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.
“The visit of Gandhiji to the district had a magical effect. It led to the emergence of several hundred freedom fighters from across North Karnataka. This event should be celebrated,” said Devraj Urs award winner Gandhian Shivaji Kaganikar.
One of the developments in the Belgaum (now Belagavi) session of the Congress was the resolution to give approval to the Calcutta (now Kolkata) agreement of the party and the successful efforts to unify the factions advocating Swaraj and status quo.
Preparations for the session
A team, led by Mr. Deshpande, then began preparations six months before the session. Workers and volunteers prepared a huge ground beyond the Military Camp on Khanapur Road for the session.
This stretch of the road is now called Congress Road. Empty fields in the area from the First Railway Gate to the Vaccine Depot Grounds were cleared of bushes and a huge space was prepared for the session. The area came to be called Vijaya Nagar. A request railway station was sanctioned near the venue. Nearly 17,000 delegates from across undivided India attended the two-day session. Gandhi stayed in one of the makeshift huts.
A circular well was dug to provide water for the session and named Pampa Sarovar. The well with stone arches and parapets, along with water supply channels and pipelines, cost around ₹15,000. The well still provides drinking water to several residential areas on Khanapur Road.
Several senior leaders attended the session. They included Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Lala Lajpat Rai, C. Rajagopalachari, Annie Besant, Sarojini Naidu, Chittaranjandas, Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, Saifuddin Kichalu, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Mohammad Ali and Maulana Shaukat Ali, Babu Rajendra Prasad, Vallabhbhai Patel and Rangaswamy Iyengar.
