Biodata
39
Biodata
Narayan Desai
Mr. Narayan Desai, son of
Mahatma Gandhi
's personal secretary
and biographer
Mahadev Desai
, was born on
December 24, 1924
,
in
Bulsar, Gujarat
. Brought up in
Gandhi's Ashram
in Sabarmati,
Ahmedabad
and Sevagram near Wardha, Narayan is the very face who
feature in several pictures of Gandhi playing with a child. He spent his
entire youth with Gandhi, stopped attending school to be educated and
trained by his father and other inmates of the Ashram. He specialized in
basic education, spinning and weaving Khadi.
Following the
Bhoodan
(land gift) movement launched by
Vinoba Bhave
, Narayan traversed through the length and breadth of
Gujarat, by foot, collecting land from the rich and distributing the same
among the poor landless villagers. He started the mouthpiece of Bhoodan
movement, titled Bhoomiputra (Son of the Soil) and remained its editor
till 1959.
Narayanji joined the Akhil Bharatiya Shanti Sena Mandal (Indian
Peace Brigade), founded by Vinoba and headed by veteran socialist leader
Jayaprakash Narayan
. As the general secretary of the Shanti Sena,
Narayan recruited and trained peace volunteers throughout the country
who intervened during ethnic conflicts and helped establish harmony
among conflicting communities. Later on, Narayan was awarded the
UNESCO prize for International Peace.
As a close associate of JP, Narayanji played an important role in
helping the newly formed
Janata Party
, a conglomeration of political