The Hindu : National : Bringing alive the Mahatma’s legacy

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Tuesday, Jun 26, 2007
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Bringing alive the Mahatma’s legacy

Antara Das

Gandhiji’s trail in West Bengal especially between 1901-1947 to be traced

Mahatma Gandhi

Kolkata: In an attempt to bring alive the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi, the history of the important buildings in the city associated with his work will be recorded by the Gandhian Studies Centre at the Calcutta University.

“It is like tracing the trail of the Mahatma in Bengal by locating and writing the history of the sites he visited in Bengal, especially between 1901 and 1947,” Suparna Gooptu, Director, Gandhian Studies Centre, said.

“Since we are tracing Gandhi’s links both with Bengal and the wider nationalistic politics, we are recording not just the heritage of buildings but that of political culture,” she added.

The Centre, which was established in 2005 as part of the Department of History, is now focussing on the Sodepur Khadi Prathisthan, the Gandhi Bhawan at Beliaghata and the house of Sarat Chandra Bose at Woodburn Park. “While the house at Sodepur is important for Gandhi’s programme of social reconstruction and promotion of self-sufficiency through khadi, the one at Beliaghata symbolises inter-community fraternity,” Dr. Gooptu said.

The aim is to make these places come alive for the student community for whom history is often limited to textbooks.

“The concept of self sufficiency through khadi, which shows the importance of clothing in the nation’s consciousness, is as relevant in the contemporary world as it was during colonial times,” she said.

Similarly, the house at Beliaghata, where Gandhiji stayed between August 13, 1947 and September 7, 1947 during frenzied communal riots, can help understand the various dimensions of violence.

Woodburn Park house

The house at Woodburn Park, where he stayed in 1937-38, is important in understanding Gandhiji’s interface with Congress politics in Bengal. “These houses are not just museums; the issues they are associated with have a resonance even today,” Dr. Gooptu said.

She feels that the Mahatma’s trail might be developed at the national level, by collaborating with Gandhian centres in other States, documenting the sites, places and people associated with him. “Very few people, for example, know about the house in Madurai where Gandhi first adopted the loin cloth.”

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