Gandhiji had then settled well in the Ashram.
He thought of publishing a weekly named ‘Navjeevan’. Its first issue was
published on 7/9/1919. He had purchased a small printing press at Ahmedabad.
Its workload started growing day by day. The people employed to work there
were not sufficient for the amount of work they had. Gandhiji remembered
Swami Anand and sent for him. He could do all kinds of printing jobs.
Gandhiji knew for sure that he could do this job. Gandhiji handed over
‘Navjeevan’ to him. Swami Anand took the reins of ‘Navjeevan’ at the end of
1919 and then during the next few months he sent for me.
It was 1919-1920. Gandhiji had already
informed the government about the proposed peaceful protest against law, and
about the strike and hunger strike. Now ‘Navjeevan’ press started publishing
his writeups and articles. The eight pages of the weekly were stretched to
12-16 pages.
The press was run in a very small place in the
narrow Chudi Lane. There always used to be hustle and bustle in that place.
There would be on order to print new pages even before the typeset was drawn
out. Many a times Gandhiji would write with a pencil and it used to be very
challenging to read it. The machine operator, the compositors, the
proofreaders, all would work day and night. There would be a competition of
keeping awake, but Swami Anand would always supersede all of them. He would
not sleep for three consecutive nights and yet would be ready to read the
proofs the next morning! Gandhiji continued the stream of his brilliantly
resplendent articles in ‘Navjeevan’ and ‘Young India’. The Chudi-lane
printing press was too small for it. Swamiji sought out a big house near
Sarangpur. Maulana Mohmed Ali donated his printing machinery to Gandhiji. It
was set-up in the new house.