New Delhi: Tucked away in a remote corner of the city, this over 80-year-old Harijan ashram served as a laboratory for Mahatma Gandhi’s fight against social evils like untouchability, but public apathy and “lack of political patronage” have pushed this Gandhian landmark into obscurity.
Harijan Sewak Sangh, born out of the historic Poona Pact between Mahatma Gandhi and Babasaheb Ambedkar in 1932, was founded by the Father of the Nation the same year, to lend a conducive environment for the upliftment of the oppressed classes or ‘Harijans’ as he called them.
But, the place that Gandhi personally nurtured to “bring light” into the lives of the people living on the lower strata of the society, has itself, literally “fallen into darkness”.
“Yes, it is sad that after sundown, the ashram plunges into darkness. We have an acute shortage of fund, and owing to that we are not able to afford the electricity bill to run the lights in the campus, barring a couple of them,” Secretary of Harijan Sewak Sangh, Laxmi Dass told PTI.
He also points out that “lack of political patronage” added to its neglect and “failure as a tourist landmark”. “Unlike the Gandhi memorial at the Birla House and the Rajghat here, it never enjoyed the kind of political patronage it should have. Maybe being an institution for the Dalits, it did not get much into mainstream. “And, add to it the fact that the place does not find mention in the tourism literature and city guides either, unlike Birla House or Rajghat. The place has fallen right off the map,” Dass said.
Spread over 27 acres of land in the historic Kingsway Camp area in north Delhi, the ashram has a towering “Dharma Stambh” and a beautiful but faded “Sarwa Dharma Sambhav Temple”, both of which were constructed under the supervision of Gandhi.
“Gandhiji laid the foundation stone of the temple and later also opened it. But, on October 2, one could see garbage being dumped near it. And, though the iconic pillar (Stambh) still has its glory somewhat intact, the temple needs a refurbishment,” an employee of the ashram said, requesting anonymity. Dass said the institution was planning to send a proposal to the Centre to “develop” the place “on par with” the Birla House and Rajghat, and put it back on the map.
The ashram campus also has a unique “Shauchalaya Pradarshni (toilet gallery)” in its front yard, which Gandhiji got established in consultation with well-known sanitation activists Ishwarbhai Patel and Appasaheb Patwardhan. “Gandhiji despised untouchability and saw manual scavenging as a prime reason for it. And, he saw creation of toilets as a road to empowerment. Gandhi didn’t just establish an ashram, he sowed the seeds of a social revolution, all but forgotten by people now,” 83-year-old Ram Raj Prabhakar, a former employee of the ashram, said.
Dass said the ashram wants to approach the Ministry of Tourism within next few months and propose a refurbishment plan for the ashram, despite the fact that it is in the suburban area of Delhi. “The fact that we have a ‘toilet gallery’ in our campus, it could be a major tourist attraction,” he said.
Reminiscing the ashram’s glory days, Prabhakar said, “People know Gandhi’s death place but not his real battleground, where he engineered a social revolution.” “Birla saheb (G D Birla, first president), Thakkar Bapa (first secretary) and Gandhiji started this place with so much love.
Birlaji had bought the land and offered it to the Sangh and later even funded the construction of the main building. “All national and international leaders like Nehru, Bose, Rajendra Prasad, Eisenhower (US President D D Eisenhower), Krushchev (Russian Premier Nikita Kruschev) used to visit the place. It was Gandhiji’s battleground for his fight against untouchability but now only a faded legacy has remained,” Prabhakar told PTI.
The “Dharama Stambh” along with its massive pedestal has inscriptions from the Vedas and Upanashidas, and Buddhist teachings inscribed on them.
“There is none other like it. But, does anyone know about it in Delhi, let alone rest of the country,” he asked.
As part of the Delhi-based Sangh, which has branches spread in many other areas of the country, Prabhakar travelled from late 1950s to 1970s onwards from city-to-city “asking people to banish untouchability, as propounded by Gandhiji”.
“Gandhiji used to visit the place from time to time. Overall, he is said to have spent about 180 days in the ashram. He also lived in the Valmiki Colony in Delhi, where Prime Minister Modi went to start the ‘Swachh Bahrat Mission’. “Now at least, people know about that colony, but they still have no idea about the ashram that he built with so many dreams, a dream for a clean and discrimination-free India,” Prabhakar said.
Dass said the current name of the institution came into use only from 1934 onwards as after the Poona Pact, a National Anti-Untouchability League was constituted in Bombay (now Mumbai) under the chairmanship of Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya, which was registered as ‘Harijan Sewak Sangh’ two years later.
“Lot of meetings related to the freedom struggle have been held here. Kasturba lived here along with her children for several months. And, we recently built a ‘Kasturba Kutir’ (memorial), in the campus. We want people to come here and experience history,” he said. (PTI)