Chief Minister Siddaramaiah inspecting the photo exhibition and preparations for the centenary celebrations of the 39th Congress session in Belagavi on Wednesday. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangements
In a 1916 letter Mahatma Gandhi wrote to veteran Congress leader and Khadi activist Gangadhar Rao Deshpande, “Only death can stop me from going to Belgaum”.
The people of Belgaum (now Belagavi) invited Gandhiji within a year of his arrival from South Africa. He is about to participate in the first season of the Home Rule League to be held in this city. He would share the platform with leaders like Annie Besant and Bal Gangadhar Tilak. However, some leaders, dissatisfied with the views of a subgroup within the Congress, asked him not to go.
First visit
Deshpande, who was one of the four general secretaries of the AICC, hailed from Hudali in Belgaum district and favored Gandhiji’s visit. The answer came after writing a letter to him. It was the father of the nation’s first undisclosed visit.
He had to return three times to the green surroundings of the city. The third was the presidency of the 39th All India Congress Session in 1924.
However, in 1924, Gandhiji was reluctant to come to the city, as he thought his time would be better spent healing differences in the riot-affected areas of North India. The organizers eventually won him over.
As his presidency brought changes in the organizational structure and working style of the Congress, the session has proved to be important.
He discussed his dream of ‘Swaraj’ and ‘Sarvodaya’ here. He seems to have achieved significant success in transforming the Congress from a political agency to an agent of change, with the aim of fighting for social and economic freedom. Apart from regular sessions, the Belgaum Convention held separate conferences against untouchability and in favor of khadi and village industries, students, municipal administration and state formation on linguistic basis. A strong resolution was passed to emphasize Hindu-Muslim unity, to make paid social service and khadi spinning compulsory.
Reduced fees
As president of the convention, Gandhi reduced the annual membership fee by 90% and asked all party members to realize that the Congress was a movement and that they were all social workers, seeking political liberation from British rule. Not only, but also. From social evils like untouchability
The most important aspect of the meeting seems to be focusing on Khadi and rural industries. The chairman submitted a proposal that every member should arrange to pay in advance 2000 yards of hand-spun khadi cloth per month to the local committee of the party.
In exceptional circumstances, the member had to pay someone to spin and submit the cloth.
The session also brings out an aspect of Gandhiji’s life that has not been explored much. He addressed two meetings of party workers on urban development and city planning. He held a separate session on the abolition of untouchability and there his now famous statement: “If I am born again I may be born broken.”
In the digital archive
Many details of the historic Belgaum session are documented Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Volume 25. They have been digitized by Servants of Knowledge, a Bengaluru-based non-profit, and uploaded to archive.org.
In cow protection
In a session on cow protection, Gandhiji emphasized that cows are a tool for economic upliftment of farmers. He urged farmers to use cows that had stopped giving milk as draft animals to plow their fields and cited the successful example of Lahore. He vehemently clarified that his advocacy for cow protection does not mean violence against communities like beef-eating Muslims. “This will forcefully convert them to Hinduism. That is not acceptable,” he said.
Sanitation volunteers
Unbridled impressionsThe editorial he wrote Young India After the session, there are some interesting details. He said that sanitation volunteers working in a group led by Kaka Karkhanis and NS Hardiker were busy filling dry toilets. He saw that out of 70 volunteers, 40 were Brahmins. Gandhiji objected to the expenses incurred during the session, especially the provision of perks to VIPs. He asked the organizers of the next session to reduce it by treating all members equally.
Some great music
The session was unforgettable for art and music lovers. Hindustani guru Vishnu Digambar Paluskar and 11-year-old Gangubai Hangal sang the song. On the first day, the Kannada song “Udayavagali Namma Chaluva Kannada Nadu” by dramatist Huilgol Narayan Rao was sung.
A special well
A large well dug to serve Congress convention invitees called Pampa Sarovara is still supplying water to some parts of South Belagavi.
published – Dec 26, 2024 at 07:05 pm IST