Ahmedabad: The Gujarat Government’s tableaux, depicting the Sabarmati Ashram at Ahmedabad and Mahatma Gandhi’s association with it between 1917 and 1930, has been selected for National Republic Day Parade to be held in presence of heads of ten ASEAN counties in New Delhi on January 26, 2018.
 
The tableau shows the replica of the cottage ‘Hriday Kunj’ at the Sabarmati Ashram premises where the Mahatma and Kasturba Gandhi stayed during the crucial years of India’s freedom struggle. It is at this cottage where national and international leaders used to meet Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, better known by sobriquet Mahatma Gandhi and later as the Father of the Nation.
 


The tableau is aptly titled ‘Centenary of Sabarmati Ashram and Gandhiji’. It shows Mahatma Gandhi spinning yarn at his famous charkha, and other activities undertaken at the ashram like prayer, self service, girls’ education, cleanliness, printing press and handmade paper trays. 
 
As the tableau float past the central vista in New Delhi, singers will sing Mahatama Gandhi’s favourite songs like ‘Vaishnav jan to tere kahiye’…’ to create the right ambience befitting the theme.
 
It also shows India’s first ‘satyagrahi’, Acharya Vinoba Bhave, known for launching the Bhoodan movement, in the same sitting posture as in front of Hriday Kunj.

Mahatma Gandhi’s foot march to Dandi in 1930 to protest salt tax is shown in graffiti.
 
As the tableau will float through the central vista in New Delhi, the singers will render Gandhiji’s favourite songs like ‘Vaishnav jan to tene kahiya…’ creating an ambience befitting the theme of the tableau.
 
The aesthetically conceived and designed tableau has been prepared under the guidance of Director of Information N.B. Upadhyay, Additional Director of Information Arvind Patel, Deputy Directors of  Information Pankaj Modi and Mukund Patel, Ahmedabad-based Smart Graph Art Advertising’s Sidhheshwar Kanuga and his teammate Mayur Vakani.


-Information