Mahadev Desai
Mahadev Desai was born on 1 January 1892 in the village of Saras in Surat district of Gujarat. Desai belonged to a poor family but was a bright student. He passed his LLB examination by the end of 1913. He decided to stay in Ahmedabad, where in 1915, he met Mahatma Gandhi for the first time. He became a disciple of Gandhi and stayed with him for the rest of his life.
Mahadev Desai began writing his diary from 13 November 1917 and continued writing it until 14 August 1942 the day before he died. He was much more than a personal secretary of Gandhiji and kept a record of every event associated with Mahatma Gandhi in his diary. In 1919, when Gandhiji was arrested for the first time, he had nominated Mahadev Desai as his heir. On Motilal Nehru’s request, Mahadev Desai joined the team of his paper, the Independent, in Allahabad. When the British confiscated the printing press, Desai started publishing the paper by printing it on a cyclostyle machine.
Mahadev Desai was an outstanding writer, at ease with Gujarati, Bengali and English. He started translating English classics in Gujarati from his college days. He was a well-known translator and writer in Gujarati and had won several prizes and awards for his writings. He translated Rabindranath Tagore’s work in Gujarati. He had also translated Gandhiji’s autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, in English. His diary was published in 22 volumes after his death. Mahadev Desai was arrested several times for his involvement in various satyagraha. He died in the Aga Khan Palace of Pune where he was arrested along with Mahatma Gandhi and Kasturba Gandhi.
Trivia : Mahadev Desai was the only person to accompany Mahatma Gandhi when Gandhi met with King George V during the Second round Table Conference.
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