DECLARATION OF TRUST

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Gandhian Scholar

Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09415777229, 094055338

E-mail- [e-mail];[e-mail]

 

 

DECLARATION OF TRUST

 

 

 

1. We, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, age about years 60, Hindu, profession weaving and farming, residing at Satyagraha Ashram, Vadaj, Taluka Uttar Daskroi, District Ahmadabad, and Mohanlal Maganlal Bhatt, age about years 31, Hindu, residing at Bhoivadani Pole, Kalupur, Ahmadabad, declare by this Deed:

That in the year 1919 with the object of serving the people we, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and some of our colleagues, together started a printing press named “Navajivan Mudranalaya” in the city of Ahmadabad and with its help began to print, circulate and conduct as an institution for the service of the public, two weeklies, the Navajivan and the Young India, both of which we had begun to conduct some time before after securing them by buying them from their previous owners and managers with their total rights of ownership and possession. The weekly Hindi Navajivan and a department for publishing books under the name “Navajivan Prakashan Mandir” and other activities were carried on afterwards by us through the same institution. The said weeklies, printing press, and the department for publishing books have continued as a public institution for the education of the people under one comprehensive name of the “Navajivan Institution”. When the said Navajivan Institution was started under the name of the Navajivan Mudranalaya, its property was worth about ten thousand, in figures 10,000 rupees. Together with the said printing press and the increase earned through the weeklies the property that belongs to the Institution today without any burden on it is worth about rupees one lakh.

2. The management of the said Navajivan Institution and the use and administration of its property was carried on by Swami Anand for the past several years and is now being carried on for the past two years by one of us Mohanlal Maganlal Bhatt on its behalf in pursuance of the aims and objects of the Institution as mentioned in paras 3 and 4 of this Deed. Having declared these aims and objects, we declare by this Deed that the said printing press, weeklies, the publishing house, its rights of publication and goodwill and all other property belong to the said Navajivan Institution; that its management and administration was carried on behalf of the Institution in the name of Swami Anand in the beginning and is now being carried on in the name of one of us Mohanlal Maganlal Bhatt as Trustee of the Institution; that we, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Mohanlal Maganlal Bhatt or guardians and heirs of both of us never did have or have any personal share, interest or right in it, and that we have not drawn for our personal profit or benefit or in any other manner any amount of money from it.

3. The aims and objects of the said Navajivan Institution which have been referred to in the previous para are as under:

OBJECTS: To propagate peaceful means for the attainment of Hind Swaraj, i.e., swaraj for India, by educating the people through cultivated and enlightened workers devoted to the Gujarati language who desire to identify themselves with the life of Gujarat through the means of Gujarati and to serve India in this pure manner.

4. For the fulfilment of this object to conduct the Navajivan, through it to carry on propaganda for peaceful attainment of swaraj; and particularly

(a) to propagate the spinning-wheel and khadi;

(b) to propagate for the removal of untouchability;

(c) to propagate for unity between the Hindus and Mussalmans and the various communities who have settled in India;

 (d) to present before the people constructive ways for protecting the cow by propagating for starting and managing tanneries, dairies and such other establishments;

(e) To propagate for ways for the advancement of women such as

 1. Opposition to child-marriage,

 2. Propagation of the idea of widow remarriage in a restrained manner, 3. Education for women;

(f) to break the unnatural glamour the English language has gained in the eyes of the people all over the country and to propagate for the establishment of Hindi or Hindustani in its place;

(g) to propagate by publication of journals and books such other ways as would conduce to the religious, social, economic and political advancement of the people;

(h) not to take advertisements in the newspapers conducted by the Institution and in pamphlets, books, etc., published by it; nor to accept in the printing press of the Institution such work for printing as is against the aims and objects of the Institution;

(i) to publish a statement of the activities of the Institution and of its accounts within three months after the end of the administrative year;

(j) always to insist on carrying on all the activities of the Institution on the basis of self-reliance.

5. We declare hereby that the following persons have been appointed Trustees to carry on the entire administration and management of the Institution in accordance with the said aims and objects:

NAMES OF TRUSTEES

SHRI VALLABHBHAI JHAVERBHAI PATEL

SHRI JAMNALAL BAJAJ

SHRI DATTATREYA BALKRISHNA KALELKAR

SHRI MAHADEV HARIBHAI DESAI

SHRI MOHANLAL MAGANLAL BHATT

6. We declare that the said Trustees have the following rights regarding all the property of the said Navajivan Institution:

(1) To perform all acts and to take all measures as seem necessary from time to time for the fulfillment of the aims and objects of the Trust; to administer and use the property of the Trust for that purpose as they deem proper; and to keep the property of the Trust in the names of two of the Trustees.

 (2) To sell or mortgage the property of the said Trust for the fulfillment of the aims and objects of the Trust.

(3) To appoint as Trustee by a majority decision another person in the event of one of the Trustees resigning his place or in the event of his demise.

(4) For carrying on the business of the Trust the minimum number of Trustees is three.

(5) If deemed necessary to add two more Trustees to their present number by a majority decision.

7. The Trustees will continue the publication of the weekly Hindi Navajivan so long as they deem it proper for the fulfillment of the object as mentioned in sub-clause (f) of para 4 of the Deed. The Trustees have the right to run newspapers or publish and propagate books or pamphlets, etc., in other languages when they deem it inevitable for the fulfillment of the aims and objects of the Institution for a definite period but they shall consider such activity as secondary or subsidiary. The Trustees will carry on the same basis the activity of conducting the weekly Young India and publication of books in English as at present carried on under the Navajivan Institution and such other activities till they deem it proper.

8. The Trustees have the right to add to or modify the objects of the Trust in such manner as is not opposed to the principles of truth and non-violence.

9. The Trustees have the right to manage and administer affairs of the Institution in such manner as is not in any way detrimental to the aims and objects of the Institution; to form a body of workers who pledge themselves to their work for life and will perform their work in the spirit of pure service and to give the charge of the internal management or the whole conduct of the affairs of the Institution to such a body of workers if they deem it proper; to lay down rules, bye-laws, etc., and to execute them for such a body of workers and for other purposes regarding management and administration.

10. The property of this Trust as mentioned in para 2 of the Deed is at present housed in the building in the Sarkhigarani Wadi in Sarangpur bearing municipal numbers of 5512 to 5521 which has been rented by the Navajivan Institution. Besides, the land described below is situated in the village Achar, Taluka and Petatukadi Uttar Daskroi, District Ahmadabad.

The land is jat sarkari:

1 Sub-division of a taluka

2 Tenure A lands

We have made this Deed of declaration of our own free will and with sober minds on this the 26th of November of the year A.D. 1929 and is binding on us as well as on our guardians and heirs, our lawyers, managers, administrators, etc.