JUNE 30, 2019 • THE WEEK 91FOCUS
F
ebruary 22, 1927, is a red letter day in the annals of
the Sharnbasveshwar Samsthan and the history of
Kalaburagi. It was on this great day the Father of the
Nation Mahatma Gandhi for the fi rst time visited the historic
city of Kalaburagi and visited the Sharnbasveshwar Shrine
ravaged by the Razaakars, the private army of the then Nizam
government in Hyderabad province.
It was the mindless attack on the venerable
Sharnbasveshwar Shrine which made Mahatma Gandhi
rush to Kalaburagi to assuage the feelings of the millions
of devotees of Saint Sharnbasveshwar and express his
displeasure to the Nizam government over the attack on the
shrine, hurting the religious sentiments of the majority.
According to the eyewitness accounts recorded and
published in newspapers, Mahatma Gandhi addressed
a mammoth gathering in front of the temple and made an
impassioned appeal to all sections of the people to maintain
communal harmony.
Mahatma Gandhi after going around the shrine and visiting
the sanctum sanctorum, expressed his deep pain at the
desecration and the destruction of the temple and said that
the whole incident did not bring credit to anybody. Without
mincing words he told the gathering that the desecration of
Mahatma Gandhi and the
Sharnbasveshwar Samsthan
the temples cannot be justifi ed in any circumstances.
The Father of the Nation told the gathering that he had read
Quran more than once and also the life of Prophet written
by the late Maulana Shibli, but he could discover no warrant
for such desecration. Mahatma Gandhi also witnessed the
damaged giant bull placed before the shrine during the attack
by the Razaakars.
After paying obeisance to the Saint Sharnbasveshwar at
the Samadhi in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple, which
was not targeted by the marauding Razaakars, Mahatma
Gandhi visited the Dasoha Mahamane—the residence of the
7th Peetadhipathi of the Sharnbasveshwar Samsthan Poojya
Doddappa Appaji and had a detailed discussion with him. The
Father of the Nation also addressed a gathering inside the
Dasoha Mahamane before departing.
The present Peetadhipathi of the samsthan Poojya
Dr. Sharnbaswappa Appaji said that in the fond memory of
the visit of Mahatma Gandhi and his address in the Dasoha
Mahamane, a statue would be erected in the place, where
Mahatma Gandhi addressed the gathering, and a chair
in the name of Mahatma Gandhi would be established in
Sharnbasveshwar University, a private university established
by the Sharnbasveshwar Vidya Vardhak Sangha.