Know Your City | Khilafat, Khadi, Harijan Fund: Tracing Mahatma Gandhi’s many visits to Bengaluru
In his first visit to Bengaluru in 1915, Mahatma Gandhi was invited by prominent Kannada writer D V Gundappa to participate in a meeting in honour of the late Gopal Krishna Gokhale.
Dewan Mirza Ismail with Mahatma Gandhi and Kasturba Gandhi in 1927. When discussing notable figures who have made a lasting impact on the places they visited, Mahatma Gandhi certainly deserves a top spot on most lists. This is especially true for Bengaluru — known as Bangalore then — where his five visits to the city are still remembered.
In 1915, during his first visit to the city, Gandhi was invited by prominent Kannada writer D V Gundappa to participate in a meeting in honour of the late Gopal Krishna Gokhale. City historian Arun Prasad noted that Gandhi agreed to the invitation and came to Bangalore to unveil a portrait of Gokhale and to help raise funds for the freedom movement.
During a chariot procession organised for Gandhi, he declined to ride on it and chose to walk to his destination instead.
Gandhi’s second visit in 1920 coincided with the peak of the Khilafat movement. Prasad stated, “He arrived on August 21, accompanied by Maulana Shaukat Ali, the Khilafat leader. He addressed a massive gathering of around 40,000 in the cantonment.”
In 1927, during a tour of South India to promote the use of khadi, Gandhi again visited Bangalore. This visit was perhaps the most well-documented among his first few visits. At the time, Gandhi suffered a mild stroke while in Belgaum. He initially recovered at Nandi Hills near Bangalore, where he stayed in a home originally built by Francis Cunningham, the secretary of Sir Mark Cubbon, after whom Cunningham Road is named.
It was around this time that he was also visited by figures such as Sir Visvesvaraya and Dewan Mirza Ismail. Prasad said, “By June 6, Gandhi left Nandi Hills and came to stay in Bangalore at the Kumara Krupa Guest House. There were prayer meetings conducted every evening, attended by hundreds. Gandhi also wanted all participants to be wearing Khadi at these meetings.”
A memorial marks the location where some of these gatherings took place, although this part of the Kumara Krupa grounds is now situated within the Lalit Ashok hotel premises.
Gandhi met Sir William Smith of the Imperial Dairy Farm (now the National Dairy Research Institute) during his visit, which sparked his interest in dairy farming. He also visited the Indian Institute of Science and the Mythic Society, where he sought help in disproving the historicity of untouchability. As a result of the visit, Sir Mirza Ismail decided to open a khadi unit in Mysore.
In 1934, Gandhi visited to promote the Harijan Fund. On this occasion, a local philanthropist named Ramalinga Mudaliar donated a significant sum of Rs 1,000 to the cause. Gandhi visited again in 1936 with Sardar Valabhbhai Patel for the same reason, and they stayed at Nandi Hills because Sardar Patel had fallen sick.
Gandhi, who was still recovering, had to be carried up in a palanquin during his first visit. Prasad said, “Gandhi refused and walked up the hill this time. Many personalities, including C V Raman and his wife, as well as Gilbert Fowler (a professor of applied chemistry at IISC and one of the pioneers of sewage treatment), were also with him.”
That was his final visit to Bangalore. However, Bangalore did not forget him, as the statues and plaques around the city attest.
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