Khadi activists urge State govt. to organise celebrations to mark centenary year of Mahatma Gandhi’s visit to Belagavi
The Hindu
Khadi activists urge State govt. to celebrate the centenary of Mahatma Gandhi's visit to Belagavi in 1924.
Mahatma Gandhi visited Belagavi in December 2024 and stayed for a little over a week. Khadi activists feel that the State government should organise celebrations to mark the centenary year of that visit.
Gandhi arrived in Belagavi to address the 39th all India session of the Congress on December 26 and 27 in 1924. This is the only session in which Gandhi was elected as Congress president.
Khadi crusader and chairman of the reception committee Gangadhar Rao Deshpande, known as Karnataka Kesari, had invited him.
Gandhi also visited Khadi villages Hudli and Hosur. He spent three days in Hudli, speaking to the founders of the Khadi Gramodyog Sahakari Utpadak Sangha. He stayed in the district for a total of nine days.
The State government also declared a monument of importance in the 1980s. Then Chief Minister R. Gundu Rao named it Veera Soudha and marked its boundaries. Later, the S.M. Krishna government took up beautification of the monument and development of the garden around the Pampa Sarovar, a well located on the premises.
“The Veera Soudha is a monument that all Indians are proud of. It not only embodies the spirit of the fight against the British but also the crusade for Khadi and village industries. We need to organise programmes to carry this message to the youth,” said the former chairman of the District Khadi Federation Subhash Kulkarni.
He is the nephew of freedom fighter R.H. Kulkarni who was instrumental in the creation of the monument.