Mahadev Desai (January 1, 1892 – August 15, 1942) was an Indian independence activist and nationalist writer; he was most famously known for being the personal secretary of
Mahatma GandhiMohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
.
Desai was a young lawyer in
AhmedabadAhmedabad is a city in India, which is the largest city in the state of Gujarat, with a population of approximately 52 lakhs . Located on the banks of the River Sabarmati, the city is the administrative centre of Ahmedabad district and was the capital of Gujarat from 1960 to 1970; the capital...
when he decided to join Gandhi along with
Narhari ParikhNarhari Parikh was an Indian freedom fighter and social reformer, who was a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi and the chief architect of the Indian Independence Movement in Gujarat.-Early life:...
,
Mohanlal PandyaMohanlal Pandya was an Indian freedom fighter, social reformer and one of the earliest followers of Mahatma Gandhi. Along with fellow Gandhians like Narhari Parikh and Ravi Shankar Vyas, Pandya was a key organizer of all nationalist revolts in Gujarat, and a leading figure in the fight against...
and
Ravi Shankar VyasRavi Shankar Vyas was an Indian freedom fighter and social reformer, hailing from and working in the state of Gujarat. He was one of the earliest and closest associates of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and along with Narhari Parikh and Mohanlal Pandya, the chief organizer of...
, and became his most devoted secretary for over 25 years, from 1917 to 1942. The four were the earliest supporters of Gandhi.
Mahadev Desai was
arrestAn arrest is the act of depriving a person of his or her liberty usually in relation to the investigation and prevention of crime. The term is Anglo-Norman in origin and is related to the French word arrêt, meaning "stop".-United States:...
ed with Gandhi during all the nationalist revolts.
Mahadev Desai (January 1, 1892 – August 15, 1942) was an Indian independence activist and nationalist writer; he was most famously known for being the personal secretary of
Mahatma GandhiMohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
.
Career
Desai was a young lawyer in
AhmedabadAhmedabad is a city in India, which is the largest city in the state of Gujarat, with a population of approximately 52 lakhs . Located on the banks of the River Sabarmati, the city is the administrative centre of Ahmedabad district and was the capital of Gujarat from 1960 to 1970; the capital...
when he decided to join Gandhi along with
Narhari ParikhNarhari Parikh was an Indian freedom fighter and social reformer, who was a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi and the chief architect of the Indian Independence Movement in Gujarat.-Early life:...
,
Mohanlal PandyaMohanlal Pandya was an Indian freedom fighter, social reformer and one of the earliest followers of Mahatma Gandhi. Along with fellow Gandhians like Narhari Parikh and Ravi Shankar Vyas, Pandya was a key organizer of all nationalist revolts in Gujarat, and a leading figure in the fight against...
and
Ravi Shankar VyasRavi Shankar Vyas was an Indian freedom fighter and social reformer, hailing from and working in the state of Gujarat. He was one of the earliest and closest associates of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and along with Narhari Parikh and Mohanlal Pandya, the chief organizer of...
, and became his most devoted secretary for over 25 years, from 1917 to 1942. The four were the earliest supporters of Gandhi.
Mahadev Desai was
arrestAn arrest is the act of depriving a person of his or her liberty usually in relation to the investigation and prevention of crime. The term is Anglo-Norman in origin and is related to the French word arrêt, meaning "stop".-United States:...
ed with Gandhi during all the nationalist revolts. The chief period of interest is the time Gandhi was incarcerated in the Yeravda Jail near
PunePune , formerly known as Punawadi or Punya-Nagari or Poona, is the eighth largest city in India, and the second largest in the state of Maharashtra, after Mumbai...
,
MaharashtraMaharashtra is a state located on the western coast of India. Maharashtra is a part of Western India. It is India's third largest state by area and second largest by population....
from 1931 to 1934. Desai wrote most of his important works on Gandhi during this period. He was arrested on the morning of August 9 after Gandhi's call to the British to
Quit India and sent to the
Aga Khan PalaceThe Aga Khan Palace was constructed by Sultan Mohammed Shah, Aga Khan III, in the year 1892. Built in Yerwada, near Pune, it was intended to be a source of employment for the famine-struck villagers in the surrounding areas...
for imprisonment.
On August 15, 1942, Mahadev Desai died of a massive heart-attack at the age of 50.
Gandhi was devastated by Desai's death at a young age. Both Gandhi and his wife
Kasturba GandhiKastürbā Gāndhi , affectionately called Ba, was the wife of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, marrying him in an arranged child marriage in 1883.-Early life and background:...
had seen him as their son, and his death was mourned by Gandhi's supporters across the country.
He wrote several books on the non-violent struggles led by Gandhi in India, and a
diaryA diary is a record with discreet entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. Diaries undertaken for institutional purposes play a role in many aspects of human civilization, including government records , business ledgers and military records...
called
Day to Day with Gandhi in nine volumes.
Besides writing a day-to-day diary, Desai also contributed regularly to
Young India and
Navajivan, two journals of which Gandhi was the editor. During Gandhi's incarceration, Mahadev took up the responsibility of the editor of
Navajivan. He also translated Gandhi's autobiography,
The Story of My Experiments with TruthThe Story of My Experiments with Truth is the autobiography of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, covering his life from early childhood through to 1920. It was initiated at the insistence of Swami Anand and other close co-workers of Gandhi, for him to explain the background of his public campaigns...
, into English.
Motilal NehruMotilal Nehru was an early Indian independence activist and leader of the Indian National Congress. He was the founder patriarch of India's most powerful political family, the Nehru-Gandhi family.-Early life:...
, father of Jawaharlal Nehru, requisitioned the services of Mahadev Desai in 1920 from Gandhi to edit the daily newspaper,
Independent, from
AllahabadAllahabad Allahabad Allahabad , is a city in north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and administrative headquarters of Allahabad District. The ancient name of the city is Aggra (Sanskrit for "place of sacrifice") and is believed to be the spot where Brahma offered his first...
. Desai created a sensation by bringing out a hand-written
cyclostyledThe Cyclostyle duplicating process is a form of stencil copying invented by David Gestetner in London in 1890. A stencil is cut with the help of small toothed wheels on a special paper underlaid with carbon paper which serves as a printing form. Gestetner named the Cyclostyle after a drawing tool...
newspaper after the printing press was confiscated by the British government. Desai was sentenced to one year rigorous imprisonment for his writing. In prison, Desai saw that the jail authorities mistreated prisoners, frequently flogging them. His report describing the life inside an Indian jail, published in
Young India and
Navajivan, compelled the British authorities to bring about some drastic jail reform measures.
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, Bombay ChronicleBombay Chronicle was an English-language newspaper, started in 1910 by Sir Pherozeshah Mehta , a prominent lawyer, who later became the president of the Indian National Congress in 1890, and a member of the Bombay Legislative Council in 1893....
, Hindustan TimesHindustan Times is one of India's leading newspapers, published since 1924 with roots in the independence movement. The name comes from the Persian word 'Hindostān', which amongst Muslims is synonymous for northern and central India...
, The HinduThe Hindu is a leading English-language Indian daily newspaper. With a circulation of 1.45 million, The Hindu is the second-largest circulated daily English newspaper in the India after Times of India, and slightly ahead of the Economic Times...
and
Amrita Bazar PatrikaAmrita Bazar Patrika was one of the the oldest newspapers in India; it is written Bengali . It debuted on 20 February, 1868. It was started by Sisir Ghosh and Moti Lal Ghosh, sons of Hari Naryan Ghose, a rich merchant from Magur, in District Jessore, in Bengal Province of British Empire in India....
.
His son
Narayan DesaiNarayan Desai, son of Mahatma Gandhi's personal secretary and biographer Mahadev Desai, was born on December 24, 1924, in Bulsar, Gujarat. Brought up in Gandhi's Ashram in Sabarmati, Ahmedabad and Sevagram near Wardha, Narayan stopped attending school to be educated and trained by his father and...
is also a non-violent activist.
External links