When The Mahatma Was Here
Our Bandar had the good fortune of receiving The Father Of Our Nation on three separate occasions. .The first one was in 1921..when he came to Vijayawada to attend the All India National Congress conference....They were held from 31St March to 2nd April and on April 4Th Gandhi travelled in a car ,in the company of kasturba,mahadev desai,DR.pattabhi,and sri Mutnuri Krishna Rao and reached machilipatnam via vuyyooru and pamarru. At that time he was on a mission to collect funds for the SWARAJYA NIDHI ..
He was given a grand reception by the municipal authorities,congress workers,the elite of the town and taken in a procession, along decorated streets, ,as people cheered him ,to The National college,where he was lodged for those two days.....Public meetings were held in support of the nidhi,and in his honour too, where the municipal councillors, members of vaisya sangham, Khilafat movement members submitted their welcome addresses separately...Since it was his MAUN VRAT DAY, Gandhi accepted them in silence..
On April 5 th, speaking at a public meeting , Gandhiji exhorted vysyas not to trade in alcohol and other intoxicants which not only made money for the foreign powers (then:) ),but also devitalised our own race..he lauded the the discipline with which national college was being run and suggested that it should depend on local support rather than look for help from outside sources...He called upon both hindu and muslim communities to discard their mutual mistrust ...Pleaded for the revival of Charkha....Spoke at lenghth on the jallianwalla bagh massacre and lamented the fact that not one person came out to rid the country of the British rulers....just one lack of who commanded an entire nation...He said we ought to be ashamed of ourselves.....He appealed to everybody to give up selfishness and work for a free India.....6,000 rs. were collected on that day for the fund....
He also spoke at the bar association of pleaders and suggested they give up their professions....When they expressed their doubts, he tried to clarify them and was once pained by the sarcastic comments of an advocate ..
On the morning of April 6 th, he and Ba left for Gudivada over Kavutaram and Angaloor, in the company of Dr.pattabhi...
APRIL 13,14, 15, 1929
He returned to Bandar for second time in april 1929 as a part of his campaign for khaddar movement....he was received in Vuyyoor on that night by Dr .pattabhi,mutnuri and others and was personally driven by sri. vallabhaneni ramabrahmam in his new car and reached Bandar over gudivada,gudlavalleru, kavutaram,pedana at about 11 in the night...He stayed at Dr .pattabhi"s house this time...
On the 13 th, a big public meeting was held in the grounds of National college,where an auction went on in to fund the movement...Gandhiji was moved by Kasinadhuni nageswararao garu who bought everything in the bidding and called him as VISWADATHA....
An amusing incident occured in the same meeting when two stalwarts of the Justice party,passionately called upon everybody to weave and wear their clothes themselves...Gandhi joked that it sounded as if one had to produce,harvest and eat one"s own food...Even they had to smile at this...
On 14 th , he and his party toured the nearby villages and returned...
On 15 th , he presided on a meeting exclusively for women in Minerva talkies.It was said 5,000 ladies attended it in those times.. ornaments worth 500.Rs were collected for the funds...
Next , he visited Arundhathi ashram.. The Vysya sangham felicitated him,and donated Rs 116 towards the fund...He was taken to the Kanyaka Parameswari temple and shown the priceless old literature stored in the library on the temple premises....At the grand public meeting ,held that evening at national college grounds, he was presented with a purse of 5,194/Rs by Dr .pattabhi, collected all through out the town..Dr .pattabhi translated his speech into telugu ...He left for Vijayawada next day via Gudur...Smt.Prabhavathi, wife of jayaprakash narayan and mutnuri accompanied him on this tour....
It seems when he visited Kavutaram and Angaloor, some young men presented him with light fine khadi clothes woven expressly for him....
December 17, 1933
This time Gandhi came on the HARIJAN YATRA....A large meeting was organised at the national college grounds at six"o" clock..Many organisations felicitated him and the All India charkha commitee presented him with a fine khadi carpet and seater woven by harijans...Rs 1020 had been collected towards the harijan fund and some other private parties contributed much more...He left for Vijayawada after this and saw a dramatic presentation of BHAKTHA NANDANAAR before he left...The drama earned 400 Rs as collections and was added to the fund...A silver plate, and a photo of the mahatma in a silver frame were presented to him as personal mementos...
Ref:Machilipatna charithra
Comments