When Mahatma Gandhi sought comfort in Bengaluru's weather

Gandhi Nilaya 

In early 1927, when 57-year-old Mahatma Gandhi collapsed at his spinning wheel, the whole country fretted and worried. The cause was a mild stroke, doubtless brought on by incessant travel, overwork and very high blood pressure.

Gandhiji’s doctors prescribed complete rest but that didn’t stop him from travelling to Bombay and then to Amboli in Maharashtra. In early April, his doctor Jivaraj Mehta (later the first Chief Minister of Gujarat) advised him strongly once again not to exert himself too much and to avoid the heat.

Gandhiji was loath to “vegetate” as he put it, but agreed to move to “Bangalore or some such place” where he could continue working without taxing himself unduly. And so it was decided that he would recuperate in Nandi Hills.

There were five bungalows on Nandi Hills at that time. The grandest of them was Cubbon’s bungalow which was close to the highest point on the hill.

A little distance away, at the north-east corner of the hill, was a bungalow built by Francis Cunningham, private secretary to Mark Cubbon, and brother of Alexander Cunningham, who established the Archaeological Survey of India; Bengaluru’s Cunningham Road is named after him. This simple 4-bedroom bungalow, built in about 1848, had a fine view, looking out as it did onto the village of Nandi and Chikkaballapur in the distance. Being a little isolated from the other residences, Cunningham Lodge, also called Oaklands, was one of the quietest spots on Nandi Hills. This was the bungalow where Gandhi stayed as an honoured guest of the Mysore State.

Gandhiji reached Nandi Hills on April 19. Since he was extremely weak, he was carried up from Sultanpet in a doli. Knowing his preference for goats’ milk, the local administration arranged for goats to be kept on the hill and milked for him. Though he was often too weak to sit, Gandhiji continued with his correspondence and also wrote several articles for Young India, sometimes dictating them while he lay down. But Nandi Hills gradually worked its magic and slowly, Gandhiji revived.

His blood pressure returned to normal and by early June, he was well enough to leave Nandi Hills for Bengaluru, where he spent a few weeks in Kumara Park. Nine years later, Gandhiji was back at Nandi Hills. This time, he said, he was merely accompanying Sardar Vallabhai Patel who had fallen ill and needed rest: “It may be that this time I may have to act as jailor to him [Sardar Patel] because it is for his recuperation rather than mine that I am going to Nandi Hills.”

The party comprising Gandhiji, Kasturba and some of their grandnieces and grandnephews, Sardar Patel and his daughter Manibehn, and a few others, arrived at Nandi Hills on May 10, 1936. Keeping in mind Gandhiji’s poor health, Diwan Mirza Ismail had kept men with dolis ready for the climb at Sultanpet. But this time, Gandhiji refused to be carried and instead walked up the hill.

Second sojourn

As before, Gandhiji kept up his usual correspondence and writing during his second sojourn at Nandi Hills. Morning and evening prayer meetings were conducted and a good number of people attended. He also had several distinguished visitors including C V Raman who came to meet him along with Lady Raman and Gilbert Rahm, a German biologist.

Gandhiji and his group stayed till May 31. As before, the peaceful environs soothed and resuscitated everyone. “The air is beautiful. The calmness is divine,” Gandhiji wrote to Rajkumari Amrit Kaur. “No cars or carts or even rickshaws. Only 30 families can live here comfortably. More are not allowed. I do not know a more secluded, cleaner, quieter hill. Sardar [Patel] is in raptures over the stillness.”

Oaklands, renamed as Gandhi Nilaya, now has a bust of Gandhiji installed in front in memory of his stay here. The building itself has been modernised and almost no feel of the old bungalow remains. Happily, the stillness that Gandhiji and Sardar Patel so appreciated can still be found on Nandi Hills, at least in some pockets. In February 1948, a portion of the ashes of the Father of the Nation was immersed in the pond called Amrita Sarova in Nandi Hills.

(The writer is convenor of INTACH Bengaluru Chapter and the author of Discovering Bengaluru)