Mahatma Gandhi’s great-granddaughter Nilamben Parikh passes away at 92 in Gujarat’s Navsari

Dr Parikh said, “My mother did not suffer from any ailments but since the last few days, she had almost given up on meals due to age… She had severe osteoporosis and was gradually sinking. This morning, I decided not to go to my hospital. I sat beside her and held her hand. I gradually felt her pulse diminish and she slowly sank… she passed away peacefully and without any suffering or pain.” Dr Parikh said that while she did not impose Gandhian ideologies on the family, it was her personal set of values that inspired him in his life.

He says, “My parents, Yogendrabhai and Nilamben, left Bombay after her graduation in 1955. They had decided to spend their life serving in the rural area. They first lived in rural Saurashtra and had briefly joined Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan movement. For a few months, they lived in a remote village in Odisha before shifting to Vyara in South Gujarat in 1962. Initially, she started a school in a remote village in Tapi district but later settled down with Dakshinapatha in Vyara, where she lived in the school quarters until her retirement.”

Growing up with his parents in the rural area meant a few years of comparison of the luxurious life that his cousins lived in then-Bombay. “There was a time when I would think our relatives in Bombay had luxuries in the form of electricity, water supply and air conditioner as we were living in a remote village without electricity, drawing water from wells and so on… But as I grew up, I realised that they were totally devoted to Gandhian thought. It was not because of the family legacy but because of their own value system. My parents never worked for money,” he said.

“When I look back and think, I realise that when she retired from the school, they did not even have a house to move into from the quarters. It was a given that they would live with me in Navsari as I was settled, but they never built a house of their own. She never took tuitions to earn extra…” Parikh said.

In 2013, when the family members of Gandhi had gathered to immerse an urn of his ashes in Mumbai, Nilamben had shared, “My mother often took us to meet Gandhiji to seek his blessings. When we bowed down and touched his feet, he would hit hard and I always complained. Later, he would reward me with a fruit.”

Nilamben’s cousin and historian Tushar Gandhi said that he always considered her “as an elder” due to the big age gap between the two. Gandhi, who is the grandson of Manilal Gandhi, said, “Although she was my cousin, she was much older to me, about the age of my parents. Therefore, I always considered her as my elder and revered her in that way… I had more interactions with her husband Yogendrabhai in the initial years as she would always be busy and away in the tribal areas, where she worked. In the last two decades, we had come close as she had started living in Navsari with her son.”

Gandhi added that Nilamben “truly lived” the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi. “She spent all her life teaching in the tribal areas of Gujarat. She was one who truly lived the life of her great-grandfather. Although she was a gentle person, and also extremely frail, one could not miss her moral strength that used to shine through her personality. Even in her soft voice you could feel her firmness. She was an extremely loving person,” said Gandhi.

He added that it was when the Chandrakant Kulkarni directed Marathi play, Gandhi Virudh Gandhi, brought out the “complex relationship” between Mahatma Gandhi and Hiralal, Nilamben was disturbed and decided to write her side of the story. Her book, “Gandhi’s lost Jewel: Hiralal Gandhi”, was a biography of her grandfather and later also adapted into a Hindi movie, “Gandhi My Father” by Feroze Abbas Khan in 2007. Tushar Gandhi added, “When Gandhi Viruddh Gandhi was translated into Gujarati, it sensationalised the feud between her grandfather and Bapu. It disturbed her a lot and she wrote a book and gave her side of the story… It was basically many editorialised essays. She also wrote another book about the correspondence of Bapu with his daughters-in-law, titled ‘Jyan Raho Tyan Mehekta Raho’ (Spread your fragrance wherever you live). The title of the book was taken from one of the messages from Bapu to his daughters-in-law…”

On Tuesday, Union Minister of Jal Shakti, CR Paatil, took to Instagram to pay tribute to Nilamben. Offering condolences to the family, Paatil said, “The news of the demise of the great grand-daughter of Mahatma Gandhi and granddaughter of Haridasbhai is heart-breaking. With staunch Gandhian ideology and values, she spent her entire life in works for upliftment of people and women. Her passing away has created a vacuum in the society…”