Article 1 Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States. Corresponding author: Joseph S. Alter, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, United States. E-mail: jsalter@pitt.edu Journal of the Anthropological Survey of India 1–13 © 2019 Anthropological Survey of India Reprints and permissions: in.sagepub.com/journals-permissions-india DOI: 10.1177/2277436X19881260 journals.sagepub.com/home/ans Nisargopchar Ashram: Gandhi’s Legacy and Public Health in Contemporary India Joseph S. Alter 1 Abstract Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was a staunch advocate for nature cure. He promoted the use of earth, air, sunlight, water and diet not only to treat medical problems but also as an integral feature of a programme for comprehensive public health reform. As such, Gandhi conceptualised healthcare as an encompassing, biomoral project designed to produce Swaraj in the broadest sense of the term. Nature cure was, in other words, fundamental to sarvodaya as a form of praxis. This essay focusses on Gandhi’s establishment of Nisargopchar, a nature cure ashram in the Uruli Kanchan village, and the conceptualisation of the ashram within the framework of the constructive programme and rural development more broadly. This focus not only highlights fundamental tensions and contradictions of social class within the Gandhian project but also sheds light on the way in which Gandhi’s vision of biomoral reform provides a perspective on how these contradictions and tensions, which are especially visible in contemporary India, reflect larger, more encompassing global problems of consumption, development and progress measured in terms of material wealth. Keywords Gandhi, nature cure, class, rural development, public health Introduction Mohandas K. Gandhi was militant in his nonviolent commitment to the embodiment of the principles of nature cure—the exclusive use of earth, air, sunlight and water to help the body heal itself (Gandhi, 1948; Gandhi &