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Gandhiji made many men
and they in their turn made the Mahatma what he was. One of these
was Mahadev Desai who worked as Gandhiji’s secretary for 25 years
with unmatched devotion and affection. He was born on 1 January 1892
at the Village of Saras in Olpad Taluka of Surat district, where his
father Haribhai Desai was a school teacher. The family originally
hailed from Dihen in the same district. Mahadev lost his mother
Jamnaben when he was only seven years of age.
The family belonged to
the Anavil Brahmin caste, one of the leading communities of the
district. A keen mathematician and an avid reader of Gujarati
literature, Hirabhai had great fascination for the Ramayana, the
Mahabharata and the Bhagvat Gita, and by sheer hard work and
sincerity he rose to become the Principal of a Women’s Training
College at Ahmedabad. Mahadev too inherited many of his father’s
qualities. At the young age of 13 Mahadev was married to Durgaben in
1905 and later the couple had one son, Narayan.
Mahadev Desai received primary and secondary education at different
places like Surat, from where he matriculated in 1906, winning a
scholarship for higher education. He joined the Elphinstone College
at Bombay in 107 and graduated from there in 1910. He joined the Law
College thereafter and got his LL.B in 1913. Throughout this
formative period, he was deeply influenced by his teacher at Dihen,
Manishankar, a strict disciplinarian and a lover of English
language; by Jivanram Vaidya, recounting stories from the Puranas
and Upanishads; and by Surbhai, the village doctor, and his musical
sessions.
The ardent devotion of Bhagat Purshottam Sevakram at Bulsar and that
of Arjun bhagat at Ghadkhol near Ankleshwar (whose compositions he
latter collected and published in 1925), also left a deep impression
on Mahadev Desai. Moreover, Dayalji Desai, of his own caste and a
prominent nationalist leader of the district, left a marked imprint
on Mahadev’s young mind by his patriotic feelings, idealistic way of
life and utter simplicity, and inspired him to work on Gandhan
lines.
After graduation Mahadev, while working for his livelihood,
translated Lord Morley’s ‘On Compromise’ into Gujarati and won the
hand some prize of a thousand rupees. This work was later published
in 1925. He tried to practice law in courts but was not successful,
and through his friend Vaikunthlal Lallubhai Mehta secured a job in
a Cooperative Bank. But Mahadev soon got tired of the irregularities
being practiced there as well as a lot of traveling involved in the
job, and left it.
He had already
cultivated a taste for reading since his College days, and all
through this drab life he made an extensive study of literature in
Gujarati, English, Sanskrit, Bengali, Hindi and Marathi. The month
of August 1917, when Mahadev left Bank job, proved fateful, as he
met Gandhiji on 31 August and found in him his Guru. Hereafter
Mahadev as Gandhiji’s Secretary moved like a shadow behind him till
his death.
After Mahadev Desai joined Gandhiji, three important events took
place in their life as well as that of the country. These were the
Champaran Satyagraha (1917), the Bardoli Satyagraha (1930), and in
all these Mahadev actively participated and courted arrest. In 1921
Gandhiji sent him to edit Motilal Nehru’s periodical, the
Independent, Allahabad, and there too he was arrested and jailed.
After his release in January 1923, he returned to Ahemdabad and
looked after the editorial work of the Navajivan.
His sharp editorials on the hollowness of 1919 constitutional
reforms and his tirade against the British Government kept up the
tempo of the freedom struggle. Between 1924 and 1928 he toured the
country with Gandhiji, explaining the sailent features of the
freedom striggle. He accompanied Gandhiji in 1931 to the Round Table
Conference in London. In the Quit India Movement of 1942, he along
with Gandhiji was arrested and sent to the Aga Khan Palace for
imprisonment, where he died peacefully on 15 August 1942, deeply
mourned by the nation and by Gandhiji in particular who now
considered himself an orphan.
After 1917 it was of course Gandhiji who profoundly influenced
Mahadev Desai. Mainly through his writings Mahadevbhai interpreted
Gandhian philosophy. That is why his friend Dr. Verrier Elwin called
him “Bapu’s Boswell”. Learned introduction to the English
translation of Gandhiji’s ‘Anassakti Yoga’ not only reveals
Gandhiji’s ideas but his own understanding of Eastern and Western
philosophies and religions. He also very effectively wielded his pen
to explain some of the basic Gandhian tenets like Hindu-Muslim
unity, removal of untouchability, improving the lot of women,
promotion of Khaddar and cottage industries, labour welfare, need
for basic Education, freedom for suppressed nationalities and Truth
and Non-violence.
He has to his credit scores of articles published in the Young
India, the Navjivan and the harijan on a variety of subjects from
‘Garud-Puran’ to the British policy in India. Due to his profound
scholarship, clarity of mind, lucid style and chaste language, they
carried great weight. His habit of keeping a diary with meticulous
details has given eight voluminous works, published after his death,
called ‘Mahadevbhai’s Diary’.
His original works
either in English or in Gujrati include: ‘With Gandhi in Ceylon’
(1928); ‘The Story of Baardoli’; ‘Swadeshi-True and False’; Unworthy
of Wardha’; ‘Eclipse of Faith’ (1929); ‘The Nation’s Voice’ (1932);
‘The Epic of Travanancore’ (1937); ‘Gandhi Sevva Sangh’ and ‘Maulana
Abul Kalam Azad’ (1940); ‘kheti ni Jamin’ (Gujarati,1942); and ‘The
Geeta according to Gandhi’ 1942); and ‘The Geeta according to
Gandhi’ (1946).
His other Gujarathi works are on ‘Veer Vallabhbhai’, a biography of
Khan Abdul Ghafar Khan in ‘Khudai Khidmatgar’, ‘Ek Dharmayuddha’ and
‘Sant Francis Xavier nun Jeevancharitra’. His translation include
those from English and Bengali: ‘Satyagrah ni Maryada’ (a
translation of Morley’s ‘On Compromise’), Sarat Chandra
Chattopadhaya’s ‘Viraj Vahu’, and Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Prachin
Sahitya’, ‘Chitrangada’ and ‘Viday abhishap’. Mahadev desai presided
over the twelfth Gujarati Journalists’ Conference.
Devdas Gandhi is recorded to have said, “I wonder if half a dozen
sectaries could do the work which Mahadev did alone.” Today, Mahadev
Desai Samaj Mahavidyalaya in Gujrath Vidyapith, Ahmedbad, stands as
a living monument to Mahadevbhai’s memory.
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