Belagavi was buzzing with activity on Wednesday as the Congress prepared to celebrate the centenary of Mahatma Gandhi’s appointment as party president in the city. About 30 kilometers away, life was normal in Hudali, a village that prided itself on quietly following the teachings of the Mahatma.
Mahatma Gandhi spent a week in Hudali in 1937 and held several meetings at the invitation of the village’s “Lion of Karnataka” – freedom fighter Gangadhar Rao Deshpande.
The story of the Mahatma’s visit has been passed down from generation to generation. Details also – how during his visit from April 17 to April 24, 1937, huts were built but collapsed due to rains; And how he walked in the rain and stayed in a village virgin ashram. Afroz Mujawar (45), a sugarcane farmer sitting at a coconut water shop in the village, said, “I heard this from my father who heard it from his mother.
This time, he expects someone from the Nehru Gandhi family to come to the village. He said he heard it might be one of them. “Mahatma came here in 1937, maybe he will come too,” said Afroz.
When the ashram where the Mahatma lived was lost to illegal encroachment, the Karnataka government built the Gandhi-Gangadhar Rao memorial in 1982 — where renovation work was underway on Wednesday. The building – small with a few huts on either side – has a gallery with photos of the Mahatma from the village and elsewhere, and a small section where women weave khadi.
There are 500 families in Hudali and more than 200 are affiliated with Khadi.
“This village knows the value of khadi, and like Gandhiji, it has been making it without any electrical machines,” said Raghavendra Hammanavar (44), secretary of Khadi and Village Cooperative Producers Association Ltd, Hudli, which looks after the memorial. and khadi production in villages.
Hammanwar said that the trade of khadi products worth about 3 to 4 crore rupees annually from the cooperative organization.
A worker who spins cotton into yarn and fabric earns between Rs 150 and Rs 200 per day depending on the output.
“Yes, the money is not much. But what do we do with the money? We are doing what Gandhiji taught us to do by using the spinning wheel,” said Shirin Altaf Darwai (36) while sorting cotton at a factory in the memorial complex.
The village also has a textile mill about 500 meters from the memorial, where yarn is extracted from the warehouse and woven into cloth and sold to four outlets in Karnataka, one of which is in Hudali. All work is done by hand, no electrical machines are used through the process.
Apart from Khadi, which became a rallying point during the Swaraj movement of the freedom struggle, the village also follows other principles advocated by Mahatma Gandhi. The village does not have a single liquor shop, does not sell cigarettes or bidis, has not witnessed communal or caste violence, and has not segregated houses along caste and community lines.
Farmer CB Modgi (84), who visited the memorial on Wednesday, said: “I am very old, and this village has never seen any violence in my life. We live in peace and it is because we associate ourselves with Gandhiji. This village rarely sees migration for work as elsewhere. The latest generation is moving out, but we are staying in the village.
Recalling Gandhiji’s visit, Modagi said: “He used to hold daily meetings. He used to walk from ashram to village and meet people and tell them the importance of khadi, swaraj and unity. Even though the country has forgotten, we are still following the principles.”
In the village, 60 percent of Lingayat population, 30 percent of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and the remaining 10 percent are Muslims. Members of the Muslim community said caste and religion were “almost invisible in the village”.
“When we travel outside, people ask us whether we are Hindu or Muslim. Then what is our caste. I have never been asked this question in my village,” said Satish, 24, a grocery store owner.
The Khadi industry provides employment to more than 200 families while the rest work for Belgaum Sugar Private Limited or are involved in cotton, sorghum, sugarcane and vegetable farming.
Rahmatullah J Bandi (46), the representative of village chief Tabassum, his wife said: “If you look in the village, you will find some houses with thatched roofs, but most of them are. It’s because we help each other. No one is too rich or too poor here. We live here on Gandhi’s principles.
Asked about a possible visit by members of the Nehru-Gandhi family – Priyanka Gandhi Vadra or Rahul Gandhi – Bandi said it was a “rumour”. “A month ago, two Karnataka government ministers came and sanctioned Rs 4 lakh for the maintenance of the memorial and other parts of the village. They said that they would visit the village when the Congress meeting was held in Belagavi city. But since then we have not heard anything. We hope that someone will come, but we are happy even if they come later,” he said.
There has been no official word of any such visit from the Congress yet.
The opposition party will hold a rally in Belagavi on December 26-27 to commemorate the centenary of Mahatma Gandhi presiding over an extended session of its highest decision-making body, the Congress Working Committee, and the historic Belgaum session in 1924 as Congress president.
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