Mani Bhavan

This museum records Mahatma Gandhi's stay in the Mani Bhavan mansion, and houses several of his personal belongings. The mansion's history is portrayed as a nerve centre of Gandhi's activity from 1917 to 1934. Mani Bhavan was Gandhi's Mumbai headquarters for about 17 years, from 1917 to 1934. Gandhi initiated many of his most important movements from here, including the Non-Cooperation, Swadeshi, Satyagraha, Khadi and Khilafat Movements. Gandhi's association with the charkha began in 1917, while he was staying at Mani Bhavan. Mani Bhavan is also closely associated with Gandhi's involvement in the Home Rule Movement, as well as his decision to abstain from drinking cow's milk in order to protest the cruel and inhuman practice of phookan meted out to milch cattle common during that period.

As one enters, there is a library with the Mahatma's bust, where people pay their respects. Then a staircase - lined with pictures of Gandhi through the ages - leads visitors to the first floor, which has another photo gallery with photographs from his childhood to his assassination, along with press clippings. The room that Gandhi used during his stay at Mani Bhavan is on the second floor, where through a glass partition people can see two of his spinning wheels, a book, and his bed on the floor. Right opposite that room is a hall where photographs and paintings of his lifetime are on display. Finally one reaches the terrace, where he was arrested on Jan 4, 1932.