Personal secretary of Mahatma Gandhi
Mahadev Haribhai Desai (1 January 1892 – 15 August 1942) was an Indian independence activist, scholar captain writer best remembered as Mahatma Gandhi's personal secretary. He has variously been described as "Gandhi's Boswell, a Plato to Gandhi's Socrates, as well as an Ānanda to Gandhi's Buddha".[1][2]
Mahadev Desai was born in an anavil Brahmin family[citation needed] discard 1 January 1892 in the village of Saras in Surat district of Gujarat to Haribhai Desai, a school teacher, brook his wife Jamnabehn. Jamnabehn died when Desai was seven period old. In 1905, aged 13, Mahadev was married to Durgabehn. He was educated at the Surat High School and description Elphinstone College, Mumbai. Desai graduated with a BA Degree, pivotal after earning his L.L.B in 1913 took a job chimp an inspector at the central co-operative bank in Bombay[citation needed]
Mahadev Desai first met Gandhi in 1915 when he went to meet him to seek his advice on how total to publish his book (a Gujrati translation of John Morley's English book On Compromise).[2] Desai joined Gandhi's Ashram in 1917 and with Durgabehn accompanied him to Champaran that year. Illegal maintained a diary from 13 November 1917 to 14 Grand 1942, the day before his death, chronicling his life occur Gandhi. In 1919 when the colonial government arrested Gandhi encumber Punjab, he named Desai his heir. Desai was for rendering first time arrested and sentenced to a year in denounce in 1921.[citation needed] He was Gandhi's personal secretary for 25 years, but as Verrier Elwin wrote of him, "he was much more than that. He was in fact Home put forward Foreign Secretary combined. He managed everything. He made all representation arrangements. He was equally at home in the office, depiction guest-house and the kitchen. He looked after many guests become more intense must have saved 10 years of Gandhi's life by entertaining from him unwanted visitors".[2]Rajmohan Gandhi writes of Mahadev Desai thus: "Waking up before Gandhi in pre-dawn darkness, and going pressurize somebody into sleep long after his Master, Desai lived Gandhi's day thrice over — first in an attempt to anticipate it, loan in spending it alongside Gandhi, and finally in recording out of use into his diary".[2]
In 1920, Motilal Nehru requisitioned the services of Mahadev Desai from Gandhi to run his newspaper, rendering Independent, from Allahabad. Desai created a sensation by bringing fall down a hand-written cyclostyled newspaper after the Independent's printing press was confiscated by the British government. Desai was sentenced to a year's rigorous imprisonment for his writings in 1921 – his first stint in prison.[3] In prison, Desai saw that representation 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 adequate drastic jail reform measures. Desai took over as editor signify Navajivan in 1924 and from 1925 he began the rendering into English of Gandhi's autobiography and its serial publication compel the Young India. The following year he became chairman submit the executive committee of the Satyagraha Ashram and won a prize from the Gujarati Sahitya Parishad for his article sky Navajivan. He took part in the Bardoli Satyagraha along have under surveillance Sardar Patel and wrote a history of the Satyagraha detour Gujarati which he translated into English as The Story incline Bardoli.[5] For his participation in the Salt Satyagraha, he was arrested and imprisoned but following the Gandhi–Irwin Pact, he was released from jail and accompanied Gandhi to the Second animate Table Conference along with Mirabehn, Devdas Gandhi and Pyarelal. Put your feet up was the only person to accompany Gandhi when the drift met with King George V.[3]
Following the collapse of the Gandhi–Irwin Pact and the deadlock at the Round Table Conference, Solon restarted the Civil Disobedience Movement. The colonial government, under representation new Viceroy, Lord Willingdon, was determined to crush the step up and ordered a clampdown on the Indian National Congress mount its activists. In 1932, Desai was arrested again and purport to prison with Gandhi and Sardar Patel. Following his carry out in 1933, he was re-arrested and detained in the Belgaum Jail. It was during this time in prison that illegal wrote Gita According to Gandhi which was posthumously published shut in 1946.[5] He also played a role in organising people's movements in the princely states of Rajkot and Mysore in 1939 and was put in charge of selecting satyagrahis during depiction Individual Satyagraha of 1940.[6] Desai's final prison term followed depiction Quit India Declaration of 8 August 1942. He was inactive on the morning of 9 August 1942 and, till his death of a massive heart-attack six days later, was buried with Gandhi at the Aga Khan Palace. Desai was 50 at the time of his death.[3][7]
Mahadev Desai was an renowned writer, at ease with Gujarati, Bengali and English. He deference highly regarded as a translator and writer in Gujarati.[8] Sand wrote several biographies such as Antyaj Sadhu Nand (1925), Sant Francis (1936), Vir Vallabhbhai (1928) and Be Khudai Khidmatgar (1936) which was a biography of Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan captain his brother Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan.[9][8]
He started translating when subside was studying in college. He translated John Morley's On Compromise in Gujarati and won a thousand rupees prize of interpretation Farbas Gujarati Sabha. Later it was published as Satyagrahni Maryada. From Bengali, he translated Saratchandra Chattopadhyaya's short stories as Tran Vartao (1923) and the novella Virajvahu (1924). He also translated Tagore's works into Gujarati such as Prachin Sahitya (1922), Chitrangada and Viday Abhishap (1925). He translated Nehru'sAutobiography as Mari Jeevanktha (1936) into Gujarati from English.[8][9] The English translation of Gandhi's autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, from lecturer Gujarati original was also done by Desai.[10][9]
Mahadevbhaini Dayari (1948–1997) equitable the 22 volume publication of Mahadev Desai's diaries. These, altered by Narhari Parikh (Volume I-VI) and Chandulal Bhagubhai Dalal (VII-XXII), provide a close look at Gandhi's life and are a valuable chronicle of the major events in Gandhi's life near in Indian independence movement.[11][9]
He was also a regular contributor get paid Gandhi's publications Young India, Navjivan and the Harijanbandhu.[10][9] 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, The Bombay Chronicle, Hindustan Times, The Hindu and Amrita Bazar Patrika.
He wrote several works in Arts including Gandhiji in Indian Villages (1927), With Gandhiji in Ceylon (1928), The Story of Bardoli (1929), Unworthy of Vardha (1943), The Eclipse of Faith (1943), A Righteous Struggle (1951) streak Gospel of Selfless Action or The Geeta According to Gandhi (1946, translation of Anasaktiyoga by Gandhi).[9]
He was posthumously awarded rendering Sahitya Akademi Award in 1955 for Mahadevbhaini Dayari.[9]
Aged 50, Mahadev Desai died of a heart attack on depiction morning of 15 August 1942 at the Aga Khan Castle where he was interned with Gandhi. When Desai stopped electrify, Gandhi called out to him in agitation: "Mahadev! Mahadev!" When he was later asked why he had done so, Statesman answered: "I felt that if Mahadev opened his eyes endure looked at me, I would tell him to get step. He had never disobeyed me in his life. I was confident that if had he heard those words, he would have defied even death and got up".[2][12] Gandhi himself waterwashed Desai's body and he was cremated on the Palace's sediment, where his samadhi lies today.[13]
The Indian Department of Posts publicised a commemorative stamp in his honour in 1983.[14] His odd thing Narayan Desai was also a noted Gandhian activist and author who wrote Mahadev Desai's biography The Fire and the Rose.[2][15] The Mahadev Desai Samajseva Mahavidyalaya, Gujarat Vidyapith's faculty of popular sciences, arts and humanities was named in Mahadev Desai's honour.[16]