SHIVAPURA: If you are travelling from Bengaluru to Mysuru by road, you cannot miss the mega Shivapura Soudha right next to the highway with the Tricolour flying on top. Though hundreds of people go past the landmark every day, what many don’t know is the crucial role this village played in the country’s freedom struggle.
In 1938, soon after the Congress convention at Haripura in Gujarat that was presided over by Subhas Chandra Bose, people from the then Mysuru State were inspired to hold a similar convention in Mysuru and to hoist the national flag, which was banned by the British. The Mysuru administration, sensing trouble, issued orders banning any public meetings or gatherings to stop Dhwaja Satyagraha -- the movement to hoist the flag.
The then president of Indian Congress from Mysuru State, T Siddalingaiah, and others had initially planned to hoist the flag at Nanjangud or Srirangapatna as people could reach these towns easily because of good rail connectivity. But when some local residents raised concerns, a young HK Veeranna Gowda offered to organise the event and to hoist the national flag at Shivapura.
Proceeding with the plan, Veeranna sought the help of Thirumale Gowda, an excise contractor and landlord at Shivapura. Thirumale Gowda, who did not associate himself with either the British or the Mysuru administration, agreed to host freedom fighters. “Veeranna Gowda, along with his wife, toured outside the Mysuru province till Ballari to invite people to take part in Dhwaja Satyagraha,” BR Srinivasa Murthy, an octogenarian and a close associate of Veeranna Gowda, told The New Sunday Express.
The organisers had chosen a 60-foot-tall arecanut tree to be used as a flagpole which had to be chopped and carried from a nearby village. As the organisers did not want the tree trunk to touch the ground which would have meant dishonouring it, they carried it on three bullock carts.
The ceremony was fixed for 9 am on April 9, 1938, and the flag was to be hoisted by Siddalingaiah. But on that day, Mysuru police took him into custody. MN Jois, who too was attending the event, pulled the string, unfurling the flag exactly at 9 am.
“The freedom fighters wanted to hoist the flag for three days, but the ceremony continued for many more days as a large number of people came to see the flag. Women sat around the flagpole protecting it, while 600 policemen were stationed at the spot,’’ Murthy said.
Thirumale Gowda’s help came as a blessing for freedom fighters as he gave nine acres of his land to hold the flaghoisting ceremony.
He also let his residence to be used as an office by the organisers, and his bungalow with many rooms accommodated a large number of women coming from different parts of the State. The bungalow that was built in 1919 still stands strong.
Hardly a few people who witnessed the historic moment are a l ive today. Bhadrayya, who is 93 years old, is one of them. He was just 10 when the Dwaja Satyagraha was held. He recollects that there were at least 10,000 people from different parts of Mysuru State and country taking part in the flag-hoisting ceremony.
“I was a little boy and I was happy to see so many people in our village. The elders in our village told us to chant Ene Barali Oggattirali (let us stand united come what may) and we would get mithai (sweets) from them. One day, as we were shouting the slogan, the police rounded us up and left us near Maddur canal. We all walked back to the village,’’ he recalled.
The Shivapura Soudha to commemorate the historic event was inaugurated on September 26, 1979.