| Name(s) |
MAHADEV DESAI |
| Date of
Birth |
January 01, 1892 |
| Date of
Death |
August 15, 1942 |
|
Identity |
Indian independence activist and
writer best remembered as Mahatma
Gandhi's personal secretary. |
|
Other Events &
Developments |
- He has variously been described
as "Gandhi's Boswell, a Plato to
Gandhi's Socrates, as well as an
Ananda to Gandhi's Buddha".
- He was Gandhi's personal
secretary for 25 years.
- He took part in the Bardoli
Satyagraha along with Sardar Patel
and wrote a history of the
Satyagraha in Gujarati which he
translated into English as The Story
of Bardoli.
- Mahadev Desai was an outstanding
writer, at ease with Gujarati,
Bengali and English.
- He wrote several biographies
such as Sant Francis (1934), Vir
Vallabhbhai (1928) and Be Khudsi
Khidmatgar which was a biography of
Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan and his
brother.
- Desai was among the founding
members of the All India Newspaper
Editors' Conference.
- He also frequently contributed
to various nationalist Indian
newspapers.
|
|
Commemorations |
- The Indian Department of Posts
published a commemorative stamp in
his honour in 1983.
- His son Narayan Desai was also a
noted Gandhian activist and writer
who wrote Mahadev Desai's biography
- The Fire and the Rose.
- The Mahadev Desai Samajseva
Mahavidyalaya, Gujarat Vidyapith's
faculty of social sciences, arts and
humanities was named in Mahadev
Desai's honour.
|
|