Mahadev Desai

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Mahadev Desai
Poona, Bombay Presidency, British India (now Pune, Maharashtra, India)
NationalityBritish Indian
EducationElphinstone College
Years active1915–1942
Known forAssociate activism with Mahatma Gandhi
Spouse
Durgabehen
​
(m. 1905⁠–⁠1942)​

Mahadev Haribhai Desai (1 January 1892 – 15 August 1942) was an Indian independence activist, scholar and writer best remembered as

Buddha".[1][2]

Early life

Mahadev Desai was born in an

anavil Brahmin family[citation needed] on 1 January 1892 in the village of Saras in Surat district of Gujarat to Haribhai Desai, a school teacher, and his wife Jamnabehn. Jamnabehn died when Desai was seven years old. In 1905, aged 13, Mahadev was married to Durgabehn. He was educated at the Surat High School and the Elphinstone College, Mumbai. Desai graduated with a BA Degree, and after earning his L.L.B in 1913 took a job as an inspector at the central co-operative bank in Bombay[citation needed
]

Gandhi's associate

Mahadev Desai first met Gandhi in 1915 when he went to meet him to seek his advice on how best to publish his book (a Gujrati translation of John Morley's English book On Compromise).[2] Desai joined Gandhi's Ashram in 1917 and with Durgabehn accompanied him to Champaran that year. He maintained a diary from 13 November 1917 to 14 August 1942, the day before his death, chronicling his life with Gandhi. In 1919 when the colonial government arrested Gandhi in Punjab, he named Desai his heir. Desai was for the first time arrested and sentenced to a year in prison in 1921.[citation needed] He was Gandhi's personal secretary for 25 years, but as Verrier Elwin wrote of him, "he was much more than that. He was in fact Home and Foreign Secretary combined. He managed everything. He made all the arrangements. He was equally at home in the office, the guest-house and the kitchen. He looked after many guests and must have saved 10 years of Gandhi's life by diverting from him unwanted visitors".[2] Rajmohan Gandhi writes of Mahadev Desai thus: "Waking up before Gandhi in pre-dawn darkness, and going to sleep long after his Master, Desai lived Gandhi's day thrice over — first in an attempt to anticipate it, next in spending it alongside Gandhi, and finally in recording it into his diary".[2]

Political Activism

Yerawada Jail

In 1920,

King George V.[3]

Following the collapse of the

Mysore in 1939 and was put in charge of selecting satyagrahis during the Individual Satyagraha of 1940.[6] Desai's final prison term followed the Quit India Declaration of 8 August 1942. He was arrested on the morning of 9 August 1942 and, till his death of a massive heart-attack six days later, was interred with Gandhi at the Aga Khan Palace. Desai was 50 at the time of his death.[3][7]

Writings

Mahadev Desai was an outstanding writer, at ease with

Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan and his brother Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan.[9][8]

He started translating when he was studying in college. He translated

Saratchandra Chattopadhyaya's short stories as Tran Vartao (1923) and the novella Virajvahu (1924). He also translated Tagore's works into Gujarati such as Prachin Sahitya (1922), Chitrangada and Viday Abhishap (1925). He translated Nehru's Autobiography as Mari Jeevanktha (1936) into Gujarati from English.[8][9] The English translation of Gandhi's autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, from its Gujarati original was also done by Desai.[10][9]

Mahadevbhaini Dayari (1948-1997) is the 22 volume publication of Mahadev Desai's diaries. These, edited by Narhari Parikh (Volume I-VI) and Chandulal Bhagubhai Dalal (VII-XXII), provide a close look at Gandhi's life and are a valuable chronicle of the major events in Gandhi's life and in Indian independence movement.[11][9]

He was also a regular contributor to Gandhi's publications

Navjivan and the Harijanbandhu.[10][9] Desai was among the founding members of the All India Newspaper Editors' Conference. He also frequently contributed to various nationalist Indian newspapers such as Free Press, The Bombay Chronicle, Hindustan Times, The Hindu and Amrita Bazar Patrika
.

He wrote several works in English including Gandhiji in Indian Villages (1927), With Gandhiji in Ceylon (1928), The Story of Bardoli (1929), Unworthy of Vardha (1943), The Eclipse of Faith (1943), A Righteous Struggle (1951) and Gospel of Selfless Action or The Geeta According to Gandhi (1946, translation of

Anasaktiyoga by Gandhi).[9]

He was posthumously awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1955 for Mahadevbhaini Dayari.[9]

Death and legacy

Harijan
, Gandhi's newspaper
Samadhi_(shrine)s of Kasturba Gandhi and Mahadev Desai at Aga Khan Palace, Pune

Aged 50, Mahadev Desai died of a heart attack on the morning of 15 August 1942 at the Aga Khan Palace where he was interned with Gandhi. When Desai stopped breathing, Gandhi called out to him in agitation: "Mahadev! Mahadev!" When he was later asked why he had done so, Gandhi answered: "I felt that if Mahadev opened his eyes and looked at me, I would tell him to get up. He had never disobeyed me in his life. I was confident that if had he heard those words, he would have defied even death and got up".[2][12] Gandhi himself washed Desai's body and he was cremated on the Palace's grounds, where his samadhi lies today.[13]

The

Gandhian activist and writer who wrote Mahadev Desai's biography The Fire and the Rose.[2][15] The Mahadev Desai Samajseva Mahavidyalaya, Gujarat Vidyapith's faculty of social sciences, arts and humanities was named in Mahadev Desai's honour.[16]

References

  1. ^ "Price of Freedom". Outlook. 15 August 2008. Retrieved 30 November 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Guha, Ramachandra (23 October 2005). "Mahadev ." The Hindu. Archived from the original on 12 January 2006. Retrieved 30 November 2012.
  3. ^ a b c "Associates of Mahatma Gandhi – Mahadev Desai". Retrieved 30 November 2012.
  4. ^ Desai 1995, p. 38.
  5. ^
    ISBN 9780521116701
    .
  6. ^ "Mahadev Desai – Timeline". Archived from the original on 3 May 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2012.
  7. ^ "Who is Mahadev Desai ?". Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 30 November 2012.
  8. ^
    ISBN 9780313287787
    .
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Brahmabhatt, Prasad (2007). અર્વાચીન ગુજરાતી સાહિત્યનો ઈતિહાસ (ગાંધીયુગ અને અનુગાંધી યુગ) Arvachin Gujarati Sahityano Itihas (Gandhiyug Ane Anugandhi Yug) [History of Modern Gujarati Literature (Gandhi Era & Post-Gandhi Era)] (in Gujarati). Ahmedabad: Parshwa Publication. pp. 57–60.
  10. ^ a b "Mahadev Desai". Oxford University Press. Retrieved 30 November 2012.
  11. ISBN 9788126011940
    .
  12. ISBN 9781570759635
    .
  13. ISBN 9788180693595
    .
  14. ^ "Indian Post – Mahadev Desai". Retrieved 30 November 2012.
  15. ^ "Narayan Mahadev Desai to deliver talk on Friday". The Hindu. 12 October 2011. Retrieved 30 November 2012.
  16. ^ "Gujarat Vidyapith : Mahadev Desai Samajseva Mahavidyalaya". Retrieved 30 November 2012.

Works cited

External links

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