I was in Mysore Palace on Oct2nd, the guide's explaination raised our eyebrow to the backside of our head!!! such was the facts and facts of that lavish beautiful palace.
As our Father of Nation - Guru of simplicity, how he would have reacted to these Kings and Maharaja's..this speech was the answere...
On the occasion of the opening of the Banaras Hindu University. Lord Hardinge, the Viceroy, had come specially to lay the foundation-stone of the University. To protect his life extra precautions were taken by the police. They were omnipresent and all houses along the route were guarded. Banaras was, so to say, in a state of siege.
Eminent persons from all over India had come. Many of them delivered addresses. On February 4, 1916 it was Gandhiji’s turn to address the audience, mostly consisting of impressionable youths. A galaxy of princes, bedecked and bejeweled, had occupied the dias. The Maharaja of Darbhanga was in the chair.
Gandhiji who was clad in a short, coarse dhoti, Kathiawadi cloak and turban rose to speak. The police precautions and the luxury around him hurt him deeply. Turning to the audience, Gandhiji said that he wanted to think audibly-speak without reserve:
Sir, whenever I hear of a great palace rising in any great city of India, be it in British India or be it in India which is ruled by our great chiefs, I become jealous at once, and say, “Oh, it is the money that has come from the agriculturists.”
And I feel like saying to these noble men, “There is no salvation for India unless you strip yourselves of this jewellery and hold it in trust for your countrymen in India.” I am sure it is not the desire of the King-Emperor or Lord Hardinge that in order to show the truest loyalty to our King-Emperor, it is necessary for us to ransack our jewellery boxes and to appear bedecked from top to toe. I would undertake, at the peril of my life, to bring to you a message from King George himself that he excepts nothing of the kind.
This has made some of the kings to leave the stage at that time...
2 comments:
hv never seen the Mysore palace with the lights on....should do it sometime....amybe during Dussehra.
@kaps. Yes thats the right time to catch up.
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