Mani Bhavan, a modest two-story building on Laburnum Road near Grant Road station and August Kranti Maidan, served as the nerve centre for Gandhiji’s activities in Bombay for about 17 eventful years (1917-1934). It belonged to Revashankar Jagjeevan Jhaveri, Gandhiji’s ardent devotee and affectionate host at the time.
It now serves as a museum, and many dignitaries visit it. Gandhi initiated the Non-Cooperation, Satyagraha, Swadeshi, Khadi, and Khilafat movements from Mani Bhavan. Gandhiji’s involvement with charkha began in 1917, while he was staying at Mani Bhavan.
Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah, Aga Khan III, designed the Aga Khan Palace in Pune. The palace has a long and illustrious history.
Following the launch of the Quit India Movement, Mahatma Gandhi, his wife Kasturba Gandhi, and his secretary Mahadev Desai were interned in the palace from August 9, 1942, to May 6, 1944. Kasturba Gandhi and Mahadev Desai died in the palace during their captivity and are buried here.
The Sevagram Ashram in Wardha was the residence of Gandhiji from 1936 to his death in 1948. Gandhiji decided to make a village in Central India his headquarters and he came to Wardha in 1934, at the invitation of Jamnalal Bajaj – and established Sevagram, the village of service.
The Maharashtra government’s Directorate of Tourism is now actively involved in promoting places associated with the freedom movement, and has released three brochures for Mumbai, Pune, and Nagpur, as well as other places in the Vidarbha region, to begin with.
“Maharashtra played a vital role during the freedom movement and that’s exactly why we want people, especially the youth, to know and visit these historically significant places. They narrate the sacrifices of our great freedom fighters and heroic stories of our brave revolutionaries who leveraged India’s Independence. With a hope to revive the fading memories of the freedom movement and significance of the historical places, we created these brochures,” said Milind Borikar, Director, Directorate of Tourism.
The landmark places in Mumbai which are covered are Azad Maidan, Mani Bhavan, August Kranti Maidan, Bombay High Court, Gateway of India, Bombay Harbour, Rajgriha, which was the house of Dr Babasaheb Ambekar and Sardar Griha, the guest-house that people like Rajshri Shahu Maharaj, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel stayed and in this place Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak passed away on August 1, 1920.
The Pune brochure covers Kesari Wada where Tilak ran papers like Kesri and Maratha, Aga Khan Palace, Phule Wada – the home of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, Rajguru Wada, Chaphekar Wada, Jedhe Mansion, Fergusson College, and Yerawada Central Jail where Mahatma Gandhi, Motilal Nehru, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Sarojini Naidu, Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Joachim Alva, and Veer Savarkar were jailed.
Golibar Chowk, Sitabuldi Fort, Pavnar Ashram, Wardha, Sevagram Ashram, Wardha, Bajajwadi, Wardha, Ashti, Wardha, and Chimur, Chandrapur are among the places covered in Nagpur-Vidarbha.