Aga Khan Palace

• 1. Introduction

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  The Aga Khan Palace stands in Pune, India, a place where the threads of charity, incarceration, and national memory are woven into the same walls. Sultan Muhammed Shah Aga Khan III ordered it built not as a statement of personal wealth, but as a lifeline. Famine had struck the villages surrounding Pune, and the Sultan chose to help by giving people work. The construction drew on the labor of one hundred thousand people and unfolded over five years, costing approximately 1.2 million rupees.

  What followed was a second life for the palace that its builder could scarcely have anticipated. Decades after the last stone was laid, British authorities used this monument of charity as a prison. Among those held inside were Mahatma Gandhi, his wife Kasturba Gandhi, and his secretary Mahadev Desai. Two of them would never leave. That shadow of captivity, along with the samadhis built in the grounds, transformed the palace into one of the most resonant sites of the Indian freedom movement. How a building raised to feed the hungry became the keeper of ashes and the home of a national memorial is the story this documentary will follow.

• 2. Built on Charity

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  Sultan Muhammed Shah Aga Khan III was the spiritual leader of the Nizari Ismaili Muslims, and the famine that devastated the villages near Pune moved him to act on a scale few individuals attempt. Rather than distribute alms, he commissioned a palace, creating a sustained source of wages for a region in crisis. One thousand people were employed directly in the construction, and the work stretched across five years.

  The palace that emerged from that labor covers a total area of 7.7 hectares, with the built-up structure itself occupying 2.8 hectares. The remaining land was laid out as a garden, well maintained and integral to the character of the grounds. The choice of one thousand workers is the figure that survived in local legend, a number specific enough to suggest deliberate planning rather than rough estimation. The Sultan's calculation was that enduring employment mattered more than a temporary handout, and the palace was his instrument for delivering it.

• 3. Prison Within the Gardens

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  On the 9th of August 1942, the British authorities interned Mahatma Gandhi, Kasturba Gandhi, and Mahadev Desai within the palace walls. The date coincided with the launch of the Quit India Movement, a broad campaign demanding an end to British rule in India. Sarojini Naidu and several others were imprisoned there as well.

  The internment lasted until the 6th of May 1944. For those inside, nearly two years passed within the palace gardens. Mahadev Desai, Gandhi's long-serving secretary, died during the captivity period. Kasturba Gandhi died there as well. Both were given samadhis on the grounds, octagonal marble structures that hold their ashes. In 1992, a portion of Mahatma Gandhi's own ashes was moved into the complex, and a similar, though not replica, samadhi was constructed beside those of his wife and colleague. The three samadhis now sit enclosed in a walled space with marble flooring, the grounds of charity converted into a place of mourning.

• 4. Architecture and Form

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  The palace follows the Indo-Saracenic style of architecture, a form that blends European structural elements with Mughal and Indian motifs. Pediments and turrets mark its exterior, and the ground floor spans 1,756 square meters. The first floor covers 1,080 square meters and the second floor adds 445 square meters.

  The most distinctive feature is a corridor 2.5 meters wide that runs around the entire perimeter of the building. That continuous passage gives the structure a quality unusual for its scale: no matter where a visitor stands on the exterior, the gallery offers a framed view of the gardens. Photographers have been drawn to the palace for exactly this combination of light, greenery, and architectural geometry. The setting is not incidental to the building's appeal.

• 5. Memorial and Museum

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  In 1969, Aga Khan IV donated the palace to the Indian people as a mark of respect to Gandhi and his philosophy. The complex became the headquarters of the Gandhi National Memorial Society, and the palace itself was reconfigured to house a memorial and museum.

  The Gandhi Museum is spread across six galleries. Statues of Gandhi and others appear alongside charts and diagrams tracing the history of the Quit India Movement. The complex also includes a shop selling khadi and other hand-loomed textiles, and a canteen. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi visited in 1974 and allotted a sum for annual maintenance, an amount that rose through the 1990s before funding became irregular. A protest at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi near Pune railway station in July 1999 drew attention to the declining condition of the monument. In 2003, the Archaeological Survey of India declared Aga Khan Palace a monument of national importance. The palace also housed a residential co-education school from 1953 to 1972, a chapter of its postwar life that is easily overlooked.

• 6. Rituals of Remembrance

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  Morning prayer sessions have been held daily at the samadhi for decades. The Gandhi Memorial Society marks five recurring public functions at the palace each year: Martyr's Day on the 30th of January, Mahashivratri observed as Kasturba Gandhi's death anniversary and as Mother's Day, Independence Day on the 15th of August, Republic Day on the 26th of January, and Gandhi's birth anniversary on the 2nd of October.

  The 2nd of October draws the largest crowds. The number of visitors on that day rises to three times the usual morning figure, with people arriving to pay tribute at the samadhis. The complex covering 19 acres, with 7 acres of built-up space, absorbs those numbers with the capacity that a palace-scale site allows. The prayer routine and the calendar of commemorations have made the grounds function as a living site rather than a static monument.