60 years later, Chowpatty will see Gandhi ashes off

A little-known batch of ashes of Mahatma Gandhi will be immersed by his descendants in the sea, at Mumbai’s Girgaum Chowpatty. A quiet public ceremony will accompany the immersion on the evening of January 30, 60 years after Gandhi was shot thrice as he walked into a prayer meeting on the grounds of Delhi’s Birla House.

The ashes, as reported by HT in November, were supposed to be displayed at the city’s Gandhi Memorial Museum, at Mani Bhavan. But museum trustees said, on Monday, that they had changed their mind in deference to the wishes of Gandhi’s family members. Following the HT report, great-grandson Tushar Gandhi had written to the museum asking them to immerse the ashes, since “that is what Gandhi would have wanted”.

The museum trust’s president Dhirubhai Mehta said he sent letters on January 12 to Gandhi’s descendants, including present West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi and historian and scholar Rajamohan Gandhi, of the altered decision. “We hope they will all come,” Mehta said.

The ashes were bequeathed to the museum in 2007 by Dubai-based businessman Bharat Narayan.

They had been preserved by his father, former Gujarat governor and Gandhian economist Shriman Narayan, a close associate of Gandhi.

Mani Bhavan, housed in a heritage bungalow on the leafy lane at Gamdevi, had earlier intended to put the remains on display for tourists who throng the memorial every day to get an insight into Gandhi’s life and politics.

Courtesy:hindustantimes.com
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