Another October rolls around, and with it, another birth anniversary of the Mahatma. Which gives us the perfect opportunity to talk about him; specifically, to tell the story of how, and when, Gandhi first visited Bangalore.
Among the Indian royals who had donated generously to the cause through the incorruptible Natesan was Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar of Mysore. Naturally, when the Mysorean writer, poet, philosopher, and ardent Gokhale follower DV Gundappa (DVG) invited Gandhi to Bangalore to unveil a portrait of Gokhale and launch the Mysore Social Service League, he could not refuse. When they did, pandemonium broke out. A gaily decorated horse carriage belonging to the president of the Bangalore Municipality, KP Puttanna Chetty, had been organised to transport the honoured guests. Enthusiastic young men even unhitched the horses and yoked themselves to the carriage instead. Gandhi demurred, asking how far his lodgings, at the Ananda Rao Circle home of a prominent Bangalore judge, were. The same evening, Gandhi attended a grand public function organised by the Bangalore Municipality at the Lalbagh Glass House to felicitate him. The busy day ended with a meeting with the Mysore Diwan Sir M Visvesvaraya.
On January 21, 1914, the Gandhi-Smuts Agreement, which settled the long struggle over the rights of Indian immigrants in South Africa, was signed, bringing a satisfactory end to Gandhi’s unconventional, non-violent, 20-year resistance against the South African government. Six months later, on June 26, the Indian Relief Act became part of South African law, allowing Gandhi to finally heed his mentor, the Indian political leader and social reformer Gopal Krishna Gokhale, and return home to join the Indian National Congress’ efforts towards self-governance. Natesan, who in 1909 had founded the Indian South Africa League, an Indian initiative to support the struggles of immigrant Indians in South Africa with both money and advocacy, was by this time a close associate of Gandhi. That portrait hangs today at the Gokhale Institute of Public Affairs, founded by DVG in 1945.
Because natesan, who had accompanied them, was quite unwell) at the Bangalore Railway Station, the reception committee did not at first recognize the simply dressed couple, on the morning of May 8, when Gandhi and Kasturba alighted from the first-class compartment (they had only travelled first class.
“Half a mile,” came the reply. Later that morning, at the Collegiate High School (today the Government Arts College on Nrupathunga Road), Gandhi unveiled Gokhale’s portrait.
