Source Gandhi Legacy Tour: The Legacy of Gandhi Beckons by Tushar Gandhi
Welcome to a journey of discovery of the living legacy of Gandhi. Mohandas K. Gandhi, Mahatma, Bapu as we call him with affection said ‘My life is my message.’ The Legacy tour revisits the philosophy of Gandhi by visiting various places where the legacy and message of Bapu lives and thrives. It lives in the work being done to better the lives of the poorest of the poor and the weakest of the weak. It shows how 66 years after his brutal murder, the man continues to pose a challenge to all those working in the voluntary sector, those who live their lives such that others may be able to lead their better.
Join Gandhi grandson Dr. Arun Gandhi as he explains the problems faced by humankind today and how the legacy of Gandhi would have solved them. Let Arun take you on a journey of introspection, as one goes from the hovels of the poor living on the praecipes of society. Visit the shanties of the labourer of the brick yards, in Kolhapur, see their poverty and then watch volunteers of AVANI insulate their children from exploitation and provide them with basic education, social skills and hygiene.
Meet Anuradha Bhosale, a fearless crusader who educates and empowers rural woman by educating them about their rights, fighting with administrations and against societal exploitation of women and ensures that all the government schemes for the empowerment of women are availed by them, experience her courageous fight against those who exploit and abuse children and witness how she rescues children who are in peril and who are being criminally abused.
Witness the enterprise of women’s self help groups in the slums of Mumbai and see how productive and industrious they are and how they are unitedly bettering their lives and those of their family members at the centres of Share and Market Place, in the slums of Mumbai. Visit the WIT, Women’s India Trust’s centre in Panvel and watch how women from poor families are encouraged to utilise their traditional crafts and skills and turn them into revenue earning abilities. Watch them print cloth and turn them into garments, table and bed linen, process fruits and turn them into jams and pickles and manufacture stuffed toys.
In Ahmedabad get introduced to the yeoman work done by Self Employed Women’s Association, SEWA. Experiance the functioning of the micro credit society, their work of organising the hawkers at the Vegetable and Agri Produce Market, Their various Rural Centres and various other programs of women’s welfare. Visit the University established by Gandhi Gujarat Vidyapeeth and see the legacy of Gandhi imparting traditional nationalist education is even today empowering young women and men to better themselves while imparting education.
Experience the work of Bare Foot College in Tillonia as they empower the uneducated and the unlettered by training them to become Solar Power technologists and entrepreneurs. Hear from a 60 year old village health worker mid wife who rides on the dusty paths in the surrounding villages and imparts basic health services and as a mid wife to village women and back at the centre is a trained dispensing chemist. Meet another unlettered lady who after being trained by an Italian dental surgeon now provides preliminary dental care to about 40 adult and children every week. They may be uneducated but they are no less knowledgeable and much more skilled than many of us, and they are proud of it.
Visit Kutub Minar in New Delhi and listen to Alok Tiwari narrate the early Islamic history of India and the story of the Qutub Minar. Visit Gandhi Smriti the place where Bapu was murdered and listen to Tushar Gandhi, Arun’s son narrate the story of the last month of Bapu’s life and the story of his murder at the place where Bapu was murdered. Visit Raj Ghat where he was cremated and where a monument has been erected. Visit the National Gandhi Museum and see the relics from the time of his murder and after.
Visit eminent environmentalist Vandana Shiva’s Navdanya Bija Vidyapeeth, the Nine Grains Seed University and see traditional, ecologically safe and sustainable agriculture in practice.
Also visit monuments to Gandhi’s legacy. Mani Bhavan, the house Gandhi lived in while visiting Bombay. Listen to the story of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s visit there. Visit Aga Khan Palace in Pune where Bapu and Kasturba were detained by the British after Bapu announced the final putsch for India’s freedom and asked the British to ‘Quit India’, the place where Kasturba breathed her last and where Bapu built monuments to her and to his secretary of 25 years Mahadev Desai. Visit Kochrab Ashram and Sabarmati Ashram Gandhi’s two homes in Ahmedabad. Stand on the spot from where he marched off to Dandi on the sea to pick up salt and defy the British monopoly on salt. In New Delhi visit Gandhi Smriti, Raj Ghat and National Gandhi Museum.
Come catch glimpses of the India of Mahatma Gandhi’s dreams and witness the India of his worst nightmare. Come experience life of an incredible nation and its tenacious people.
Experience a legacy at work, a truly incredible experience. Welcome to Gandhi’s India in the company of Gandhi’s.
Tushar A. Gandhi is the great-grandson of M.K. Gandhi. In addition to serving on several NGO boards, including Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute, he is founder of Mahatma Gandhi Foundation, of which he is currently the managing trustee. In 2005, Tushar Gandhi commemorated the 75th anniversary of the Dandi Kooch (Gandhi’s Salt March) by organising a re-enactment of the 241-mile long walk. He walked the entire stretch and was instrumental in getting the prime minister to declare the route from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi a historic heritage route. He is the author of Let’s Kill Gandhi: A definitive study of the Hindu Fundamentalist plot to assassinate Gandhi. Tushar lives in Mumbai with his wife Sonal and children Vivan and Kasturi.
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