4 min readPatnaAug 3, 2026 07:20 AM IST
In his address to a conference of students in the silk city of Bhagalpur on October 15, 1917, Mahatma Gandhi made a stirring speech on the purpose of education, the duties of students, language, and national service.
“You have as it were chained me to you by inviting me to preside over this session of the Students’ Conference,” he told the crowd. “For 25 years, I have been in close contact with students… They show me unbounded love. By inviting me to preside over this meeting today and permitting me to speak in Hindi and conduct the proceedings, too, in Hindi, you, students, have given me evidence of your love,” he said.
The speech, which came six months after Gandhi’s Champaran Satyagraha, is among the various aspects of his connection with Bihar’s Bhagalpur that the Gandhi Peace Foundation is celebrating this year. A three-day foundation day event from August 7 to 9 will be held to honour this connection and will discuss various facets of Gandhian thought: from the contemporary relevance of civil disobedience to truth, non-violence, and moral courage.
This comes nine years after Bihar celebrated the centenary of Gandhi’s iconic Champaran Satyagraha.
“The fact that the country is still actively discussing Gandhi shows the enduring relevance of the man,” Prasun Latant, a Gandhian scholar and convenor of the Mahatma Gandhi Ayojan Samiti, told The Indian Express. Latant is one of the organisers.
He added: “We have seen clear reflections of Gandhian methods in the recent protests at Jantar Mantar, and the way climate activist Sonam Wangchuk noted that Gandhi would stay relevant till eternity demonstrates how Gandhi’s idea of civil disobedience is powerful and remains at the core of any peaceful democratic protest.”
The Bhagalpur link
Gandhi’s connection to Bhagalpur is deep: he visited the city four times between 1917 and 1934, each trip marking a crucial milestone in the freedom struggle and social reform.
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The first was the 1917 speech at what is now Lajpat Park, then land owned by barrister and freedom fighter Deep Narayan Singh. Next, he visited the city in 1920 to express solidarity with the Swadeshi Movement.
His third visit to the city came in 1925. The visit, which coincided with his 56th birthday, was different from his previous visits: it highlighted Gandhi’s “constructive programme”—the social and economic work he believed was essential for self-rule. While promoting khadi and social reform, Gandhi also addressed a women’s conference, where he advocated women’s active participation in the freedom movement.
His last visit to the city was in 1934, when he helped with relief after the devastating Nepal–Bihar earthquake that killed over 7,000 in India and 8,000 in Nepal.
Gandhi’s Bhagalpur visits are documented in the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (Gandhi Wangmay, Volumes 14, 19, 28, and 57). They also find mention in Gandhi’s autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, and in his secretary Mahadev Desai’s detailed diaries.
Celebrating Gandhi
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The three-day event will include a keynote lecture by noted litterateur and author Purushottam Agrawal, an archival exhibition on Gandhi’s life, and a recital of “Gandhi Sangeet” by popular folk singer Chandan Tiwari.
While the first visit coincided with the Champaran Satyagraha celebrations, the second in 2020 could not be observed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are now celebrating his legacy by weaving together a rich bouquet of functions on Gandhi’s ideals,” Gandhian scholar Latant said.