Sevagram Ashram at Wardha Near Nagpur City

Sevagram is a small territory located in Wardha, Nagpur. It is approximately 8km away from the Wardha town in Maharashtra & measures almost 80 km from Nagpur. This small village is one of the famous places in Maharashtra because of a longtime presence of Mahatma Gandhi during independence era. After Dandi March in 1930, he had decided not to go back to Sabarmati till independence attained. So he decided to start his activities from a village in Central India. On the invitation of Seth Jamnalalji Bajaj, he came to Wardha in 1934. The name ‘Sevagram’ is given by Gandhiji, originally it was village Shegaon. Sevagram means village of service and its called as Sevagram because once it served as the headquarters of Mahatma Gandhi for conducting social service programs. In 1940 he renamed it as ‘Sevagram’ because there was another village in this region named Shegaon, famous due to a residence of Saint Gajanan Maharaj. And Gandhiji’s letters used to get misdirected here. Thereon the town gets famous by the name of ‘Sevagram’.

The Sevagram Ashram is built by Gandhiji from locally available materials like bamboos, mats, mud, etc. In spite of several difficulties, Gandhiji decided to settle here and spent 15 years of his life along with his wife Kasturba Gandhi. The places within the ashram premises like Adi Nivas Ba Kuti (Kasturbas hut); Bapu Kuti (Gandhis hut); Bapus Kitchen along with their grinder stone; Akhiri Nivas etc. are points of visitor attraction. To break the caste barrier, the ashram employed some Harijans in the common kitchen.

The first rural medical college in India started at Sevagram, the “Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences’’ and it is home to a number of institutions for the nation building activities. Several training camps and conferences are conducted for various constructive activities. So Yatri Niwas was built by the government in 1982 for a convenience of visitors residence which is managed by the Sevagram Ashram.