HYDERABAD: There is an interesting story behind the mango tree that has grown profusely at Golden Threshold on Nampally station road in Hyderabad, once the residence of Nightingale of India Sarojini Naidu. The tree was planted by Mahatma Gandhi during his visit to Hyderabad on March 9, 1934.
Gandhiji loved the mango plant very much and he used to take it in a pot with him wherever he went. He loved it because it was the plant which had grown from the seed of a mango fruit which he ate when he was in Yeerawada prison near Pune about 18 months earlier.
When he saw the plant growing from the seed, he took good care of it and when he was finally released from the prison, he took it along with him. On his visit to Hyderabad on March 9, 1934, he brought the plant along with him. After alighting from the train, he drove to Sarojini Naidu’s residence at Golden Threshold from where he went about the city visiting several places and addressed a huge public meeting at Karbala in Secunderabad in the evening.
Before leaving for the public meeting, Gandhiji decided that the plant would grow better in natural soil and decided that Golden Threshold was the best place and planted the tree on the premises. The tree now has now grown fully and stands as testimony to Gandhiji’s love for nature.
Gandhiji visited Hyderabad four times, the last visit being on March 9, 1934. The last visit was important not only for the historic Karbala public meeting where he spoke at length on the need for eradication of untouchability and one at Vivekavardini School but also for the generosity of children and the poorest of the poor in contributing their mite for the national movement.
When Gandhi got down from the train at Lingampally on March 9 as advised, since a huge crowd had gathered at Nampally station to see him, a small girl pushed others aside and went very close to him. She removed her anklets and donated them to him. At the same time, a destitute woman, in torn clothes, forced her way to Gandhiji and shouting Lokrakshaka, donated him `1. Similarly, another poor woman donated him two annas. Gandhiji was very much impressed by their gesture as they had given him what all they had with them.
Whenever Gandhiji visited Hyderabad, donations used to pour in. On April 6, 1929, when he arrived in Hyderabad along with his wife Kasturba, there was a rousing reception waiting or him. When he got down at Secunderabad railway station, thousands gathered there and welcomed him. Later he went to Viveka Vardhini School, where, in a matter of hours, donations of `15,000 had poured in for use for the national movement. At Prema Theatre where he addressed about 3,000 women, a donation of `639, 14 annas and two paise was collected. Even before his last visit to Hyderabad in 1934, the administration was very much apprehensive of his visit. The Nizam administration wrote to the police member, who was a representative of the British Raj, to allow Mahatma Gandhi since obstructing the programme would be counter-productive. The issue even went to the Legislative Council where it had been decided to allow only public meeting and that too the subject of his speech should be confined to the upliftment of nimnajatulu (Harijans). That was the influence that Gandhiji had wielded in Telangana.
By K Jitendra Babu, director Deccan Archaeological and Cultural Research Institute as told to R Pridhvi Raj