Mahadev Desai: Gandhi’s Secretary for 25 Years

For 25 years, Mahadev Desai lived Gandhi’s day three times over. He tried to anticipate it, spent it at Gandhi’s side, and wrote it into his diary each night. He died in custody with Gandhi in 1942, mid-sentence in a life he had spent entirely in service of someone else’s.

Mahadev Desai (left) with Gandhi at Birla House, Bombay, 1939. Public domain in India, via Wikimedia Commons.

mcqquestion.com

Modern History · ModHist0230

Mahadev Desai

Gandhi’s secretary for 25 years, chronicler of his daily life

1 Jan 1892

Born at Saras village, Surat district, Gujarat.

1917

Joins Gandhi’s Ashram; accompanies him to Champaran; begins his lifelong diary.

1919

Named Gandhi’s secretary, after Gandhi’s arrest in Punjab.

9 Aug 1942

Arrested with Gandhi after the Quit India declaration; interned at Aga Khan Palace.

15 Aug 1942

Dies of a heart attack in custody, aged 50.

“Mahadev! Mahadev!”

When Desai stopped breathing, Gandhi cried out his name. He later explained: Desai had never once disobeyed him, and Gandhi believed that even death might have yielded, had Desai heard him call.

⬇ Download as image

📑 Contents

1Timeline
2Secretary to Gandhi, 1917-1942
3Diarist, Writer and Translator
4Test Yourself
5Death, Legacy and Successor

Timeline

1 January 1892: Mahadev Desai is born at Saras village, Surat district, Gujarat.
1917: He joins Gandhi’s Ashram. He accompanies Gandhi to the Champaran Satyagraha that same year, and begins the diary he will keep for the next 25 years.
1919: Gandhi names him his secretary, after being arrested himself in Punjab.
1930-33: He is arrested and imprisoned multiple times, including alongside Gandhi during the Salt Satyagraha and its aftermath.
9 August 1942: He is arrested with Gandhi, a day after the Quit India declaration, and interned at Aga Khan Palace, Pune.
15 August 1942: He dies of a heart attack in custody, aged 50.

Secretary to Gandhi, 1917-1942 Need to Know

Mahadev Desai was born on 1 January 1892, at Saras village, Surat district, Gujarat. He died on 15 August 1942, at Aga Khan Palace, Pune, aged 50.
He served as Gandhi’s personal secretary for 25 years, from 1917 until his death.
He kept a detailed daily diary of Gandhi’s life, from 13 November 1917 to 14 August 1942. It was later published as the 22-volume “Mahadevbhaini Dayari.”
He translated Gandhi’s autobiography, “The Story of My Experiments with Truth,” from Gujarati into English.
He died of a heart attack while interned with Gandhi at Aga Khan Palace. It was the day after their arrest during the Quit India Movement.
He was arrested and imprisoned multiple times for his own writings and activism, on top of his secretarial role.

Diarist, Writer and Translator Good to Know

He first met Gandhi in 1915, over a Gujarati translation project. He joined Gandhi’s Ashram in 1917, and accompanied him to the Champaran Satyagraha that same year.
Fluent in Gujarati, Bengali, and English, he translated works by Rabindranath Tagore, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, and Jawaharlal Nehru‘s autobiography into Gujarati.
He wrote “The Story of Bardoli” (1929), documenting the Bardoli Satyagraha, and several original biographies, including one of Sardar Patel.
He was the only person to accompany Gandhi when Gandhi met King George V, at Buckingham Palace during the Second Round Table Conference in London, 1931.
After Gandhi’s arrest, Desai took over as editor of Navajivan and Young India. He went on to edit Harijan too, a post he held until his death.
He received the Sahitya Akademi Award posthumously, in 1955, for his diary.

Test Yourself

Death, Legacy and Successor Great to Know

Gandhi personally washed Desai’s body after his death. Desai’s samadhi (memorial shrine) still stands on the grounds of Aga Khan Palace.
His first prison sentence, in 1921, came for reporting on harsh jail conditions, including prisoner flogging. That reporting prompted real British jail reforms.
His son, Narayan Desai, became a noted Gandhian activist and writer. He later wrote his own father’s biography, “The Fire and the Rose.”
His diaries remain one of history’s most detailed day-by-day chronicles of a major political and spiritual leader’s life. They were edited into published volumes across nearly 50 years, by Narhari Parikh and Chandulal Bhagubhai Dalal.
See ModHist0219 — Kheda Satyagraha, one of the many campaigns he organised alongside Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel.
His death came days into the ModHist0288 — Quit India Movement, the mass uprising whose crackdown put him and Gandhi behind the same prison walls.
After Desai’s death, Pyarelal Nayyar succeeded him as Gandhi’s secretary, and went on to write Gandhi’s own definitive biography.