India around 75 kms.away from Nagpur . On April 30, 1936, Mahatma made this village Segaon as his home. He stayed in a makeshift arrangement under a guava tree there as his hut was not ready at that time. On his first visit, he stayed here only for a couple of days. It is pertinent to note his concept of ashram underwent drastic changes during the Sevagram phase. He was 67 years old and he was not in favour of creating ashram as a community of people away from the village. In fact he wanted to convert the whole village into an ashram. He wanted to stay alone in the village and Kasturba could join if she wanted. But in the course of time it was taking the form of an ashram.  There was another place known as Shegaon and the letters addressed to Gandhi went there. Therefore, in 1940 the village was renamed as Sevagram.

 Sevagram Ashram differs from his others ashrams in terms of approach and its appearance. This ashram clearly depicts his ideological evolution and changing approach to life and philosophy. He wrote in Harijan in 1936. "You may be sure I am living now just the way I wish to live. What I might have done at the beginning, had I more light, I am doing now in the evening of my life, at the end of my career, building from the bottom up. Study my way of living here, study my surroundings, if you wish to know what I am. Village improvement is the only foundation on which conditions in India can be permanently ameliorated."

Gandhi wanted his hut to be built using the materials available within the radius of 75 kms. and the cost not  to exceed  more than hundred rupees. Gandhiji’s hut was built as per his wish and his first hut was renamed as Adi Nivas after his death. This hut witnessed many important meetings and discussions which determined the future of India. The idea of Quit India movement took its shape in the first meeting held here. Similarly the preliminary deliberations of Individual Satyagraha were also held in this iconic building.

In the course of time a number of buildings and additional facilities were added to the Ashram like a hut for Kasturba  Gandhi,the well known  Bapukuti, which was originally used by Miraben   and expanded as per the requirements of Gandhi, open prayer ground, his last residence, Prachure kuti built for treating a leprosy affected person, huts for his secretaries and  other buildings.

He explained to his Polish engineer friend Maurice Frydman why he was in a village like Sevagram with bare minimum facilities: "I am here to serve no one else but myself, to seek my own self- realisation though the service of these village folk…. The service to human beings becomes a necessary part of the endeavour, simply because the only way to find God is to see Him in his creation and try to be one with it. This can only be done by service to all. One has to serve the world through service to one’s own country." This village became a symbol of Gandhi’s ideal of village service.

In 1937, Gandhi came up with his ideas on Basic education which aimed at the all round development of body, mind and spirit.  His scheme of Basic education was implemented throughout the country. It was during his Sevagram phase, he became more convinced about the efficacy of constructive work along with Satyagraha and in 1940s he came up with his 18 fold constructive programme for the reconstruction of Indian villages. Thus Sevagram Ashram was the laboratory for ideas and action

Gandhi left Sevagram Ashram for Delhi on his way to Noakhali on 25th August 1946. From Noakhali he returned to Delhi and was hoping to return to Sevagram on 2nd February1948. But unfortunately he was assassinated by a religious fundamentalist and that put an abrupt end to his life. But his life and message continues to remain a source of inspiration for people all over the globe. Sevagram ashram is a place of pilgrimage to understand his philosophy and life.

Due to Gandhi’s presence, Sevagram/Wardha became the de-facto capital of India and it became a busy hub of a number of organizations and institutions including Mahila Seva Mandal,Magan Sangrahalaya, Rashtra Basha Prachar Samity and many others.  After Gandhi’s death Vinoba Bhave, Gandhi’s spiritual heir guided the Gandhian activities from his ashram at Paunar in Wardha. A number of institutions were established on similar lines even after the martyrdom of Gandhi that makes Sevagram/Wardha unique in the history of India.

 Gandhi’s ashram at Sevagram declares to the world the values of simplicity, limitation of wants and life in tune with nature. It continues to remain as a source of inspiration for ordinary people to noted philosophers and thinkers. In January 1978, Ivan Illich a Croatian – Austrian philosopher came to Sevagram to inaugurate a conference. At the inaugural speech he talked about the message of Bapu’s hut. “ Today in the morning while I was sitting in this hut where Mahatma Gandhi lived, I was trying to absorb the spirit of this concept and imbibe in me its message. There are two things about the hut which have impressed me greatly. One is its spiritual aspect and the other is the aspect of his amenities. I was trying to understand Gandhi’s point of view in regard to making the hut, I very much liked its simplicity, beauty and neatness. The hut proclaims the principle of love and equality with everybody. …This hut of Gandhi demonstrates to the world how the dignity of the common man can be brought up. It is also a symbol of happiness which we can derive from practicing the principles of simplicity, service and truthfulness.”

 The inmates of the Ashram follow a lifestyle in accordance with eleven vows prescribed by Gandhi. Sevagram ashram receives a number of visitors from India and abroad and hosts a number of conferences, seminars, symposiums for people looking for alternatives and those engaged in creating a society based on values of peace, nonviolence and social justice. This ashram will become more and more important in days to come taking into consideration the emerging challenges which humanity is facing.

 

 Session -2

GANDHI’S VISION OF ASHRAM
Siby K. Joseph 

 

If we trace the history of Ashram, it existed in India for a quite long time and mostly associated with Hinduism. Historically, ashrams were located in remote places, often in forests or mountain ranges far away from the rest of the community. It was considered as a place of a religious retreat or hermitage where people who have withdrawn from society live together as a group. The word Ashram first appeared in English in the early 1900s. It gained popularity only after Mahatma founded his famous ashrams viz.  Satyagraha Ashram near   Ahmedabad and later Sevagram Ashram, Wardha.² Gandhi’s experiments in ashram or community living changed its very connotation and way in which was it was looked upon earlier.

  Gandhi was not using the term ashram to denote his community living experiments while he was in South Africa. After returning to India in 1915 with due thought and deliberation he arrived at the definite idea of the Ashram when he settled down at Kochrab near Ahmedabad.  What was Gandhi’s notion of Ashram?   In simple words for him it was “a community of men of religion.” Here the term religion should be understood in the sense of spirituality. During his stay at Satyagraha Ashram near Ahmedabad, Gandhi while on an evening walk looking at the Sabarmati Central Prison jokingly said, "This is our other Ashram”. He further said:"In our Ashram there are no walls. The only walls we have are those of Ashram disciplines. But unlike the prison walls they do not imprison but protect us and release us into greater freedom. It is only when we observe spiritual disciplines voluntarily that we experience real freedom. Armed with them, we can go anywhere, face any emergency and never feel baffled. For instance, our life in the Ashram is supposed to be harder than prison life. We have no possessions of which anyone can deprive us.  Imprisoned we shall miss no delights of the palate or any other physical indulgence having accustomed ourselves to plain fare and the simple life. We shall fear none because we shall have learnt to walk in the fear of God only, and we shall gladly die witness to truth; we shall never repudiate it." These words of Gandhi help the reader to understand what Gandhi’s vision of ashram was.

What was main object of Gandhi’s Satyagraha Ashram?  According to Gandhi “The object of this Ashram is that its members should qualify themselves for, and make a constant endeavour towards, the service of the country, not inconsistent with universal good.” From the experience in ashram living in South Africa he realized that the observances of vows were essential for the fulfillment of the very object of the Ashram life. He systematized the vows for the inmates of his ashrams. The draft constitution of the Ashram which Gandhi prepared in 1915 lists the vows of truth, nonviolence, brahmacharya, control of palate, non-stealing, non-possession,  swadeshi and fearlessness. In the third draft he included the vow against practise of untouchability taking note of harsh social realities prevailing in India those days. Each improvement in the draft was the result of mature reflection and demands of the particular situation he confronted.

 Gandhi emphasized the importance of observance of vows and disciplined way of life as necessary conditions for anyone who would like to become a member of his ashram and they were expected to follow them even after his demise. It was evident from the rules he penned down for Sevagram Ashram at the last leg of his life. He intended that the vows and norms of discipline to be there forever. He wrote that the life members should sign the following pledge."We the undersigned believe in the necessity of keeping the eleven observances, and will endeavour to do so to the best of our ability. We will live in the Ashram till death even when Gandhiji is no longer with us in the flesh and will perform the duties assigned to us." In this write up Gandhi reflected on almost every aspect of day to day life in the ashram. This document is considered as his last will and testament in matters regarding ashram life.   (For details See Appendix : Rules for Sevagram Ashram)

 In fact Gandhi's Ashrams served as ideal laboratories for experiments of personal purification by inmates which equipped them for socio-economic and political actions for the creation of nonviolent, equitable, just and peaceful society.  Mark Thomson, the author of the book, Gandhi and his Ashrams explains the significance of Gandhi’s initiatives of ashram life both in South Africa and India in the following words: "The ashrams Gandhi established served as laboratories where he and his colleagues experimented with nonviolence as an alternative way of life. In these small monastic communities of men and women living according to absolute vows he sought to lay the ground-work for an egalitarian social organization and economy, and to develop an education system that reflected the Indian genius. The ashrams provided economic and moral support as well as fostering the discipline and awareness necessary for their members to sustain grassroot civil disobedience. Gandhi saw the need in the tradition-bound, rigidly hierarchical Indian society, for a moral sanction able to inspire people to help themselves. He believed ashramic life, based on mutuality, simplicity and hard work, would nurture an asceticism that could be channelled through positive action to reform society"

Ashram life both in South Africa and India played an important role in moulding the personality of Gandhi from an Inner Temple lawyer to Mahatma or Bapu of common masses. The greatest contribution of Mahatma Gandhi is that through his community experiments he changed the very notion of the Ashram. In his experiments with Ashram he linked it with issues confronted by people in their mundane life. James D. Hunt, Gandhi scholar from America aptly said “The Gandhian communities never were retreats from the world; they were attempts to change the world. In the context of community life, new directions could be discerned, and the small community could offer new visions to the larger community.”

 In short, ashrams established by Gandhi were spiritual laboratories in nonviolence equipping the inmates for nonviolent and constructive action.  The rules and discipline of the ashram helped the inmates to achieve the goal of harmonious integration of body, mind and spirit and making them perfect instruments of service not inconsistent with universal welfare. Through a disciplined way of life and the ashram observances Gandhi could create an army of satyagrahis who   were able to face the toughest challenge even by risking their life. The classic example was Salt March of 1930 which showed exemplary fearlessness which literally shook the foundation of British rule in India. It also marked the termination of his experiments in ashram life in Ahmedabad.  But it was not the end of his experiments in community living because ashram life was a part and parcel of his persona.

Appendix

Rules for Sevagram Ashram

 

Life members of the Ashram are those who believe in the necessity of keeping the eleven observances, and endeavour to do so to the best of their ability, and who will stay in the Ashram even after Gandhiji's death and render lifelong service through the activities of the Ashram.

The names of those who come under this category should be placed on record. They should sign the following pledge:

"We the undersigned believe in the necessity of keeping the eleven observances, and will endeavour to do so to the best of our ability. We will live in the Ashram till death even when Gandhiji is no longer with us in the flesh and will perform the duties assigned to us."

The second class of inmates is those who have joined the Ashram for service. They are non-permanent members. And the third class is visitors and guests who come to the Ashram for a short time.

One of the life members shall be the manager. He will be selected by Gandhiji. After his [Gandhiji's] death, and on the manager ceasing for some reason to hold that office, the life members shall elect a new manager.

The manager shall have charge of the entire administration of the Ashram and assign to the inmates their respective duties. As far as possible, the manager will try to obtain the consent of the life members in doing this.

The Ashram accounts shall be duly kept, and audited once a year. The statement of accounts shall be sent to the trustees of the Ashram and to the President of the Gandhi Seva Sangh.

The rules deducible from the observances and essential for a well-regulated Ashram life are as follows:
All members - whether permanent or otherwise - will turn every minute of their time to good account. They will take part in every corporate activity of the Ashram. When free from Ashram work they will spin or carry out some other process connected with cotton. They will prosecute their private studies from 8 to 9 p.m., or during daytime, when they have no Ashram work to do and have spun for at least one hour.

They may not spin when they are ill or otherwise unable to spin owing to circumstances beyond their control.

No one should talk idly or in a loud voice. The Ashram must bear the impress of perfect peace as well as of truth. Our relations with one another must be characterized by affection and restraint and with guests and visitors by courtesy. Whether a visitor is dressed in rags or in gorgeous robes, we should treat him with uniform respect. We must not make any distinction between the rich and the poor, the noble and the simple. This does not mean that we may expect a delicately nurtured guest to live as simply as ourselves. That is to say, in waiting upon guests, we must always take into consideration their habitual mode of life. This is true courtesy. If an unknown visitor arrives at the Ashram we must ask him the purpose of his visit, and if necessary, take him to the manager.

Our every word and every act should be well thought out. Whatever we do we must do with a will and complete identification with what we are doing at the moment. For instance we must not talk at meals or while cutting vegetables.

Food must be taken like medicine, under proper restraint, only for sustaining the body and keeping it a fit instrument for service. We must therefore take food in moderation or even abstemiously. We must be content with what food we get. If it is insufficiently or badly cooked, we must not talk about it at meals, but courteously speak about it later to the manager of the kitchen. Bad or imperfectly cooked food should not be eaten.
We must not smack the lips while eating. We must eat our food slowly, decorously and neatly in a spirit of thankfulness to God.

Everyone must wash his own dish thoroughly and keep it in its place.Guests and visitors are requested to bring their own plate, drinking pot, bowls and spoon, as well as lantern, bedding, mosquito net and napkins. They must not have more clothes than necessary. Their clothes should be made of khadi. Other things must be as far as possible village-made or at least Swadeshi.

Everything must be kept in its proper place. All refuse must be put into the dustbin. Water must not be wasted. Boiled water is used for drinking purposes. Pots and pans are finally washed with boiled water. Unboiled water of the Ashram wells is not safe to drink. It is necessary to learn the distinction between boiling water and hot water. Boiling water is that with which pulses are cooked, and which gives out lots of steam. No one can drink boiling water. We should not spit or clean the nose on the road, but only in an out of the way place where no one is likely to walk.

Nature's needs must be attended to only at the appointed place. It is necessary to clean oneself after answering both the calls of nature. The receptacle for the solid contents is, as it should always be, different from that for the liquid contents of latrines. After a visit to the latrine, we must wash our hands with pure earth and pure water and wipe them with a clean napkin. The night soil must be fully covered with dry earth so as not to attract flies and in such a way that nothing but dry earth is visible.

One must sit carefully on the latrine seat, so that the seat does not get dirty. A lantern must be carried if it is dark.

Everything which can attract the fly should be properly covered.

The teeth must be cleaned with care at the proper place. The end of the twig must be well chewed into a soft brush, and the teeth and the gums must be brushed with it both ways. The saliva discharged during brushing, must be spitted out. After the teeth are well brushed, the twig must be split into two to clean the tongue with- Then the mouth should be carefully washed. The split twigs should be washed well, and collected in a pot. When they dry up, they should be used for starting a fire, the idea being that nothing which can be used should be thrown away.
Waste paper, which cannot be used for writing on the other side, should be burned. Nothing else should be mixed with it.

The fragments of vegetables must be kept separate and converted into manure. Broken glass should be thrown into a pit at a safe distance from houses.

 Rules for Sevagram Ashram were written by Mahatma Gandhi at the last phase of his life. It originally appeared in Harijan on October 31, 1948. It is considered as Gandhi’s last will and testament on Ashram life. Source: M. K. Gandhi, Ashram observances in Action ( Ahmedabad :Navajivan)

 This  Concept Note was prepared by Dr. Siby K. Joseph, Director, Sri Jamnalal Bajaj Memorial Library and Research Centre for Gandhian Studies, Sevagram Ashram Pratishthan, Sevagram,Wardha- 442102,  Maharashtra  (INDIA) 

Email: directorjbmlrc@gmail.com

To download the book

 https://sevagramashram.org.in/index.php/2023/01/23/ashrams-of-gandhi-and-lanza-del-vasto/