Jayanta Bhattacharya
By Jayanta Bhattacharya
Noakhali (Bangladesh), December, 18 (PTI Created to heal wounds of pre-partition riots, Gandhi Ashram at Bangladesh’s Noakhali still works to carry forward Mahatma Gandhi’s mission of peace, social harmony and rural development, 75 years after it was set up.
Gandhi came to Jayag here on 29th January, 1947 during his four month stay at Noakhali from November 1946 to February 1947, as part of a peace mission which toured some 47 villages and held prayer meetings where members of all communities were invited, to heal the scars of communal riots which broke out in that densely populated district in October 1946.
The donation of land and buildings by a rich barrister Hemanta Kumar Ghosh in Jayag village enabled the leader of India’s struggle for independence, to set up an ashram trust which exists till date and carries out his work of rural upliftment and building communal harmony.
“Since Bangladesh came into being in 1971, this trust is working with the people by carrying forward the ideology of communal harmony and peace and has considerable influence in greater Noakhali comprising three districts of Lakmipur, Feni and Noakhali”, Raha Nabakumar, the Director of the Gandhi Ashram Trust (GAT) told PTI.
After the communal violence spread in Bangladesh last year on October 15 following vandalism at a Durga puja pandal in Comilla district, a group of people at Ramganj Upajila (Subdivision) at Noakhali district attempted to attack a Hindu temple which was stopped by another group from among the Muslims of the area, who Raha said were influenced by Gandhi ashram’s philosophy.
He claimed that since 1994, GAT was successful in mitigating more than 27,000 cases of domestic violence and family disputes through negotiations and providing legal and financial support to many women.
“Actually, people of the area come to us for solutions in cases of domestic violence and family problems instead of going to police stations or courts and we try to solve the problems in our ways”, Raha said adding, “The number of divorce cases through Talaq system has reduced as a result.” “Our women members have evolved a unique method in case a family quarrel results in a man pronouncing talaq. They influence the husband to leave the house and after two or three days he returns home after cooling down and with counselling reunites with his family.” Nasrin Akhtar, a 26 –year old woman of Jayag village told this correspondent that her husband Mannan Hossain, an auto-rickshaw driver used to beat her and drove her out of the house.
“I reported the matter to the Gandhi Ashram and forced him to pay a hefty amount of compensation. I have agreed, because I also do not want to live with this man”, she said.
After the partition of the sub-continent in August 1947, especially after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, most of the Gandhi followers left Noakhali except a few. The government of Pakistan was unfavourably disposed towards the remaining Gandhi follo
wers and put the majority of them behind the bar, Raha said.
The properties of the Trust were looted and much of the lands grabbed by anti-socials.
The team Manager of the peace mission Charu Chowdhury was detained and finally he was released after liberation of Bangladesh, he said.
Chowdhury started reorganizing the Ashram in the newly independent Bangladesh and managed to recover a portion of land. It took the final shape with the Gazette Notification of Bangladesh government, where “Ambika Kalganga Charitable Trust” which was the original name given to the Ashram premises was renamed as “Gandhi Ashram Trust”. A Committee representing both Bangladesh and Indian Government was formed to run the activities of the Trust.
After the independence of Bangladesh, there was a shift in the vision and mission of the trust and development and extension service for the poor and disadvantaged class was taken up by the trust, Raha said.
“The trust now provides preliminary training in accounting and small business management to produce skilled individuals. The members have free access to the institutional credit market and economic uplift of the distressed. Works to empower the position of women in the society and eradication of water borne disease and ensuring supply of pure drinking water are now the major tasks of the organization”, he said.
The ashram runs its charitable operations in 102 villages in Noakhali, Lakshmipur, Feni districts and Noakhali and Chatkhil municipal areas. The ashram also works directly with 25,000 of the poorest families in the areas of vicinity.
On Oct 3, 2021 the museum at Gandhi Ashram was renovated and inaugurated on the 152nd birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi with support from the Indian government.