It is easy to overlook the presence of a statue of Mahatma Gandhi and a tiny adjoining plot of land on the Kamarajar Salai here, which holds a significant place in the history of India’s freedom struggle.
The place known as Gandhi Pottal, where Gandhi made the first public address after giving up his traditional attire for loincloth during his visit to Madurai in September 1921, has now become a nondescript spot crossed by thousands of people on the busy road daily.
The location of a dust bin placed by Madurai Corporation just few metres away and the non-maintenance of the piece of land located behind the statue, which is supposed to be a garden, had only worsened the situation.
However, the place is getting a facelift with the members of Vaa Naanba, a volunteers collective in the city, pitching in over the last two Sundays to clean up the place and paint the wall behind the place, which is the boundary wall of the Madurai Corporation-run maternity hospital, with paintings of Gandhi and his famous charkha .
“Many members of our team were highlighting the need for cleaning up this historically important place as part of our weekly volunteering activity. So a group of us started the work last Sunday,” said M.C. Saravanan, one of the coordinators of the group.
According to him, the group cleared the garbage present in the small piece of land near the statue and instead planted saplings of different tree species last Sunday. “We also noticed that the wall located closely behind it was full of posters and people also urinated nearby. Our experience so far has shown that once you decorate a wall with paintings, people stop abusing it. Hence, we painted it it this Sunday,” he said.
A. Rahman, another coordinator of the group, said that they have also planned to put up a board detailing the significance of the place. “We want to beautify the place so that it gets the attention of the people at least during Gandhi Jayanthi this year,” he added.
