Tushar Gandhi: Worry the character and soul of the ashram will get diluted by penchant for grandeur

Tushar Gandhi. Photo: Mid-day file pic

In late October, Mahatma Gandhi's great grandson, Tushar Gandhi filed a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) in the Gujarat High Court opposing the redevelopment plan for the Sabarmati Ashram. The PIL has been dismissed by the high court recently but Gandhi isn't giving up anytime soon.

The work on the Rs 1,200-crore redevelopment plan called ‘Gandhi Ashram Memorial and Precinct Development Project' of the Sabarmati Ashram started in early October. It will involve redeveloping all the heritage structures within the property and relocating the families that have been living there by compensating them. While late Mumbai-based architect Charles Correa was the original architect of the ashram, the new project is being done by Ahmedabad-based architect Bimal Patel, who is also the chief architect of the contentious Central Vista project.

Mid-day.com reached out to Tushar Gandhi to understand why he filed the PIL against the redevelopment plan. The author also dwells on why it is important to seek clarity on the ownership of monuments such as the Sabarmati Ashram, to help maintain their sanctity.

Here are edited excerpts:

What is the latest update on your PIL opposing the redevelopment of the Gandhi Ashram Memorial?

Last week, the PIL came up in the Gujarat High Court and it has been dismissed by the judges. The Advocate General of Gujarat said why is there so much hullabaloo, we are going to preserve that one acre of land, and we are going to do whatever has to be done in the remaining area and that answers your questions. They did not bother to read the other points we raised in the PIL.

So, now we are waiting to receive the official order and plan and see what the next step is, which will be there because we are not giving up. Unfortunately, this is the kind of attitude and they seem to be in a hurry to dispose of the plea instead of going into the points raised. There is no sanctity or belief, the govt just wants to erase a part of the legacy and put their stamp on it and that is the only objective. They are not bothered about keeping the legacy alive because if it is alive, it is a threat to them.

What drove you to file the PIL? Before now, how was the upkeep of the monument generally approached?

The reason I was concerned about the Sabarmati Ashram redevelopment was because there was a lot of darkness about the information available. Initially, there were only bits and pieces of news that were hearsay from the media but officially there didn't seem to be any declaration or confirmation about the redevelopment. That immediately made me feel concerned about the intention because if it was going to be enhancing the ashram, then why is there an opaqueness and secrecy? That made me file the PIL.

There were various other aspects that were of concern. Till now, it is not as if alterations and renovations to the ashram complex haven't been done. It has been done many times before, facilities have been added and places for people to enhance their experience have been added. What was worrying was that till then the government had only played the role of a funder. They would provide the funding and the proposal of the plan would be made by the trusts, who would have a budget and ask for a grant from the government for it. It was a system that was followed and that ensured that the autonomy of the ashram or the monument was retained. However, this time was the first time, it felt like the government was saying, ‘We don't need anybody and this is how we are going to do it'. There was no dialogue with anybody about it. It is like they are the boss because they are giving the money and they will do what they want about it and that was very scary.

There were clear cut policy decisions made about the preservation of the monuments and it was decided that it would be done in perpetuity, post Bapu's murder. It was done after the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi (GSN) was constituted and that was supposed to be the umbrella organisation that would take care of all these monuments and provide for their upkeep. So, the funds that would come in would go through the GSN and then it would be channelised to all the institutions. In the GSNs formation deed and the constitution, it was clearly mentioned that all the monuments, memorials, ashrams and institutions would permanently be insulated from government and political influence. So, even the initial corpus that was raised by the GSN, was raised completely from private donations, which were from a bunch of industrialists, from corpus funding and public fundraising, which continued right till the ‘70s. I remember distinctly that there used to be fundraising annually and people would donate from 10 paise to whatever they could afford, and this how the funds for the GSN and other organisations were collected.

It was realised that maintaining the memorials was an ongoing expenditure and this kind of once-in-a-while fund collection was not going to suffice. Then the decision to approach the government was made and it was made very clear that the government would only be a funding agency and it would have no say, not even be able to tell the organisation that the funds will have to be used in a particular manner. There was a principle associated that government and political influence will not be tolerated in any of the organisations. So, this was the first time, they were actually saying that the money is ours, the will is ours, and the decision is ours and implementation will also be done by us. It flew in the face of the founding principle of the organisation. There was an opacity in the process and knowing the liking for grandeur by the government and its head - because anything that it has done has always been grand, big and showy - so there was a worry that the whole character and soul of the ashram would get corrupted and diluted by this penchant for grandeur. The Sabarmati ashram stands for the basic principle of frugality and simplicity, by which Bapu lived and it should not be diluted at all.

Then there was also this question mark that once these organisations were sidelined, and the government came in, then what would be the status of the monument ashram after that? Would the government take it over for perpetuity or would it revert back to the existing organisations and trusts managing them? There is no clarity about that either and the status also was in question. In 1933, when Bapu eventually handed over the property to the Harijan Sevak Sangh, the bequest was that they would be the guardian of the property in perpetuity and it would use the ashram for the betterment and upliftment of the untouchables or the Harijans, or as we call them, the Dalits today. So, that was the responsibility given to the Harijan Sevak Sangh, which meant that they would be the custodian of the property. So, now when the government came in and compensated the long-term residents to move out, what happens to all the property? Would the government say that we paid for it and vacated it and so it belongs to us now? So, the same argument applies to the ashram because then they will say they will put a department in charge of it and give a contract to a contractor to do it, which is what they have been doing, like with the Salt Memorial at Dandi, which has been given to private contractors to manage and run and they would do it only if they see a profit in it. So, finally the ashram would become like any other park given to a contractor to manage, who will do it for a profit.

So, all of these questions were worrying and I decided to knock on the door of the justice system and try to protect the ashram on these principles. Not that the great grandson doesn't want it to happen so he is screaming about it but simply because of these principles that need to be protected and the government needs to be questioned when they say that they will not touch the one-acre land. How did the ashram shrink to the 1-acre land when originally Bapu had purchased 120 acres, from the funds that were collected on behalf of the trust? So, how is it that in 100 years, the 100-plus acre land has shrunk to a 1-acre entity and the government is saying that they will not touch it? We can say today that there are only so many acres remaining but how can it be said that the ashram is only one acre and we are working around it in the remaining 55 acres? Then somebody will say that the ashram is only Hriday Kunj, where Gandhi resided. Finally, it seems like anything other than that, is open for snatching. So, it is turning the ashram from a memorial to Maa and Bapu into a memorial for the Prime Minister. Even if it is the Gujarat government, it is being done as the Prime Minister's project, because it is not being done as a voluntary initiative by them.

Was the recent Jallianwalla Baug redevelopment on your mind while filing the PIL against the redevelopment of the Sabarmati Ashram?
Look what they did to the Jallianwala Baug. The concern is very much about the redevelopment of monuments such as the Jallianwala Baug because if nothing is going to be sacrosanct, and everything has to be according to your megalomania, then we have to worry about it because somewhere a historic monument has to be preserved. The Sabarmati ashram is a temple for Maa and Bapu and how do you expect people to tolerate it to become something completely different?

There are so many things apart from the ashram and due to neglect, much of that property has been lost irrevocably. So, now we have to at least conserve what remains and not allow that to be shrunk down too. When the government says ‘we are not going to touch the one-acre, so what is the noise about', nobody bothers to ask what happened to the 100-plus acres bought over 100 years ago. At least on paper it should be 100 plus acres. I am not saying that we should start evicting people and repossessing the land, so that we reach that level, because it is too late now to do that. Only if the details are mentioned correctly, will the holistic and ideological entity of the ashram remain.

Any kind of possible obstruction for the Harijan Sevak Sangh to get control of the ashram?

Yes, there are obstructions because we don't know what the government intends to do. If at all they were sincere in it, then every property that was being vacated, should have been reverted to the ashram and the ownership of the Harijan Sevak Sangh. We don't know whether that has been done because there is no clarity on that. Most of the residents and tenants have accepted the compensation and agreed to move out. So, who is going to become the owner of the properties? That is what we had asked in the PIL that there should be clarity and assurance that the owners of the properties will receive them back.

Gandhi Ashram Memorial is of national importance just like the Jallianwala Baug. How important is this PIL not only for this structure but other structures in the country?

The Jallianwala Baug was always very stark and that is what provided the visitors an insight into the horror of the event that occurred. It showed you how the soil was still soaked in the blood of the victims. Now, with the green lawns and the fancy memorials, it has become like a garden. People will never realise the horror that occurred there. I remember when I visited the Jallianwala Baug, it felt like sacrilege to step on that soil because the thought was there that the blood of the victims had seeped into the soil and how can we step on that? Now, on the lawn, people can go and have a picnic there, celebrate and do whatever they want, take selfies and there is going to be no remembrance that so many innocents were gunned down. You can have fancy laser shows but when there is a monument, there is a soul that is linked to the event you are memorialising.

This PIL should help people raise voices against any other monuments being redeveloped but unfortunately today we see a lot of people not being bothered by these public issues. A more recent example is the farm agitation and its sympathy should have happened nationwide but it is only now that the elections are coming close that they have felt compassion about it.

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