Inquilab zindabad! The freedom struggle in Bengaluru

Walk the streets of Cubbonpet in Bengaluru, and you will find your feet trying to match the rhythms of the power looms that churn out sarees in every other house here. Dial back to the 1920s, and you might have heard a different clickety-clack — the sound of small printing presses churning out pamphlets. At a time when only elites and officials had telephones and television had not yet been dreamt of, these pamphlets were indispensable to the freedom movement. Hundreds were distributed to mobilise people for upcoming campaigns, meetings and protests.

The area around Cubbonpet was, in many ways, the nucleus of the freedom struggle in Bengaluru. Many a secret meeting took place in houses here. Because this half of the city was under the Mysore Maharaja’s rule, it was easier to convene political meetings here rather than under the nose of the British in north or coastal Karnataka. This meant that the planning for campaigns to be held elsewhere in Karnataka often happened in Bengaluru.

But Bengaluru was not just the back end for struggles in other parts of the state. Mahatma Gandhi’s first visit to Bengaluru in May 1915 was a huge impetus to the yearning for freedom here. During his first visit, and his second five years later, Gandhiji spoke much about khadi. In later visits, he also spoke eloquently about Hindu-Muslim unity and against untouchability. Hundreds attended these meetings, which were held in grounds, houses and schools in the city and in the Bangalore Civil and Military Station (Bangalore Cantonment). The 1924 Congress meet in Belagavi was a further fillip to the freedom movement in the state, and in Bengaluru.

Strong resistance

Discontent with the British yoke found expression in protests, frequent student rallies and the picketing of shops selling foreign cloth. The many visits to the city by British royalty and senior officials from Delhi, such as the Viceroy, also attracted boycotts in both, the Civil and Military Station and the Maharaja-administered parts of the city. For example, there was a call to boycott the Prince of Wales’ visit in 1922, which rattled the British authorities.

A final point of inflection in Bengaluru was when K F Nariman, President of the Bombay Provincial Congress Committee, was invited to speak in Bengaluru in 1937. The Mysore government banned him from addressing gatherings. But on October 24, Nariman defied the ban and took to the stage at Banappa Park, where a huge crowd of mostly students had gathered to listen to him.

Half an hour into the speech, the police arrived and arrested Nariman. There was immediate pandemonium. Passions ran high and stones were thrown at the police, who in turn lathi-charged the crowd. The next day, students gathered in Government Arts College and marched down the road, protesting Nariman’s arrest. More stone throwing and lathi charges followed, and then police opened fire, killing one student and injuring 73 others.

A modern memorial at Banappa Park commemorates this landmark event in the freedom struggle in Bengaluru.

Quit India movement

The Quit India movement also saw huge participation. Gandhiji announced the movement on August 8, 1942. The very next day, huge crowds gathered in Mysore Bank Square, as it was known then. A large contingent of policemen, some mounted on horses, stood by, watching the crowd nervously. Freedom fighter H S Doreswamy has been quoted in Freedom Fighters Remember describing what happened next: “There was an old man wearing a Gandhi cap. He was desperate to do something. Finally, he took off his cap, kept it on the ground and addressed it, ‘Gandhi, inge okkarada (sit here!)’ and pelted a stone at the police. Then the crowd, the police, the lancers, everybody went into action, and thus began Quit India Movement in Bangalore.”

For the next few days, Mysore Bank Square filled with thousands and the air was full of slogans: “Quit India! Inquilab Zindabad!” But on August 17, some people set fire to the Aralepete post office and attacked a police station. The police opened fire, six people died and more than 30 were injured.

In 1972, a memorial was erected at Mysore Bank Circle next to the Shanishwara temple in memory of some of those who lost their lives in the struggle for freedom in Bengaluru.

Though there was tragic loss of life, the city's freedom struggle was a mass movement which was largely peaceful. Students and workers were at the forefront of protests and thousands regularly came out onto the streets. Hundreds of others supported them in many ways.

As we celebrate our 75th year of freedom, let us also celebrate the other nameless heroes who spun and sold khadi, printed and distributed leaflets, attended meetings, raised funds for campaigns, organised talks on unity, sheltered political activists and worked to eradicate untouchability, so that India could be free.

(Meera Iyer is the author of Discovering Bengaluru and the Convenor of INTACH Bengaluru Chapter.)