Sixty years after he was assassinated by a fanatic, Mahatma Gandhis mortal remains in the form of ashes were immersed in the Arabian sea at Girgaum beach here on Wednesday.
The ashes kept in a small steel urn were poured into the sea waters by the Mahatma’s great granddaughter Nilamben Parikh, in presence of the Maharashtra Governor S M Krishna, Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and members of the Gandhiji’s family.
The urn was kept for public display for half an hour at Mani Bhavan, where Gandhiji used to reside during his stay in Mumbai between 1919 and 1934. School children sang bhajans in the Mahatma’s honour before the urn was taken to the Girgaum Chowpaty in South Mumbai.
The Mumbai police gave a ceremonial guard of honour to the Mahatma prior to the immersion.
Third time
It was for the third time that Gandhiji’s ashes were immersed in past 60 years. When Gandhiji was consigned to flames after his assassination on January 30, 1948, it was believed that all his ashes were immersed in the Ganga river by his followers like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and others.
But some of his closest personal associates secretly took away small urns containing the ashes and preserved them. The second occasion was when an urn containing Gandhiji’s ashes was found in a locker of the State Bank of India’s Bhubaneshwar branch in 1997. That urn was immersed at Triveni Sangam of Allahabad by Gandhiji’s great grandson Tushar Gandhi.
Last year, Mani Bhavan Gandhi Sangrahalay (museum) here received an urn containing Gandhiji’s ashes from a Dubai-based businessman Bharat Narayan, whose parents Shriman Narayan and Madalsaben Narayan were ardent followers and close associates of the great leader.
Bharat Narayan happens to be the grandson of renowned industrialist late Jamanalal Bajaj, who was close to Gandhiji during the freedom struggle. It was through industrialist Rahul Bajaj’s mediation that Bharat Narayan donated the urn to Mani Bhavan.
For tens of thousands of Gandhiji’s admirers, it was a lifetime opportunity to pay tributes to the Father of Nation, by bowing in front of the urn which contained Gandhiji's mortal remains.
According to Mani Bhavan trust president Dhirubhai Mehta, there was a proposal to keep the urn given by Bharat Narayan at Mani Bhavan permanently for public viewing, but it was objected to by Gandhiji’s family as contrary to the Hindu traditions.
In deference to the wishes of Gandhiji’s family to immerse the “Asthi” into the sea, the ceremony was organised on the 60th anniversary of the Mahatma’s martyrdom.
