January 4: Mumbai / Pune / Kolhapur
Posted by Lynnea Bylund on Feb 7, 2013 in Gandhi Legacy Tour 2019 | 0 comments
Buffet breakfast at the Waterstone Hotel and then the group will check-out and board the bus for the Mani Bhavan.
Visit Mani Bhavan: Bapu’s transit home in Mumbai.
Mani Bhavan a simple old-style, two storied building on Laburnum Road, Mumbai. Whenever Gandhi was in Mumbai, between 1917 to 1934, he stayed at this home which is now converted into the museum and an adjacent research center. In 1955 Mani Bhavan was dedicated as a memorial to Gandhi and to the very important activities of great significance he initiated from that place. Mani Bhavan is recognized as a Research Institute preparing students for Ph.D. degree in Gandhian Thought and Rural Development by University of Bombay.
Mumbai and its people played a very prominent part in India’s unique struggle for freedom. Gandhi was rightly proud of its patriotic and cosmopolitan citizens. Mani Bhavan is one of the few important places hallowed by Mahatma Gandhi’s close association. Mani Bhavan is a modest two-story building in the comparatively quiet locality called Gamdevi. It served as Gandhi’s Bombay head-quarters for about 17 long and eventful years. It belonged to Sri Revashankar Jagjeevan Jhaveri, who was Gandhi’s friend and host during that period. It was from Mani Bhavan that Gandhi initiated Civil Disobedience through: Satyagraha (Gandhi’s non-violent resistance); Khilafat (the Muslim branch of resistance that would join with Gandhi); Swadeshi (awareness of violence and the boycott of abusive industries), and Khadi (self sustenance through homespun threads of wool, silk or cotton in lieu of manufactured garments).
Mani Bhavan has a story to tell as it housed Gandhi occasionally during the times when he grew in stature and strength, from a queer type of an agitator to a world figure by successfully introducing satyagraha (individual as well as mass) as a new and effective weapon to fight all evil and injustice. It gives an idea of the dynamism of the great Mahatma even while he was shaping himself and the nation, along the uncharted path of non-violent resistance to foreign rule and to all evil.
See the room that Gandhi occupied in its original setting, its picture gallery, the library hall and the terrace where he was arrested on January 4, 1932. The Mani Bhavan library consists of around 50,000 books & periodicals in reference and lending sections. The room contains books on and by Gandhi, Gandhian thoughts, freedom movements and allied subjects. The library boasts of many out of print books.
Arun and Tushar take you through this museum and enjoy question, answers and discussion among our group plus more wonderful leelas from Arun and Tushar. View “The Terrace” where a bronze plaque with an inscription now marks the place of the tent in which Gandhi was arrested in January, 1932. He used to sleep and hold his prayers on this terrace. A wonderful leela told by Arun Gandhi found here.
After a visit to the Mani Bhavan, we will drive to the Women’s India Trust Panvel (“WIT”) Changing lives in a changing world. We will have a group orientation on the way to WIT.
Women’s India Trust: WIT is an NGO started by training less privileged and unskilled women in Mumbai to stitch sari petticoats in a slum village to serve the region. WIT has helped many women to develop skills and earn a regular income; this has changed their lives and the lives of their families. WIT empowers women to live with dignity.
They established a daycare center for the women working with WIT such that they can bring their children with them and they be fed and educated simultaneously.They do not deny women who want their children to go to school there even if they are outside that region. The women either come into work at WIT making various textile crafts and some women are able to work from home and are paid by the piece so they are motivated to work fast as well as doing quality work.
At 3:30 PM, the group will drive to Kolhapur by Volvo Bus. Upon arrival in Kolhapur, we will check into the Citrus Hotel Kolhapur.
Meals Included: Buffet breakfast at the Citrus Hotel + Lunch + Buffet Dinner at the Citrus Hotel.
Travel by: (By VOLVO Bus – Approx 7 / 8 hrs drive)
