Editing Mahadev Desai (section)

== Gandhi's associate ==
Mahadev Desai first met Gandhi in 1915 when he went to meet him to seek his advice on how best to publish his book (a Gujrati translation of [[John Morley]]'s English book ''On Compromise'').<ref name="hindu" /> Desai joined [[Sabarmati Ashram|Gandhi's Ashram]] in 1917 and with Durgabehn accompanied him to [[Champaran]] that year. He maintained a diary from 13 November 1917 to 14 August 1942, the day before his death, chronicling his life with Gandhi. In 1919 when the colonial government arrested Gandhi in [[Punjab]], he named Desai his heir. Desai was for the first time arrested and sentenced to a year in prison in 1921.{{citation needed|date=May 2015}} He was Gandhi's personal secretary for 25 years, but as [[Verrier Elwin]] wrote of him, "he was much more than that. He was in fact Home and Foreign Secretary combined. He managed everything. He made all the arrangements. He was equally at home in the office, the guest-house and the kitchen. He looked after many guests and must have saved 10 years of Gandhi's life by diverting from him unwanted visitors".<ref name="hindu" /> [[Rajmohan Gandhi]] writes of Mahadev Desai thus: "Waking up before Gandhi in pre-dawn darkness, and going to sleep long after his Master, Desai lived Gandhi's day thrice over — first in an attempt to anticipate it, next in spending it alongside Gandhi, and finally in recording it into his diary".<ref name="hindu" />