“I Recall Gandhiji’s visit to Baloda Bazar and his public meeting held near Sabzi Mandi. I was a small child then and went to him out of curiosity. Although Baloda Bazar was a small town, huge crowds gathered to see the Mahatma,” recalled 98-year-old Bhagwati Prasad Gupta, the only survivor of the area who had seen Gandhi during his “Harijan” tour.
Gandhiji drank water drawn by “Harijans” from a well in the vegetable market and made it accessible to “Harijans” from 25 November 1933. This well is now not only in poor condition, but there is not even a small signboard describing it. Gandhiji’s visit.
Baloda Bazar (now a district) was earlier known as Bail and Bauda (bull and buffalo). Being a famous animal market, it was named Baloda Bazar. It is about 70 km north of Raipur, the capital of present Chhattisgarh. Gandhiji also announced the opening of a private temple of Gopalji for “Harijans”, saying that the temple had become a true abode of God with the entry of “Harijans”.
There is no memoir of Gandhiji’s historic visit to the temple, but Vijay Kesarwani, a lawyer from Baloda Bazar, shared an old photograph of his freedom fighter father, Shri Raghunath Prasad Kesarwani, inaugurating the temple. The priest proudly told that since the inauguration of this temple by Gandhiji, any person can enter the temple irrespective of caste. Established in 1882, the temple is now maintained by Rama Krishna Acharya, son of Shatrughan Dasji, who invited Gandhiji to open his own private temple for “Harijans”.
a long trip
Gandhiji began his nine-month “Harijan” tour on November 7, 1933, from Wardha. After visiting some places in Maharashtra, he reached Raipur on 22 November, visited Durg, Dhamtari, Rajim, Baloda Bazar and Bilaspur and left for Amgaon in Maharashtra on 27 November. During his busy six-day tour, Gandhi addressed several public meetings, collected funds, and opened wells and temples for “Harijans”.
On the invitation of Bharatdasji and Mahant Laxminarayandasji, Gandhiji reached “Jaitu Saav Math” located in the old township of Raipur on 24th November and opened Bharatdasji’s private temple for “Harijans”. Gandhiji addressed the audience and opened the well for “Harijans” after drinking some water from it.
Uma Devi established this monastery in 1887 in memory of her husband Jaitu Saav. Ajay Tiwari, the trustee and caretaker of this math, revealed that the math had become a center of political activities since 1921 regarding the freedom movement. Most of these doors were now closed by stealth during police raids.
Mr. Tiwari further said that since the arrival of Gandhiji, the temple has been freely visited by members of all communities. Although the hall where Gandhiji addressed the audience has been renovated, the words “Gandhi Bhavan” are inscribed on the top of one of its walls.
Most of Gandhiji’s tour was in a car driven by Shri Hazarilalji Jain, a freedom fighter from Dhamtari, which was then a division of Raipur. His 81-year-old son Vijay Prakash Jain revealed that he learned driving and mechanic work when his father went underground in Nagpur during the freedom struggle. Being close to veteran freedom fighter Ravi Shankar Shukla, the then 23-year-old Hazarilal was selected to drive Gandhiji’s entire “Harijan” tour of Chhattisgarh.
Dr. Jain shared a three-page handwritten note describing some interesting incidents from Gandhiji’s visit to Chhattisgarh. The note states that Gandhiji addressed the women, and asked them to remove untouchability and treat everyone as God’s children. He visited the Harijan locality and received the fruits arranged by Charan Satnami. Gandhiji was very happy to see the cleanliness of the locality.
The note also mentions the photograph of Gandhiji along with Mr. Hazarilal. Photographer D’Costa had stopped the car to take a picture of Gandhiji. As soon as the car stopped, Gandhiji said, “Why don’t Jains drive the car?” Mr. Hazarilal replied, “Photographer de Costa wants to take your picture.” Pointing to Hazarilal, Gandhiji said, “I have enough, take that.” Dr. Jain lovingly showed an old photograph of 1933, on which D’Costa Studio was written, in which Mahatma Gandhi, Mahadev Desai, Pt. Ravi Shankar Shukla, Hazarilal Jain and others. When contacted Savio de Costa, grandson of the photographer, revealed that he little remembers that his grandfather owned two cars and one of them was used for Gandhiji’s visit in 1933.
(The author is a former Special DGP, Chhattisgarh. He recently did a post graduation course in ‘Gandhi and Peace Studies’ from IGNOU)
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