History and Story of Sabarmati Ashram
The Sabarmati Ashram is an ashram established by Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the Indian nation. Whose old name was Satyagraha Ashram. It is located on the banks of the Sabarmati near Ahmedabad in Gujarat, India. Since it was situated on the banks of the Sabarmati river, it was named Sabarmati Ashram.
History of Sabarmati Ashram
When Gandhiji returned after completing his studies from South Africa, he first established an ashram on May 15, 1915 at a place called Kochrab in Ahmedabad, which was named Satyagraha.
But after 2 years this ashram had to be shifted because Gandhi ji wanted that work like farming, animal husbandry, khadi should be done here but due to less space this ashram was shifted to the banks of Sabarmati river and it is named after this river. The name was kept Sabarmati. Mahatma Gandhi ji fought the freedom struggle in 1930 by staying in this ashram and also did Dandi march from here and broke the salt law after reaching Dandi.
When this ashram started, there was no proper living space here and the number of people living here was 40, but slowly everything changed and Sabarmati Ashram became bigger and people were not facing any problem in living here.
Mahatma Gandhi ji was about non-violence, self-restraint, truth and he wanted to change the country through social and economic revolution. By creating unity among the people there, Gandhi ji tried to improve the economic condition through khadi, charkha and rural work and tried to get freedom for the country only through non-violence. Due to which he also got success in that.
Sabarmati Ashram was made such a school in Gandhiji that considering agriculture, literacy and human labor as the center, he started talking about everything. After some time, when the freedom struggle progressed, Mahatma Gandhi took oath on March 12, 1930 and he said that I will not return to Sabarmati Ashram until India gets independence.
After a lot of struggle with Mahatma Gandhi and freedom fighters, India got independence on 15th August 1947 but Mahatma Gandhi died on 30th January 1948 and Gandhiji could never return to the ashram he had built.
Presently located places in Sabarmati
After the death of Mahatma Gandhi, the Sabarmati Ashram was converted into a museum in his memory. At present it is also known as Gandhi Memorial Museum. Different places of this ashram have been given different names which are as follows –
heart arch
This is the place of the ashram where Gandhi used to live which is in the center of the ashram. The name of this place was given by Hriday Kunj Kaka Saheb Kalekar. Gandhiji also started the Dandi march from here.
Nandini Guest House
The place where people coming to the ashram used to stay has been called Nandini Guest House. This is a guest house at a short distance from the ashram. Many great people have lived here like Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Jawaharlal Nehru, C. Rajagopalachari, Rabidranath Tagore and many others have lived here.
prayer ground
The people living in this ashram used to start their suhab with prayer and this is the place where everyone used to pray everyday.
Vinoba- Meera Kutir
The name of a place in the Sabarmati Ashram is Vinoba-Mira Kutir. Its name was Vinoba Bhave and Gandhiji named his disciple Vinoba Bhave as Meera. Vinoba Bhave spent a few months in this ashram, hence the name of this place is Vinoba-Mira Kutir.
Udyog Mandir
This is the place in the ashram where Gandhi ji had set up charkhas to make Khadi clothes to practically change the economic situation. Along with Gandhiji, his followers also used to come here and spin the charkha and Gandhiji used to teach everyone to make Khadi clothes. On the same basis it was named Udyog Mandir.
tourist places
Sabarmati has now become a tourist destination, where about 7 lakh people come to visit every year. And this ashram remains open from 7 am to 8 pm. Here the spinning wheel used by Gandhiji is still preserved and the people coming here are shown all the things there.
All the things of Gandhiji's life have also been kept in this ashram. There is also a library in the Sabarmati Ashram, in which 34,000 manuscripts of Gandhiji, 6000 photo negatives and 200 photostat files have been kept. Also there are 35000 books in this library.
