The memorable visit of Mahatma Gandhi in the year 1927 to the Sharanabasaveshwar Shrine and Kalaburagi and the historic meeting of the Father of the Nation with the seventh Peetadhipathi of the Sharnabasaveshwar Samsthan Poojya Doddappa Appa will be celebrated to mark the centenary year of the visit during 2026-27 on a grand scale, Vice-Chancellor of Sharnbasva University Anilkumar Bidve has said.
Speaking after paying tributes to Mahatma Gandhi and the former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri to commemorate their birth anniversaries at Sharnbasva University here on Wednesday, Prof. Bidve said that the visit of Mahatma Gandhi back in 1927 to the shrine and his meeting with Poojya Doddappa Appa are very special occasion for the samsthan and the entire region.
After an attack on Sharnbasaveshwar Shrine by forces of the then ruler of the Hyderabad Province Nizam in 1924, Mahatma Gandhi, who was then in Belagavi to participate in the AICC session, deputed his two confidants to visit Kalaburagi to have first-hand information about the attack.
The Hindu, in its edition of September 4, 1924, reported that Mahatma Gandhi, expressing his anguish and shock over the attack on the shrine, wrote about the incident in Young India, edited by himself, Prof. Bidve recalled.
Prof. Bidve noted that Gandhi on his own volition came to Kalaburagi on February 22, 1927 to pay his obeisance to Lord Sharnabasaveshwar and console Poojya Doddappa Appa for the loss suffered in the attack on the shrine in 1924.
After addressing the devotees on the sprawling complex of the shrine and expressing his condemnation of the attack, Gandhi called on Poojya Doddappa Appa and consoled him.
He said that both Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri were ideal leaders of the country who practiced in their life what they preached and followed a simple life till their last breath.
Published – October 02, 2024 07:58 pm IST
