Dhirendra Majumdar: The forgotten Gandhian
hirendra Majumdar (Dhiren da), the president of Sarva Seva Sangh, pledged his life for the country along with Acharya Vinoba Bhave and Jayaprakash Narayan. Born on September 10, 1900 at Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh he was educated in Varanasi and Kolkata. An active supporter of India’s nonviolent struggle for freedom, in 1920, as a student of the College of Mechanical Engineering at Banaras Hindu University, he met Acharya Kripalani who entrusted him with the task of woodwork crafts at the Gandhi Ashram of Varanasi.
The decisive change in his life came when he set out to know India with Srinivas. Traversing a 1,450 kilometer stretch through Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, he reached Sabarmati Ashram and decided to dedicate himself to the revival of rural economy.
Dhirendra Mazumdar shifted to Ranivan village in Faizabad district and established the ‘Ranivan Ashram’. He activated the hibernating Kasturba Trust and started training women in various cottage industries. He also opened ‘Swavalambi Vidyalaya’, a school which followed Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘buniyadi taleem’ pattern of self-supporting education with a strong emphasis on manual labour. The school had an edible oil expelling plant and wooden products manufacturing unit to introduce students to the twin concepts of dignity of labour and gainful employment within their native community.
In 1950, a new organization, Gram Swavalambi Vidyalaya, was created for the production and sale of khadi fabric and garments. The activities of this center spread to about a hundred surrounding villages, thousands of people made their living or augmented their agricultural income producing soap, shoes, edible and cosmetic oils, incense sticks, handmade paper etc.
By 1956-57 the Ashram Dhiren Da had handed over the organisation to the representatives of Bhiti, Ranivan and Rambaba and decided to shift the headquarters of the village Swavalambi Vidyalaya to Faizabad city. On January 28, 1960, Acharya Narendra Dev Nagar was inaugurated on 10 acres of land in village Janaura where it continues to function.
Today, it is difficult to imagine a person who would start an organization from scratch, establish it, hand it over to people and move on — Dhiren Da did just that. Till the end he was running a centre for ‘Sucheta Smarak Nidhi’ in Rajasthan where his health deteriorated. He was shifted to Delhi and then to Varanasi where he breath his last on November 21, 1978.
ON JAN 28, 1960, ACHARYA NARENDRA DEV NAGAR WAS INAUGURATED ON 10 ACRES OF LAND IN VILLAGE JANAURA WHERE IT CONTINUES TO FUNCTION.