Raghuvir’s passion for travel took him to France, England,
Scotland, and South Wales etc. and here he saw people setting off on
motorbike tours collecting donations for some cause or the other.
Tacking a leaf out of their book, Vyas decided to spread national
awareness and planned a nation-wide tour in the golden jubilee year
of our Independence.
Raghuvir’s one-man crusade – the ‘Azadi Swarna Jayanti
Mahaytatra’ – on his motorbike, from Rajkot to Calcutta
was aimed at uniting the west and east end of the country. His
friends and other were skeptical about his tour and doubted what he
would achieve through his tour.
However, Vyas was not one to get deterred. He convinced his
wife and children that he had taken up the cause to create awareness
on child labour, dowry, illiteracy, child marriage and spread the
message of ‘ unity in diversity’, in the country.
They in turn supported his cause wholeheartedly and Vyas
wrote to the Gujrat electricity Board, where he is working as a
senior assistant, about his plans to take up the ‘yatra’.
The Worker education center in the city attached to the
Labour Ministry, were the Vyas volunteers as a worker teacher in the
local worker education education center, also extended their full
support to Vyas in his mission and the center’s setup helped him
meet several worker’s union leader on his journey.
Vyas purchased a Hero Honda and set forth for travelling to
the villages and town of Maharastra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and West
Bengal. Whenever he crossed a village or town, Vyas would stop his
motorbike and put a banner depicting the ‘ Mahayatra’. Vyas was
overwhelmed at the crowds which gathered to heat him at his road
side meetings.
In some places people also volunteered to accompany Vyas for
some distance of his journey. When asked how he managed his meals
etc. Vyas says,” I took my meal most of the time at roadside
hotels. In several places, the hotel owner refused to take money
from me after coming to know about my cause”
From Calcutta, Vyas continued his tour by train to
Northeastern state of Assam, Sikkim and Meghalaya. After visiting
this state, Vyas came to Delhi and paid homage to the martyrs and
warriors of the nation and finally reached Rajkot on October 2,
Gandhi Jayanti.
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