Aga Khan Palace

The Aga Khan Palace was built in 1892 by Sultan Muhammed Shah Aga Khan III as a charitable employment programme for the famine-struck local population — the brief was simply to keep men in work. The result is a 19-acre Italianate ground-floor villa with deep verandahs, marbled corridors, and a sweeping drive lined with cypress trees. The palace's central place in modern Indian history dates from 9 August 1942: the British arrested Gandhi, his wife Kasturba, his secretary Mahadev Desai, and Sarojini Naidu under the Quit India movement and interned them here. Mahadev Desai died on 15 August 1942 within a week of arrival; Kasturba Gandhi died on 22 February 1944 after 18 months of internment; both are buried in samadhis on the palace lawn. Gandhi was released on 6 May 1944. The palace was donated to the Indian people by Aga Khan IV in 1969 as a memorial to Gandhi and Kasturba. The interior holds Gandhi's personal effects — the spinning wheel, his sandals, the simple table at which he wrote. The atmosphere is unusually contemplative for a Pune monument; school groups arrive on weekdays but evenings are quiet.