Mangaluru, May 8: A programme was organised by Department of Information and Public Relations, Dakshina Kannada in the city on Friday, to commemorate the centenary of Mahatma Gandhi’s first visit to the state in May 1915.
The Father of the Nation visited Karnataka for the first time on May 8, 1951.
Speaking on the occasion, Principal of Badriya P U College, Mangaluru Dr N Ismail said that the principles and ideas taught by the ‘Mahatma’ were relevant in India even today.
On returning to India from South Africa in 1915, Gandhi visited Madras and at the request of noted Kannada scholar D V Gundappa, he made a short visit to Bengaluru on May 8, 1915 to unveil the portrait of Gopala Krishna Gokhale – his political guru. Gandhi took a rail from Madras to Bengaluru, where he was garlanded and honoured on the platform by local Gujarati merchants. This was his first visit to the princely state of Mysore. It is said that Gandhi had made 14 visits to Karnataka during his life, he said.
He said that Gandhi’s visits influenced a lot of people during the Indian freedom movement. He was also a friend of Sir Mirza Ismail, who was the then-Diwan of Mysore under the Wodeyars.
During his second visit to Karnataka in 1917, Gandhi came to Belgaum to inaugurate the Bombay State political conference, and again visited Karnataka in August 1920 to address a public conference as part of the Khilafat movement. During 1927, he undertook a statewide tour of Karnataka as part of a campaign to promote Khadi, and again visited the state during the Civil Disobedience Movement in 1930. He also toured Karnataka as part of Harijan upliftment programmes.
Mr Ismail said that his visits to various parts of Karnataka brought about social awareness among the downtrodden and untouchables. Gandhian values will never die. Gandhi had once said that it was not the untouchables that had to be cleansed but the minds of people belonging to upper castes, he noted, exhorting people to encourage love towards others.
Speaking after inaugurating the programme, Kannada Sahitya Parishad president Pradeep Kumar Kalkura said that the people of India had to carry forward the values and morals preached by Mahatma Gandhi to the next generation. “India is a democracy which has witnessed several wonders throughout its history – including a farmer or a tea-seller becoming the Prime Minister, a woman becoming the Prime Minister or a barrister who successfully led the freedom struggle. All the citizens pledging to live in harmony, based on self-reliance and building a nation on his ideals is the best tribute we can give the Father of the Nation,” he said.
Information Officer Khader Shah welcomed the gathering on the occasion.
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