What is "sevagram"

Sevagram (meaning "A village for/of service") is the name of a village in the state of Maharashtra, India. It was the place of Mohandas Gandhi's (Gandhiji's) ashram and his residence from 1936 to his death in 1948.

When Gandhi started his padayatra (foot march) in 1930 from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi for the Salt Satyagraha, he decided not to return to Sabarmati till India achieved independence. Gandhi was imprisoned for more than two years. On his release he spent sometime travelling around India. He decided to make a village in Central India his headquarters. He came to Wardha in 1934, at the invitation of his follower and industrialist, Jamnalal Bajaj and stayed in one of the rooms at Jamnalal's bungalow (Bajajwadi) at Wardha and in the Prarthana mandir of Mahila Ashram for sometime.

In April 1936, Gandhiji established his residence in a village called Segaon at the outskirts of Wardha, which he renamed as Sevagram, which means 'village of service'. Gandhiji was 67 years old when he came to Sevagram. Many decisions on important national matters and movements were taken at Sevagram. It became the central place for a number of institutions for the nation building activities devised by Gandhiji to suit the inherent strength of this country. Letters addressed to Gandhi would often get misdirected to Shegaon, a small village of a similar name close by. Sevagram is 8 km from Wardha town in Maharashtra and 75 km from Nagpur. In spite of many practical difficulties, Gandhiji decided to settle here. Though he did not have any intentions of keeping anybody with him except his wife Kasturba, pressure of work necessitated more colleagues with him till Sevagram Ashram became a full-fledged institution. There were no facilities at Sevagram, not even a post or telegraph office. The letters used to be brought from Wardha. There was another village in this region named Shegaon, made famous by the residence of Saint Gajanan Maharaj. So, Gandhiji's letters used to get misdirected. Therefore, it was decided in 1940 to rename this village as Sevagram or 'the village of service'.