News Excerpt:
The Prime Minister recently inaugurated the renovated Kochrab Ashram in Ahmedabad, commemorating the 94th anniversary of the Dandi March.
About Kocharab Ashram:
- Kocharab Ashram was the first ashram founded by Mahatma Gandhi in 1915 after coming to India from South Africa.
- It is managed as a memorial and tourist space by the Gujarat Vidyapeeth.
- This campus was called Satyagraha Ashram based on Gandhi’s ideas of achieving India's independence from British rule through peaceful methods.
- Gandhi’s friend and fellow barrister Jivanlal Desai gifted him the land at Kocharab to build the Satyagraha Ashram.
- Mahatma Gandhi based himself here for about one-and-a-half years before moving to the new campus of Sabarmati Ashram.
- In June 1917, when plague hit the city, Gandhi shifted the ashram to Sabarmati.
- In Sabarmati, he founded the Harijan Ashram also known as the Gandhi ashram.
- Mahatma Gandhi also started an ‘Antyaj Ratri Shala’ (a night study class) for Dalits at the ashram.
- Kocharab Ashram is a European-style bungalow with a white-washed facade.
- It is located in Kochrab village on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on the banks of the Sabarmati river.
- Mahatma Gandhi started planning his 'war against the British' in Kochrab Ashram.
