Karnataka > Gandhi in Karnataka (1927)
Meanwhile, Gandhi undertook the Khadi campaign tour in 1927. As a part of it he visited Nippani (31st March) and in the course of it he fell ill with a slight paralysis stroke. On the doctor's advise, (1st April) he left Belgaum to Amboli for rest. But, being unsatisfied there, he left for Nandi via Belgaum on 19th April and reached Nandi on 20-04-1927. In Nandi he rested for 45 days (20-4-1927 to 05-6-1927) and reached Bangalore via Chikballapur on 5th June 1927, where he stayed upto 30-8-1927. During his long stay at Bangalore he made brief trips to Yelahanka (2-7-1927), Tumkur and Madhugiri (14th to 16th), Mysore, KRS, K.R. Nagar and Srirangapattana and returned to Mysore (23rd July); Ramanagar and Kanakapura (31st July and 1st August); Arasikere (2nd August); Holenarasipur and Hassan(2nd and 4th August); Davangere (12th August); Harihara, Honnali and Malebennur (13th August); Shimoga (14th and 15th);Ayyanuru, Kumshi, Choradi, Ananthpur and Sagar (16th August); Thirthalli, Mandagadde, Gajanur and halted at Shimoga (17th August); Bhadravathi, Kadur and Birur (18th August); Chikmagalur (19th August); Belur, Halebid and Arasikere (20th August) ultimately left Bangalore for Vellore on 30-8-1927.
Later, the Civil Disobedience Movement launched by Gandhiji in 1930, began in Karnataka with Salt Sathyagraha at Ankola, followed by various programmes of law breaking like Jungle Sathyagraha, Picketing of liquor shops, Non-payment of Pasture Tax (hullubanni) and finally No-Tax Campaign when peasants refused to pay land revenue. Over 2,000 people courted arrest in the British districts, Belgaum District's quota being the biggest i.e., 750. The movement was resumed in 1932 after the nine-months lull following the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, with greater vigour. The No-Tax Campaign launched in Siddapura and Ankola taluks was an epic struggle. The lands of over 800 families were confiscated and 1000 people went to jail in Uttara Kannada alone; among them were one hundred women, and most of them were illiterate and even conservative widows with shaven heads. They got their lands back only in 1939, and till then they suffered in silence.
Programmes and propaganda to eradicate Untouchability were launced in Karnataka, when Gandhiji undertook a fast over the issue in 1932. The highlights of the programme was to make the Harijans to enter the Marikamba Temple of Sirsi and the Basavangudi of Bangalore. Gandhiji also toured Karnataka as a part of his programme of upliftment of Harijans in 1934 and 1936. By then, Harijan Sevak Sangh's Karnataka unit was founded with Sardar Veeranagauda Patil as the President.
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