Simple and dedicated Gandhian (1924-2015)
Narayanbhai Desai as he was fondly known as, died on 15 March 2015 in his village Vedchi in Gujarat, at the age of 90. His father was the legendary Mahadev Desai, permanently associated with Mahatma Gandhi as his faithful personal secretary. When Desai senior died on 15 August 1942, Nayarayan spent his childhood and youth in the Sabarmati and Sevagram ashrams. Gandhi who had famously said that Mahadev Desai became his guru, having first started off as a disciple, treated the young Narayan with a great deal of love. He married Uttara Chaudhury, who was the daughter of freedom fighters Nabakrusha and Malatidevi Chaudhury. The couple moved to Vedchi (some distance from Surat), and began a ‘Nai Talim’ school. Gandhi had put forth his views on ‘Nai Talim’ or ‘Basic education for all’ in 1937. He had observed that mere literacy does not amount to education and that Indian children were not getting a holistic education, subjected as they were to a piecemeal and desultory approach. Physical labour along with academic pursuits, and the teaching of spinning and weaving were all part of ‘Nai Talim’.
His close association with the Mahatma led to Narayanbhai using his natural talent as a storyteller to spread the former’s message far and wide. He began the “Gandhi-Katha” discourses which ran for a week in Gujarati and English, and were interspersed with music and songs. He held over 100 programmes all over the world, and the Ahmedabad Management Association published the English version in 2011. His work Maru jivan ej maari vaani (My Life is My Message), which is a biography of the Mahatma in four volumes, was translated by another well known Gujarati writer, Tridip Suhrud. Narayanbhai wrote nearly 40 books, his memories of Gandhi driving him to share them with as many people as he could. His other well appreciated work is The Fire and the Rose – a biography of his father, Mahadev Desai.
Narayanbhai participated in Vinoba Bhave’s ‘Bhoodan Movement’ and was also a supporter of Jayaprakash Narayan’s ‘Total Revolution’ (Sampoorna Kranti) movement.
At all times, it was Gandhi and Gandhi’s ideas and views that he tried to disseminate and bring to fruition. Through the Bhoodan Movement he travelled throughout Gujarat on foot, getting to know it intimately and also collecting land for Vinoba’s campaign. He also started a magazine to popularise the Bhoodan message called Bhoomiputra. As head of JP’s (Janata Party’s) ‘Shanti Sena’ (Peace Brigade), he taught young people and volunteers how to carry the campaign far and wide. He later set up the ‘Peace Brigade International’ and was also elected Chair of the ‘War Resisters International’. He went on to win UNESCO’s International Peace Prize.
He was an ardent protester against the Emergency and was part of the Janata Party movement going on to set up the Institute for Total Revolution in Vedchi. His admirers pointed out that he fought against all violence – not the just the physical manifestations like riots and wars, but also economic and social violence.
Like his father, he made it his life’s mission to popularise the Mahatma’s ideas and messages. But unlike his father, he was granted a long life and he used it to the best possible advantage, taking part in the movements and campaigns that shaped and formed India in the past decades.