ROW Lecture Tour 2015, Gandhi Trust

After leaving Kolkata I travelled to Bangalore and Mumbai we then travelled by overnight train to Sevagram and Wardha which is the centre for the Gandhi Trust, Ashram,  Hospital, and Leprosorium.
Here we spent the next five days in discussions with the Trust Chairman and directors, and visiting and viewing the various facilities there with the view of setting up a College course, based upon the teachings of Gandhi, in conjunction with a local University.

Here I am with the previous 92 year old Chairman of the Gandhi Trust who had recently retired.

This is the guesthouse in which we stayed. The end of the dry season for them with everything being quite parched and dry.

 

Here we see one of the interminably long long distance trains used by the local people on which we travelled. It is so rare for them to see a Western person travelling in this manner that you find yourself an item of curiosity. And in spite of their length and capacity, it is rare to find them less than full to overflowing. They are usually express trains only stopping at the major cities on the way. It is rare that fewer people board the train than left it at these stops. More often than not it is more.

These are the fees listed for treatments at the local hospital. To calculate what it would cost in AU 

dollars, one AU dollar is equal to .02 Rupees. And the prices listed are in Rupees. Of course the fees are relevant to the local wage.

This photo of Gandhi practising the spinning of cotton, which in conjunction with its weaving and dyeing, was one of the basic teachings of the Mahatama, as something all should learn in the process of becoming self-reliant. Gandhi even learnt to cut his own hair.

In a visit to the Ashram we see here a follower carrying out Gandhi's instruction to spin, during a meditation class. 

At the Gandhi Museum there is diplayed almost every imaginable form for the spinning of cotton, as well as information on the weaving and dyeing of  cotton and silk materials.

This is the original hospital at the Leprosarium.