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Home > News > India News > Article > For Rs 1000 a night tourists can live like Gandhi

For Rs 1,000 a night, tourists can live like Gandhi

Updated on: 01 November,2013 07:29 AM IST  | 
Agencies |

Tourists searching for peace and simplicity can for the first time check in to Mahatma Gandhi's most famous ashram in India

For Rs 1,000 a night, tourists can live like Gandhi

But don’t expect modern comforts. And chastity is required. For Rs 1,000 a night, tourists can sample the lifestyle of India’s independence leader by staying at the first ashram he established in 1915 in Gujarat.



Ashram co-ordinator Rameshbhai Trivedi displays the modest living quarters at the ashram. While living at the ashram, one must follow Gandhi’s 11 vows, including that of non-violence. Pic/AFP


Guests at the ashram, which opened to holidaymakers earlier this month, can try their hand at spinning, visit local communities, pray and meditate, all while wearing khadi during their stay. But they must adhere to Gandhi’s 11 vows that he promoted including non-violence, no possessions, use of local goods, working for daily food, self restraint, including chastity, and control of diet.


And they are also encouraged to follow Gandhi’s austere daily routine, such as waking at 5 am and undertaking domestic chores. “The objective of this programme is to allow people to experience a sustainable lifestyle, to enjoy the simplicity of Gandhi, experience the virtue of Mahatma,” said Nischalavalamb Barot, a travel agent who helped develop the programme called ‘Live Gandhi for a While’.

“This might change perceptions of tourists towards life, society and our natural resources. This might also help tourists find peace and satisfaction within,” said Barot. Gandhi went to stay at the bungalow, now called Kochrab Ashram and then owned by a lawyer friend, after he returned to India from South Africa in 1915.

From this base, he rejected material wealth and developed some of the ideas for which he became famous. The ashram is managed by Gujarat Vidyapith, which Gandhi himself founded in 1920 to ‘liberate the Indian youths from the shackles of British colonial rule’. The programme was launched on October 2 to coincide with the 144th anniversary of the birth of Gandhi.

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