NEW DELHI: Mahatma Gandhi spent 720 days of his life in Delhi and visited the city 80 times between 1915 and 1948. During his stay in the city, he participated in protests, observed fasts and addressed public meetings to encourage people to join the freedom movement.
In addition to this Gandhi also attended social functions. He inaugurated the Modern School at Barakhamba Road and Lakshminarayan Temple popularly known as Birla Mandir. These selective anecdotes about Gandhi’s association with Delhi are part of the coffee table book— Bapu– The unforgettable. The book was launched by Delhi Archives on Friday on the occasion of his 151st birth anniversary.
The book was unveiled by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the presence of secretary of arts, culture, and language (ACL) department Manisha Saxena and head of the archives Sanjay Garg. On the occasion, the department also held a webinar on ‘Footprints of Gandhiji in Delhi’. Professor Sucheta Mahajan of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Sohail Hashmi (film maker and author) and Rajmani Srivastava, former assistant director of the National Archives of India, spoke at the event.
“This book cannot fulfill the void created by the absence of Bapu but can certainly make us think, give ideas and a glimpse of his philosophy. There are several untouched aspects of history in this book, a lot of photographs, epigraphs, and several other details about Delhi which we usually do not get to see,” Sisodia said at the launch.
While congratulating both the departments—ACL and Archives—the minister said, “Time and again our arts and culture department has been organising events showcasing the unseen events of Bapu’s life. Our Archives department has also been working with the same zeal and enthusiasm as they were working before the pandemic. I congratulate both these departments today for successfully organizing today’s event.”