WHOSE GANDHI IS IT ANYWAY

A fight erupts over the control of two institutions representative of the Mahatma's legacy-the Sabarmati Ashram and the Gujarat Vidyapith. Can the interested parties rise above petty politics and work towards preserving all that Bapu stood for?

- JUMANA SHAH

Everyone wants a piece of Gandhi. Even those who think he was responsible for Partition and refuse to demonise the man who took his life cannot deny the place Bapu and his principles occupy in India’s public consciousness. Hence the battle to claim the Mahatma’s legacy or, more specifically, two institutions that are an inalienable part of him. The first is the Sabarmati Ashram—where Gandhi spent 13 years of his life, from 1917 to 1930—for which the Gujarat government has plans for an ambitious makeover. The other is the Gujarat Vidyapith, a university that the Mahatma founded in 1920, where controversy has erupted over appointments, to the top post as well as of the trustees. In Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled Gujarat, both moves are being seen as attempts to appropriate Bapu and his inheritance.