Mahadev Haribhai Desai was an Indian independence activist, scholar and writer best remembered as Mahatma Gandhi's personal secretary.
32 Facts About Mahadev Desai
2.
Mahadev Desai has variously been described as "Gandhi's Boswell, a Plato to Gandhi's Socrates, as well as an Ananda to Gandhi's Buddha".
3.
Mahadev Desai was born in an anavil brahmin family on 1 January 1892 in the village of Saras in Surat district of Gujarat to Haribhai Desai, a school teacher, and his wife Jamnabehn.
4.
Mahadev Desai was educated at the Surat High School and the Elphinstone College, Mumbai.
5.
Mahadev Desai first met Gandhi in 1915 when he went to meet him to seek his advice on how best to publish his book.
6.
Mahadev Desai joined Gandhi's Ashram in 1917 and with Durgabehn accompanied him to Champaran that year.
7.
Mahadev Desai maintained a diary from 13 November 1917 to 14 August 1942, the day before his death, chronicling his life with Gandhi.
8.
Mahadev Desai was for the first time arrested and sentenced to a year in prison in 1921.
9.
Mahadev Desai was in fact Home and Foreign Secretary combined.
10.
Mahadev Desai was equally at home in the office, the guest-house and the kitchen.
11.
Mahadev Desai created a sensation by bringing out a hand-written cyclostyled newspaper after the Independent's printing press was confiscated by the British government.
12.
In prison, Mahadev Desai saw that the jail authorities mistreated prisoners, frequently flogging them.
13.
Mahadev Desai's report describing the life inside an Indian jail, published in Young India and Navajivan, compelled the British authorities to bring about some drastic jail reform measures.
14.
Mahadev Desai took over as editor of Navajivan in 1924 and from 1925 he began the translation into English of Gandhi's autobiography and its serial publication in the Young India.
15.
Mahadev Desai took part in the Bardoli Satyagraha along with Sardar Patel and wrote a history of the Satyagraha in Gujarati which he translated into English as The Story of Bardoli.
16.
In 1932, Mahadev Desai was arrested again and sent to prison with Gandhi and Sardar Patel.
17.
Mahadev Desai played a role in organising people's movements in the princely states of Rajkot and Mysore in 1939 and was put in charge of selecting satyagrahis during the Individual Satyagraha of 1940.
18.
Mahadev Desai was arrested on the morning of 9 August 1942 and, till his death of a massive heart-attack six days later, was interred with Gandhi at the Aga Khan Palace.
19.
Mahadev Desai was an outstanding writer, at ease with Gujarati, Bengali and English.
20.
Mahadev Desai is highly regarded as a translator and writer in Gujarati.
21.
Mahadev Desai wrote several biographies such as Antyaj Sadhu Nand, Sant Francis, Vir Vallabhbhai and Be Khudai Khidmatgar which was a biography of Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan and his brother Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan.
22.
Mahadev Desai started translating when he was studying in college.
23.
Mahadev Desai translated John Morley's On Compromise in Gujarati and won a thousand rupees prize of the Farbas Gujarati Sabha.
24.
Mahadev Desai translated Tagore's works into Gujarati such as Prachin Sahitya, Chitrangada and Viday Abhishap.
25.
Mahadev Desai translated Nehru's Autobiography as Mari Jeevanktha into Gujarati from English.
26.
Mahadev Desai was a regular contributor to Gandhi's publications Young India, Navjivan and the Harijanbandhu.
27.
Mahadev Desai was among the founding members of the All India Newspaper Editors' Conference.
28.
Mahadev Desai frequently contributed to various nationalist Indian newspapers such as Free Press, The Bombay Chronicle, Hindustan Times, The Hindu and Amrita Bazar Patrika.
29.
Mahadev Desai wrote several works in English including Gandhiji in Indian Villages, With Gandhiji in Ceylon, The Story of Bardoli, Unworthy of Vardha, The Eclipse of Faith, A Righteous Struggle and Gospel of Selfless Action or The Geeta According to Gandhi.
30.
Mahadev Desai was posthumously awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1955 for Mahadevbhaini Dayari.
31.
Aged 50, Mahadev Desai died of a heart attack on the morning of 15 August 1942 at the Aga Khan Palace where he was interned with Gandhi.
32.
Mahadev Desai's son Narayan Desai was a noted Gandhian activist and writer who wrote Mahadev Desai's biography The Fire and the Rose.