HISTORY, LEGENDS & MYTHOLOGY

Ownership dispute over a historic ship used by Mahatma Gandhi

     Porbandar: A historic ship which the legendary Indian freedom-fighter and father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi is said to have sailed in 1903 when he returned from South Africa, has become a subject of unsavoury controversy. "SS Khedive" which ran aground a century ago and now lies partly sunk off the coast of Porbandar, the birthplace of Gandhiji, has been claimed by two families who have threatened to take the matter to the court.

     Habib Abubakar Suriya, a local resident, however, claims the ship in question is not the one used by Gandhiji. "The steamer in question belongs to my great grandparents. In this Gandhi did not travel rather it was used to transport people in the Satyagraha. The steamer in which Gandhiji travelled was Queenland. This steamer belongs to my grandfather Haji Suriya and I am the owner of this steamer," he said.

     On the other hand, Abdul Karim Zaveri, a businessman from Madurai, alleges that Suriya has forged documents to get possession of the ship. "I will apply in Porbandar court and Ahmedabad high court also. Somebody has taken false order from the Junagarh collector in 1992, and the orders are completely false because this ship is the property of Dada Abdullah and company. If anybody agrees with the false order, this order is right then what about Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography because his autobiography says that my great grand father and Dada Abullah's company is owner of the ship," he said.

     Zaveri says Dada Abdullah's company got Gandhi a job in Durban in 1890. Mahatma Gandhi in his autobiography "My experiments with truth" has mentioned that Dada Abdullah along with a few of Gandhiji's friends had formed Indian National Congress, in Durban. The book says Abdullah was close to Gandhiji's family. Police says the investigation is going on. "Investigation is going on. And after the investigation whatever is the outcome, we will report to the honourable court and then the court will decide what is the fact and who is at fault," said police inspector MR Rathod. While the two families fight over the ownership of the historic ship, nobody, neither the claimants nor the government seems to take care to salvage what could be a piece of national heritage and fit for memorial.
-March 4, 2004    

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