Anil Dhir
A few people know Mahatma Gandhi had visited Orissa eight times between 1921 and 1946. The Mahatma has written about the rich experience he gathered during those trips to the state in his articles and letters. We commemorate the 81st year of his famous Harijan Padayatra in May.
Gandhiji had reached Puri May 7, 1934 by train. He had earlier made pit stops at Bamur, Angul, Banarpal, Meramundali and Cuttack. He spent the first day in silence and held a public meeting the following day at Puri where he announced his padayatra for the removal of untouchability. Those who had accompanied him were taken aback as originally Gandhiji had planned to travel by car and address public meetings on the way.
The Mahatma started his march at 5.30am May 9, 1934 at Singhadwar. Like ancient sages he took the Jagganath Sadak and was determined to propagate his message of love, brotherhood and equality throughout the countryside. Although the Mahatma’s mission was to eliminate the evil of untouchability, he asked people to discard intoxicants and follow simple rules of health and hygiene. He was accompanied by Miraben, Amritlal Thakur, Sushila Behn, Uma Bajaj (daughter of Jamnalal Bajaj), Padmabati Devi (wife of Jaya Prakash Narayan), BG Desai, Gopabandhu Choudhury, Rama Devi, HK Mahatab, Nilakanth Das, Jadumani Mangaraj, Bichitrananda Das, Binod Kanungo, Surendra Pattnaik, Sahadeb Das and Kurt Butow, a German journalist.
The march was a novel experiment as the Mahatma had realised that by travelling on foot he could not cover big distances, but it had the potential of meeting a large number of people with whom he could interact. He visited many Harijan villages on his way to Cuttack. His first stop was at Kadua where he had stayed in a Harijan boarding.
The second day, i.e. May 10, Gandhiji reached Dandamukundpur, where he addressed a public meeting in a high school, which is presently, the Gopabandhu Memorial High School. Gandhi had stayed at the two storied house of Rama Sahu, a rich landlord of Cuttack. The house was inside the Murli Manohar Mutt, which the zamidar had built in the Basudevpur village, half a kilometre from the Jagannath Sadak.
This house was a two-storied building and Gandhi stayed in the upper floor. Chintamani Panigrahi was in attendance. At 4am, Gandhi came down and had bath in the small pond behind the house and after a frugal breakfast commenced his padayatra towards Pipili. Earlier in the night, he had written a letter to the eminent engineer M Visvesvaraya asking him to come to Orissa and make an assessment for flood control projects.
Today, the house sits decrepit among the rice fields. It is a mute reminder of the Mahatma’s visit, which was a turning point in the freedom struggle of India. The family has abandoned the house and even though in ruins, it still is a majestic structure. The pond and the very steps to it that the Mahatma took to take his bath are still intact.
The house was discovered by the INTACH team while surveying the . The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, Orissa, has launched a project “Listing and Documenting the Monuments of the Jagganath Sadak in Orissa,” in which all the remnants of the old road are being documented. The project is being undertaken to highlight the plight of this once-great-and-now- forgotten road on which pilgrims travelled to visit the Puri temple. The report will be released before the Nabakalebar of the Lord this year.
State INTACH convener AB Tripathy along with this writer visited the spot to assess the old building. Tripathy said the building should be preserved as a heritage structure and said he would write to the government and the Gandhi Foundation for taking steps to restore the building. INTACH has offered all assistance in the venture.
The Bhubaneswar chapter convener H Balakrishnan said the Jagannath Sadak project has opened up new chapters to spread Jagannath culture and the social development of the state. Former chief secretary of the state, Sanjib Hota is of the opinion that the state government and the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi should develop a Gandhi Circuit in the state, as there are many important places which mark the Mahatma’s visit.
The people of Orissa had loved and adored Gandhi. Many of them believed he was an incarnation of God. Right from his first visit, Gandhiji had realised that people of Orissa were poor but large-hearted. He was deeply moved when thousands of famine-stricken people of Puri donated a paise or an anna, which they had tied in their cloth in response to his appeal to contribute to the Tilak Swaraj Fund. He once said, “The famine-stricken skeletons of men and women in Orissa haunt me in my waking hours and in my dreams”.
This forgotten vestige, which was so closely associated with his padayatra should be preserved.
The writer is coordinator for the Jagannath Sadak Project.