Marching through Gandhi's vision

The terrace of IITBombays Industrial Design Centre IDC also known as the IDC School of Design was only recently reimagined in the Gandhian spirit Two lifesized clay murals that depict the marchers who participated in the historic 24day Salt March from Sabarmati to Dandi in 1930 and which were made during a workshop in 2013 rest here under the shade of an overgrown treeA few metres ahead is a weaving centre set up two years ago Inside table and frame handlooms occupy much of the space A firsttimer would mistake this for the home of the Mahatma Its no surprise that the seeds of the ambitious National Salt Satyagrah Memorial inaugurated at Navsari Gujarat in January this year were first sown at this centreProf Raja Mohanty at the weaving centre at the IDC School of Design which he was inspired to start due to his involvement with the Dandi Memorial Project PicSameer MarkandeThe Dandi Memorial in fact has led to new and unusual collaborations at IITB Powai First mooted in 2005 under the leadership of then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh the project saw the elite institution join the fray five years later with faculty and students of over five departments from engineering to the arts working together It wasnt easy to get everybody on the same page but it has been cited as one of the most wonderful collaborations at the IITB says Raja Mohanty professor at IDC who saw the execution of the memorial through Mohanty will be speaking about the project at todays Mumbai Local session at Dr Bhau Daji Lad MuseumDesigned and conceptualised by retired IDC professor Kirti Trivedi the muchdelayed memorial a homage to Gandhis epic march to challenge the Salt Law during the British rule ran into several hurdles since it was planned But the panIndia project finally came into its own this year Built on 15 acres of land the memorial boasts of 81 bronze sculptures made at IITB and cast at a studio in Jaipur depicting Gandhi and his young marchers and another monument with a 40mtall statue of the Mahatma and a 25 tonne weighing glass crystal placed at the top symbolic of a pair of hands holding saltAdditionally 24 narrative murals which trace Gandhis visits to villages and towns where he interacted with locals during the course of the march decorate the premises An artificial lake that symbolises the path from Sabarmati to Dandi and solar trees are other ingenious efforts of the IITB civil engineering team which reflect the Gandhian ethosThe reason we were successful is because of Prof Trivedis commitment to this memorial says Mohanty To him this was just not any other project He was fussy and almost devoted to it His father was a Gandhian and he was brought up with those ideals This eventually manifested into the work he was doing hereThough Trivedi was creative head he took a step back after retiring in 2014 Mohanty took over in the final year of its execution in 2017 But it wasnt easy to get work on it going and it took several years to realise The initial delay was sometime between 2012 and 2015 That was possibly the time when the funding was getting approved there is a longprocess where the financial advisor has to sanction the money After that there were delays at the tendering stage because the committee had to identify the right people for the job These delays have been trying Sometimes work was sanctioned but due to government procedures the money wouldnt come until two monthsGetting the civil engineering environment earth science and metallurgy departments at the IITB to work alongside the arts and design team was another challenge People are known to give too much importance to science and technology than the arts There were difficulties convincing the engineering department about certain ideas the IDC had in mind but the project fell into place seamlessly in the end The memorial today sees footfalls of 25000 people over the weekendsWork however is far from complete It was only 95 per cent ready when we inaugurated it We were aware that some things would need attention For instance the murals would need to be lit up if and when it is open for nightviewing They are also looking for a local weaver to hold workshops at the facility where a loom has been set up Trivedi on the other hand is both happy and deeply sad about how the memorial has come togetherThe marchers lake and solar trees have turned out as I visualised it But the construction quality of the 24 murals and the pyramid is shabby and not up to the mark I think everyone was in a hurry to inaugurate the project This was meant to be a national monument created in Gandhian simplicity and designed with a life of at least 500 years in mind It seems to be broken before it is built The are too many flaws which I hope get corrected soon Yet people seem to have liked it and Im glad it is being appreciated says TrivediFor Mohanty who wouldnt call himself a Gandhian the project has helped him see his own work in new light While working on the memorial he became interested in making cloth even though he is a potter by profession I am not an ideologicallydriven person but I like the Gandhian idea of simplicity and sustainability My involvement with weaving coincided with this work on the project I didnt want it to be a dead memorial I wanted to do something that would connect and resonate with what we were doing at Navsari Spinning and weaving became one way to engage the students here The memorial he admits was the starting point for this conversationCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates