Bapu's last goodbye: Rare footage of immersion of Mahatma Gandhi's ashes released

Rare footage of Mahatma Gandhi’s immersion rites has been released in a digitised-coloured video on the National Cultural Audiovisual Archives website under an initiative by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts under Ministry of Culture.

The 16-MM 8 minutes 16 seconds film has been titled as 'Immersion of Mahatma Gandhi's Ashes in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh' and was shot by photographer James E McEldowney.

Here's the link of the footage.

The 8-minute film begins with Congress leader and Indian Independence Movement activist Ravishankar Shukla receiving the ashes in an urn at the Jabalpur railway station.

He is shown taking the urn to an open vehicle, followed by other officials and police. A procession is then carried out with people supporting and giving their last tributes to Mahatma Gandhi.

The video shows people following the procession from Jabalpur station to the banks of the river Narmada for 3 minutes. A guard of honour is given and shown in the video at 5 minutes and 58 seconds.

Later, leaders of Congress are seen giving their tribute in the form of speeches before the last rites are performed.

This is not the first released video that gives details about the urns of Mahatma Gandhi. Many urns filled with the ashes of Gandhi were sent all over India.

Many urns are thought to remain in the hands of the followers, including one that is enshrined in an ashram in California and another that is installed in the palace of the Aga Khan, the head of the Ismaili Islamic sect, in southern India.

In Cuttack, an urn filled with the Mahatma’s ashes was found in a vault in a state-owned bank. The ashes were then immersed in 1997 in the rivers Ganga and Yamuna. Another urn was given to a museum by an Indian businessman in Dubai but was later immersed into the Arabian Sea in 2008. 

All these immersions were, however, done on the same date - January 31 with their respective mentioned years. However, this video by McEldowney is the closest to the assassination date when the Father of the Nation was shot dead on January 30, 1948.