Sevagram (meaning "A town for/of service") is a town in the state of

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

, India. It was the place of Mahatma Gandhi's

ashram An ashram ( sa, आश्रम, ) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or a ...

and his residence from 1936 to his death in 1948. After Sabarmati, Sevagram Ashram holds immense importance due to the residence of Mahatma Gandhi.

Overview

Sevagram, originally Segaon, is a small village, located about 8 km from

Wardha Wardha is a city and a municipal council in Wardha district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarters of Wardha district. Wardha gets its name from the Wardha River which flows at the north, west and south bounda ...

Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

set up what eventually became an

in the outskirts of the village. Seth

Jamnalal Bajaj Jamnalal Kaniram Bajaj (4 November 1889 – 11 February 1942) was an Indian industrialist. He founded the Bajaj Group of companies in the 1920s, and the group now has 24 companies, including six that are listed on the bourses. He was also a c ...

of Wardha, a disciple of Gandhi, made available to the ashram about 300 acres (1.2 km²) of land. Near the ashram there is a museum where artifacts of India's freedom struggle are preserved. Telephone used by Gandhi, Sevagram ashram

Telephone used by Gandhi, Sevagram ashram

History

When

started his padayatra (foot march) in 1930 from

Sabarmati Ashram Sabarmati Ashram (also known as Gandhi Ashram) is located in the Sabarmati suburb of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, adjoining the Ashram Road, on the banks of the River Sabarmati, from the town hall. This was one of the many residences of Mahatma Gandh ...

to Ahmedabad for the

Salt Satyagraha The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagraha, Dandi March and the Dandi Satyagraha, was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India led by Mahatma Gandhi. The twenty-four day march lasted from 12 March to 6 April 1930 as a di ...

, he decided not to return to Sabarmati till India achieved independence. Gandhi was imprisoned for more than two years. On his release he spent sometime travelling around India. He decided to make a village in Central India his headquarters. He came to Wardha in 1934, at the invitation of his follower and industrialist,

and stayed in one of the rooms at Jamnalal's bungalow (Bajajwadi) at

and in the Prarthana mandir of Mahila Ashram for sometime. In April 1936, Gandhiji established his residence in a village called Segaon at the outskirts of Wardha, which he renamed as Sevagram, which means 'village of service'. Gandhiji was 67 years old when he came to Sevagram. The small homes which were built in the ashram for Gandhi and Kasturba, and his followers were similar to the typical village homes. The ashram employed some

harijan Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold varna system of Hinduism and were seen as forming a ...

s in the common kitchen to break the

caste Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...

barrier.

Vinoba Bhave Vinayak Narahari, also known as Vinoba Bhave (; 11 September 1895 – 15 November 1982), was an Indian advocate of nonviolence and human rights. Often called ''Acharya'' (Sanskrit teacher), he is best known for the Bhoodan Movement. He is cons ...

's Param Dham Ashram is located on the banks of the Dhaam river close by. Many decisions on important national matters and movements were taken at Sevagram. It became the central place for a number of institutions for the nation building activities devised by Gandhiji to suit the inherent strength of this country. Sevagram is 8 km from Wardha town in Maharashtra and 75 km from Nagpur. In spite of many practical difficulties, Gandhiji decided to settle here. Though he did not have any intentions of keeping anybody with him except his wife

Kasturba Kasturbai Mohandas Gandhi (, born Kasturbai Gokuldas Kapadia; 11 April 1869 – 22 February 1944) was an Indian political activist. She married Mohandas Gandhi, more commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi, in 1883. With her husband and her eldest s ...

, pressure of work necessitated more colleagues with him till Sevagram Ashram became a full-fledged institution. There were no facilities at Sevagram, not even a post or telegraph office. The letters used to be brought from Wardha. There was another village in this region named Shegaon, made famous by the residence of Saint

Gajanan Maharaj Gajanan Maharaj was an Indian Hindu guru, saint and mystic. His origins remain uncertain. He first appeared at Shegaon, a village in Buldhana district, Maharashtra as a young man at age of 30 probably during 23 February 1878. He attained ''San ...

. So, Gandhiji's letters used to get misdirected. Therefore, it was decided in 1940 to rename this village as SevagramOfficial website of Gandhiji in Sewagram
''Sevagram and Mahatma Gandhi'' or 'the village of service'. Gandhiji stayed in Manganwadi during January 1935 paid his first visit Sevagram on 30 April 1936.

Transport

Sevagram is well connected by rail and bus.

Sevagram railway station Sevagram railway station is a railway station serving Sevagram town, in Wardha district of Maharashtra state of India. It is under Nagpur railway division of Central Railway zone Central Railway (abbreviated CR) is one of the 19 zones of ...

is 6 km from the main village. Previously the station was named as Wardha East railway station. Sevagram is a station on the Howrah-Nagpur-Mumbai line. Also most trains from the north towards south and east towards west pass through this route. Warud station is nearer but few trains stop there. The closest airport is situated around 55 km away in Nagpur. The British Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow (in office 1936-1943) had installed a

hotline A hotline is a point-to-point communications link in which a call is automatically directed to the preselected destination without any additional action by the user when the end instrument goes off-hook. An example would be a phone that automat ...

in Bapu Kuti. The reason given is that the British wanted to remain in constant touch with Gandhiji.

Lord Linlithgow Marquess of Linlithgow, in the County of Linlithgow or West Lothian, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 23 October 1902 for John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun. The current holder of the title is Adrian Hope. This ...

had once spent a night in Sevagram ashram with Gandhi.

Education

Sevagram is home to the first rural medical college in India, th
Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences
and an engineering college
Bapurao Deshmukh College of Engineering
which is also run by a rural trust.

References

External links