Two Gandhiji heritage structures in A'bad to be renovated

In Ahmedabad, two heritage structures related to Mahatma Gandhi are set to be renovated in the next two years. The first Ashram set up by Gandhiji at Kochrab in the city, soon after he returned from South Africa, and the Dandi March Bridge near the Sabarmati Ashram from where he started the famous Dandi Satyagraha, are set to be renovated.

The first Ashram was set up at Kochrab, in the city, by the Father of the Nation after he returned from South Africa in 1915 to give a fillip to the Independence Movement. The Dandi March Bridge is near the Sabarmati Ashram. The Ashram now known as the Gandhi Ashram or Sabarmati Ashram was not the first Ashram set up by the Mahatma. When he returned to India on January 9, 1915, he settled down in Ahmedabad, instead of Porbandar, his birthplace.

In the then “Manchester of the East”, he established the first Ashram at Kochrab, near Paldi, on May 25, 1915, to study the problems of the workers engaged in handloom sector for which Ahmedabad was well-known. This study gave him the idea of 'charkha,' or the spinning wheel, and Khadi.

Some two years later, in 1917, Ahmedabad witnessed an epidemic of plague, forcing the Gandhians to look for another site for the Ashram. This they found on the banks of the Sabarmati River, nearly 8 km away from Kochrab. However, the old Ashram was kept intact; it is now a heritage property. On May 25, the 99th anniversary year of this Ashram began. In 2015, the Kochrab Ashram will celebrate its century, as would the Sabarmati Ashram in 2017.

Another important milestone in Ahmedabad, the Dandi March Bridge, is now being renovated. The old wooden bridge, near the Sabarmati Ashram, was where the Mahatma commenced his world-famous Salt Satyagriha by undertaking the first-ever ‘padyatra’ by a leader.

It was a great journey of 240 miles from Ahmedabad to Dandi, a small village in Navsari district of South Gujarat.