The completion of one hundred years since Mahatma Gandhi’s first visit to the land of Anga was not merely an occasion to remember the past. The three-day national commemorative programme, held in Bhagalpur from 7 to 9 August 2026, sought to connect Gandhi’s memory with history, ideas, folk culture and the realities of contemporary social life. Organised jointly by the Gandhi Peace Foundation Centre, Bhagalpur, and the Mahatma Gandhi Arrival Centenary Celebration Committee, the programme brought together Gandhian thinkers, educationists, researchers, students, social workers and citizens.
The most important question before the gathering was a deceptively simple one: A century later, is Gandhi merely a memory preserved in monuments and commemorative ceremonies, or does he still possess the moral force to illuminate public life?
The programme opened with an interfaith prayer, the lighting of the ceremonial lamp and the spinning of the charkha. Floral tributes were offered to Gandhi and the freedom fighters. On the occasion, the centenary volume Mahatma Gandhi’s Arrival: In Anga Pradesh and the Gandhi Encyclopaedia were also released.
The commemorative volume, brought out by the Gandhi Peace Foundation Centre, is much more than a souvenir of an event. It attempts to document the historical, social and intellectual relationship between Gandhi and Anga Pradesh. Its range is particularly noteworthy. Gandhi is not confined to the familiar image of the leader of the freedom movement; the volume examines him through the questions of women’s empowerment, khadi, Gram Swaraj, agriculture, rural distress, de-addiction, communal harmony, education, technology and the environment.
The volume is patronised by Prakash Chandra Gupta and Prof. (Dr.) Manoj Kumar. Dr. Sunil Kumar Agrawal and Prasoon Lataant serve as Chief Editors; Dr. Umesh Prasad Neeraj and Dr. Ravishankar Kumar Chaudhary are on the Editorial Board, while Dr. Sudhir Mandal and Er. Sagar Sharma are the Managing Editors.
Among its contributions, Padma Shri Prof. Ramji Singh brings philosophical depth to the understanding of Gandhi, while Uttam Sinha, former Director of the National Gandhi Museum and Library, New Delhi, places Gandhi’s historical legacy and his association with Anga within a wider national framework. My own contribution, Shubhkaran Babu: A Lifelong Adherence to Bapu’s Vows, seeks to examine Gandhian values through the life of an individual and the test of public morality.
Gandhi Was Not Compulsion, but Moral Strength
The keynote intellectual session featured the distinguished thinker Dr. Purushottam Agrawal. His central argument was that Gandhi succeeded in bringing together the Indian people through the power of truth, non-violence and moral courage.
He observed that Gandhi has sometimes been portrayed as a symbol of compulsion—as though circumstances had compelled people to follow him. History, however, tells a different story. Gandhi possessed neither military power nor state authority. His strength lay in the credibility of his ideas, his moral authority and his extraordinary ability to transform scattered individuals into participants in a mass movement.
Dr. Agrawal emphasised that Gandhi’s greatest contribution was to make the ordinary Indian an active participant in the making of the nation. The struggle for freedom was not, in Gandhi’s conception, the preserve of political leaders or organised parties. Peasants, workers, women, students, artisans and ordinary citizens were all part of it.
That was the distinctive character of Gandhi’s politics. He did not regard the people merely as a crowd to be mobilised; he regarded them as makers of history.
Gandhi Was the Real Hero
Dr. Sujata Chaudhary described Gandhi as the “real hero” and drew attention to a quality increasingly rare in public life: his ability to remain equanimous in both honour and humiliation.
Gandhi did not make popularity his objective. Praise did not intoxicate him, nor did criticism easily dislodge him from his moral ground. His significance therefore extended beyond political leadership. He became a guide to social, ethical and spiritual consciousness.
At a time when disagreement is increasingly treated as personal hostility and criticism as humiliation, Gandhi’s capacity to remain composed in both praise and adversity acquires renewed significance.
Gandhi’s Four Journeys to Bhagalpur
Gandhi’s association with Bhagalpur cannot be reduced to a single visit. He came to the region four times—in 1917, 1920, 1925 and 1934. Viewed together, these visits reveal the evolution and breadth of his social philosophy.
His 1917 visit brought the questions of language and student consciousness to the forefront. At the historic conference of Bihari students at Kathalbari, Gandhi underlined the importance of the mother tongue. His assertion that disregard for one’s mother tongue was akin to disrespecting one’s mother was not merely rhetorical. For Gandhi, language was a foundation of self-respect and cultural confidence.
The 1920 visit was associated with the expansion of the Non-Cooperation Movement. At the meeting at Tilla Kothi, Gandhi spoke of Satyagraha and non-violence. For him, injustice could never be defeated by reproducing injustice.
His 1925 visit was marked by an emphasis on communal harmony and social reform. He spoke of Hindu-Muslim unity, the abolition of untouchability and freedom from oppressive social conventions. Swaraj, in Gandhi’s understanding, meant not merely liberation from British rule but liberation from injustice within Indian society itself.
In 1934, following the devastating Bihar earthquake, Gandhi came to the region in connection with relief work and the campaign for the uplift of those then described as Harijans. He transformed relief into an opportunity for social reconstruction. Disaster, for him, was not merely the destruction of buildings and roads; it was also a moment when society was called upon to examine its own moral condition.
When Gandhi Sang Again through the Folk
The cultural dimension of the centenary became one of its most memorable aspects. Folk singer Chandan Tiwari presented songs associated with Gandhi, including Vaishnav Jan To Tene Kahiye, Charakhwa Chalu Rahe and Piya Mat Ja Purabwa Ke Deswa.
Her performance was significant because she did not merely place Gandhi upon a stage; she brought before the audience the Gandhi preserved within folk memory. The charkha became a symbol of labour, self-reliance and dignity, while the folk melodies evoked the often-overlooked participation of women in the freedom movement.
She also sang a piercing folk composition that addresses Gandhi as though he were still alive and asks him to witness the condition of the country:
“Sir phootat hau, gala katat hau, lahu bahat hau, Gandhi ji,
Des bantat hau, jaise hardi dhan bantat hau, Gandhi ji.”
The song is not a conventional tribute. It is an indictment. In the earthy language of the people, it attacks violence, caste divisions, corruption, favouritism, dishonesty, ritualistic religiosity and political opportunism.
One line is particularly devastating:
“Janata bade jayanti babu, neta bade nishana hauvai.”
(The people get an anniversary celebration; the politician gets a target.)
The folk voice thus turns Gandhi remembrance into self-interrogation. When the folk addresses Gandhi in complaint, it is, in fact, questioning society itself.
From Rasool Miyan to Chandan Tiwari
The story of Gandhi’s presence in folk memory remains incomplete without Rasool Miyan. After Gandhi’s assassination, his deeply moving Bhojpuri song expressed the grief of a people who had not experienced Gandhi merely as a national leader but as someone emotionally close to them.
History records that Gandhi was assassinated. Folk memory asked, almost like a bereaved family:
“Ke hamra Gandhiji ke goli maral ho...”
Between Rasool Miyan’s lament, Kailash Gautam’s accessible poetic idiom and Chandan Tiwari’s contemporary rendering of Gandhi songs runs a continuous cultural stream.
Chandan Tiwari’s performance in Bhagalpur therefore represented more than a musical interlude. It brought Gandhi out of the pages of history and returned him to the living voice of the people.
The final day included a cleanliness drive, a blood-donation camp, a technical session and a felicitation ceremony. Research scholars presented papers, with Dr. Vijay Kumar, former Head of the Department of Gandhian Thought, as chief guest and Dr. Amit Ranjan Singh, the present Head of the Department, presiding.
The concluding ceremony was attended by MLA Rohit Pandey, physician and social worker Dr. D. P. Singh, Deputy Mayor Dr. Salahuddin Ahsan and others. Social worker Ramtan Churiwala, Rakesh Kumar Mandal and Sanjay Kumar Poddar also made significant contributions to the organisational and ground-level dimensions of the programme.
Yet a Gandhian programme cannot—and should not—be placed beyond criticism. To question an event organised in Gandhi’s name is not to dishonour Gandhi; indeed, it may be more faithful to his tradition of self-examination.
Social activist Gautam Kumar raised questions about the expenditure and tangible outcome of the programme. Such criticism deserves neither dismissal nor personalisation. It should become an occasion for introspection.
If Gandhi’s name is invoked while his Eleven Vows, constructive programme, basic education, Gram Swaraj, dignity of labour, prohibition, communal harmony and social equality remain peripheral, then the purpose of the celebration deserves scrutiny.
Likewise, if Gandhi’s name becomes a vehicle for institutional, personal or political advancement, the practice must be tested against Gandhi’s own ethical standards. Reports or allegations concerning caste-based symbolism, private interests, financial irregularities or the political use of a commemorative platform require factual examination rather than rhetorical accusation. But one principle should remain non-negotiable: an institution invoking Gandhi must be held to a higher standard of transparency and public morality, not a lower one.
From Bhagalpur to Young India: Gandhi’s Warning
The deeper significance of Gandhi’s 1925 visit becomes clearer when viewed alongside what followed. On 22 October 1925, shortly after his Bhagalpur visit, Gandhi published in Young India his famous formulation of the “Seven Social Sins”:
- Politics without principle.
- Wealth without work.
- Pleasure without conscience.
- Knowledge without character.
- Commerce without morality.
- Science without humanity.
- Worship without sacrifice.
These were not abstract moral aphorisms. They were warnings about the gradual corrosion of public life.
A century later, the questions remain painfully contemporary.
- Is politics still anchored in principle?
- Does wealth bear a relationship to labour?
- Does knowledge produce character?
- Can commerce retain public trust without morality?
- Can science advance without humanity?
- Can religion retain its moral force without sacrifice?
These questions give the Bhagalpur centenary a significance far beyond commemoration.
The Real Meaning of a Centenary
A hundred years ago, Gandhi came to Anga and spoke not merely against British rule but against fear, social discrimination, communal hatred, intellectual dependence and moral weakness.
Gandhi is easy to remember. It is much harder to measure ourselves by Gandhi. And that may be the most important message emerging from a century of Gandhi in Anga: his memory should not end with a celebration; it should begin a conversation with our conscience.
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*Senior journalist
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