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Mahatma Gandhi's toilet shifted to Sabarmati museum

     New Delhi: A replica of a mobile toilet that was used by Mahatma Gandhi will now be placed again at a prominent spot in the Sabarmati ashram-turned-museum in Ahmedabad. According to a report in The Telegraph, the toilet was removed from the ashram over two decades ago after it was deemed inappropriate for the surroundings. The museum authorities believed it "spoilt" the ashram's ambience. Gandhi was known for his obsessive attention to personal health and hygiene and had a rigorous daily routine of ablutions of which bowel movements were a vital part. He also believed in the "responsible" disposal of human excrement to avoid disease. His lavatory was constructed in such a manner as to allow waste to flow out to fields around his house. "Our (Indian) lavatories bring our civilization into discredit. They violate the rules of hygiene," Gandhi wrote in 1925 and recommended that all the "night-soil" should be removed to fields. "I learnt 35 years ago that a lavatory must be as clean as a drawing-room. I learnt this in the West. I believe that many rules about cleanliness in lavatories are observed more scrupulously in the West than in the East," the Mahatma added. Gandhi also cleaned his toilet himself and often referred to it as his "temple".
-Sep 12,  2008