Gandhian Devotion

AS a child of five,Usha Gokani,granddaughter of Gandhi,still remembers listening to beautiful bhajans at the Sabarmati Ashram. Gandhi,who was a stickler for time and loved order in his life,would have these devotional songs sung at five sharp,in morning as well as evening,everyday. “These bhajans have stayed with me my entire life. There was something about the way they were sung,I’ve never come across bhajans which sounded quite like that again. It was deeply spiritual,” says Gokani,who is the daughter of Ramdas and Nirmala.

Gokani is attempting to recreate the bhajans she heard as a child with the launch of the album,titled Sabarmati Ke Sur this week. The bhajans have been selected from Ashram Bhajanavali,a book compiled by singer Narayan Moreshwar Khare,which essentially are songs by great saints from Kabir to Meera. Khare was the designated singer during prayer time at the ashram,and also accompanied Gandhi on his historic Dandi March,with his ektara. “The bhajans that were sung at the ashram were always secular. Gandhi believed in ‘sarva dharma sambhava’,” she says.

Though Gokani has always wanted to do something about preserving the bhajans that were sung at the ashram,her biggest hurdle was

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that she could not find anyone who could match the voice of Khare. Recently,singer Madhavi Nanal dropped by for a performance at Mumbai’s Mani Bhavan and Gokani was blown away by her voice and roped her in.

The CD comes with a booklet which gives a chronological break-up of key moments in Gandhi’s life,as well as English translations of the bhajans. Sabarmati Ke Sur will be launched today in Mumbai.