RAS question
The Sabarmati Ashram was founded by Gandhi in:
Correct answer: (B) 1917 (at Ahmedabad, on the banks of Sabarmati River).
Gandhi founded the Sabarmati Ashram at Ahmedabad on the banks of the Sabarmati River in 1917, after his earlier Kochrab Ashram was shifted there.
Explanation
Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram belongs to the early phase of his work after returning from South Africa. The official Ashram history records that his first Ashram in India was established in the Kochrab area of Ahmedabad on 25 May 1915, and was then shifted on 17 June 1917 to open land on the banks of the Sabarmati. That shift is why 1917 is the date tested for Sabarmati Ashram, while 1915 belongs to Kochrab. The same Ashram later became central to the freedom movement: Gandhi lived there from 1917 until 1930, and the Dandi March began from it on 12 March 1930, after which he vowed not to return until India was free.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) 1920 is not the Sabarmati Ashram founding year; the official history places the shift from Kochrab to the Sabarmati river site on 17 June 1917.
- (C) 1930 marks the Dandi March starting from Sabarmati Ashram and Gandhi’s departure from it, not the Ashram’s founding.
- (D) 1915 refers to Gandhi’s first Indian Ashram at Kochrab in Ahmedabad, before it was shifted to the Sabarmati river site in 1917.
Concept
This tests the chronology of Gandhian institutions in the national movement, especially the distinction between Kochrab Ashram and Sabarmati Ashram. RAS repeatedly uses such dates because they connect places in western India with major phases of the freedom struggle.