GANDHI MEMORIAL MUSEUM
by Akku Chowdhury

In the late 1946 Mahatma Gandhi arrived in Chandpur and began four month bare foot tour of over 60 villages of Noakhali. The "Direct Action" Day call given on August 16 1946 by the Muslim League resulted in unprecedented communal riots in many parts of the undivided India, especially in Bengal. Calcutta and Noakhali were the worst affected. Profoundly disturbed by this fraternal strife, Gandhi decided to visit Noakhali via Calcutta. Reaching Noakhali in November 1946, he walked barefoot from village to village, spending the nights in mud huts, 'wiping tears from every eye" and bringing courage to the affected.

54 years later a Museum is being opened in Jayag under Begumganj Thana of Noakhali to not only celebrate the tour of Gandhi but carry on the message of 'Peace and Non Violence' that was the heart and soul of Mahatma Gandhi's preaching.

The sponsors of the Museum ,Gandhi Ashram Trust is a philanthropic and development organization working in Noakhali since 1946 with Gandhian philosophy of rural development. The museum is housed in the 3 rooms of the main Ashram building which was a part of the zamindari of Hemanta Kumar Ghose. He had donated the zamindari to build an Ashram where needy women could find a shelter and possibly a meal. Over the years it has developed into a full fledged NGO working over 100 villages in 4 Thanas of Noakhali.

The Museum has been the vision of Jharna Dhara Chowdhury, the dedicated Secretary and pillar of the Trust, for many years. At last her vision and dream comes to reality when the President Justice Shabuddin Ahmed officially declared it open on October 12 2000. It is so appropriate, the Museum that portrays the life and work of a man who dedicated himself completely to a life style and philosophy of simplicity, peace and non-violence opens, in an area and the time which has become so volatile due to reasons that Gandhi was struggling against. One can only hope the Museum can play an important role to educate the new generation about the strength in non-violence and truth even if it means 'going alone' as Gandhi often had to choose.

The Museum begins very humbly with over 120 photographs and few copies of documents, letters and newspaper reports. It covers Gandhi's life from Childhood till he was very unfortunately assassinated with 3 pistol shots fired by a Hindu fanatic. The center piece of the Museum is occupied by a bronze Gandhi bust sculptured by well known sculptor Gautam Pal. On display is a set of clothing Gandhi wore in his Noakhali tour and his 'ashes' collected after his cremation at the Raj Ghat in Delhi.

While the Museum focuses on the life and struggle of Gandhi it gives a historical perspective to the Indo-sub continental history of the struggle against the British Empire. 'Mahatma Gandhi undoubtedly was the most significant leader of the freedom struggle (against the British) and his non-violent satyagraha a unique contribution to the world. But the struggle against the British Empire was unidimensional; it had many strands. Side by side with the Gandhian movement, and often embedded within its fold, were those who believed in an armed struggle to overthrow alien rule. The men and women who belonged to this stream believed that to attain freedom they must 'do and die' and not just 'die and do'. They unhesitatingly sacrificed their youth and gave up their lives for this cause, and their martyrdom inspired and galvanized thousands of others who became mesmerized by the dream of freedom' (Manini Chaterjee in Do and Die). The Museum gives due recognition to those revolutionaries who sacrificed their life to free the country from the British rule.

IN JANUARY 1948, before three pistol shots put an end to his life, Gandhi had been on the political stage for more than fifty years. He had inspired two generations of Indian Patriots, shaken an empire and sparked off a revolution which was to change the face of Africa and Asia. To millions of his own people, he was the Mahatma- the great soul- whose sacred glimpse was a reward in itself. By the end of 1947 he had lived down much of the suspicion, ridicule and opposition which he had to face, when he first raised the banner of revolt against racial exclusiveness and imperial domination. His ideas, once diminished as quaint and utopian, had begun to strike answering chords in some of the finest minds in the world. "Generations to come, it may be", Einstein had said of Gandhi in July 1944, "will scarcely believe that such a one as this ever lived in flesh and blood walked upon earth".

Though his life had been a continual unfolding of endless drama, Gandhi himself seemed the least dramatic of men. It would be difficult to imagine a man with fewer trappings of political eminence or with less of a popular image of a heroic figure. With his loin cloth, steel-rimmed glasses, rough sandals, a toothless smile and a voice which rarely rose above a whisper, he had a disarming humility. He used a stone instead of soap for his bath, wrote his letters on bits of paper with little stumps of pencil which he could hardly hold between his fingers, shaved with a crude country razor and ate with a wooden spoon from a prisoner's bowl. He was, if one were to use the famous words of the Buddha, a man who had "by rousing himself, by earnestness, by restraint and control, made for himself an island which no flood could overwhelm".

The effort, vision and boldness to begin the Gandhi Memorial Museum in the backwater of Noakhali is appreciated because the historic sites can assist the public in drawing connection between the history of the sites and its contemporary implications. This Museum can play a very important role as a tool for stimulating democratic and humanitarian thought and practices. This Museum can 'promote tolerance and historical perspective' and act as a catalyst to bring together the community and its social concern to better the community. The Museum should not remain a pictorial gallery. It is hoped the authority will collaborate library, documentation and research work along with the Museum so that the community and the nation in the broader perspective will be benefited from this noble institution. They have taken only a small step towards a giant leap, by opening this Museum.

(The writer is a founder Member of the International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience)

Courtesy:
The Daily Star
Star Weekend Magazine