Image: Don Lorenzo Milani(1923-67), founder of the school of Barbiana.
LETTER TO A TEACHER
Image: Don Lorenzo Milani(1923-67), founder of the school of Barbiana.
The Soul of Sabarmati Ashram – Maganlal Gandhi.
In 1915, following a plague outbreak Gandhi decided to take his group of over forty souls to a plot of land at Sabarmati, where ‘there was no building … and no tree’ and house them at canvass, he(Gandhi) admitted that ‘the whole conception about the removal was mine, the execution was as usual left to Maganlal.’ – lbid.,p.616
Under Maganlal’s leadership the prickly shrubs, rocks, sand and cacti were removed from the river bank and vegetables and neem trees were planted, and ‘in very short time the barren land became green with vegitables’ – Narayan Desai, The Fire and the Rose[Biography of Mahadevabhai], Ahmedabad: Navajivan, 1995, p.85.
Maganlal designed and supervised the construction of all the buildings, he systematized the management of the ashram, introduced discipline and took control of ashram craft work.
It is not an exaggeration to say that the ashram at Sabamati was Maganlal’s creation and that to a large degree he was the ‘soul’ of the ashram.
Who's Maganlal Gandhi?
Maganlal and his elder brother Chhaganlal were the sons of M.K Gandhi's older cousin Kushalbhai.
Gandhiji’s referred to Maganlal and his elder brother Chhaganlal as nephews.
In 1904 South Africa, Maganlal decided to leave his business for good and joined Gandhiji to look after Phoenix Settlement(Ashram).
Maganlal was not just a gifted organizer and tireless worker, he was also the embodiment of Gandhi’s spiritual and moral quest, in the Mahatma's words, ‘a living example of the saying: “Practice as you preach”’ –‘Magankaka’, Navajivan, 5 August 1928
Gandhiji didn`t coin the word 'Satyagraha'
Gandhi was leading a mass moment against laws which discriminated against Indians in South Africa and he originally used the term passive-resistance for the struggle, but soon came to realize that this could lead to misunderstandings and was searching for Indian word.
On 27 December 1907, in a competition announced in Young India, Gandhi offered a £2 prize to the person who came up with a suitable name. Maganlal Gandhi sent in the best entry. He suggested ‘sadagraha’ (sad-good, agraha- firmness in). Gandhi modified it slightly to ‘ satyagraha’ (sat- truth, agraha- firmness in)
- Sushila Nayar, Mahatma Ghandhi, volume IV: Satayagraha at Work, Ahemedabad: Navajivan, 1989, p119: Gandhi, An Autobiography, p235.

