Gandhi Temple at Bhatra makes every one proud

An article on Bhatra Gandhi Temple by  Ajit Nayak   



Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation has a special place in the heart of every Indian but here in a remote village outskirt of the Orissa’s Sambalpur town people remembered him in a very special way. They worshiped his idol in a temple specially constructed and dedicated in his name which is well known as   ”Bhatra Gandhi Mandir”.

  Gandhi temple at Bhatra

Located in the village Bhatra on the national highway 42 near Sambalpur town, the temple attracts people of all walks of life in respective of caste creed and religion who come to bow their heads with respect before the idol of the  ’profounder of Ahimsa’ which symbolizes communal harmony and peace among the people of the region. Here the priest a dalit chants the teaching and writing of the famous personality to aware the coming generation about his life style.

an evening in the temple

“We do not remember him only on the special occasions like most of the people of the country do. But we do prayers twice on every day in the morning and evening with ‘ramdhun’ and we celebrate special programmes on national days in a special way. We also organize health camps cleanliness pragramme and symposium in Gandhian philosophy to educate the local people and youths on the life style of Mahatma Gandhi" the Temple Development committee president Pramod Kumar said.  According to him the temple that symbolizes communal harmony is an attraction for the People of all faiths across the country who visit the place to pay their respect to the great personality who has not only brought independence to the country but also spread a massage of non-violence and brother-hood for the survival of the mankind.  

The temple is the brain-child, Abhimanyu Kumar, former legislature of the Rairakhol constituency who is now   87 years old but still remembers those days which inspired him to take such a bolt step. ” we were forbidden to enter temples in those days as we were considered as’ untouchable’, it pained me like anything. So idea of construction of a temple for my community was cropped up in 1971 when I became the member of the Legislative Assembly. I decided to dedicate the temple to the man who tried to abolish ‘untouchability’ during his whole life”, Abhimanyu Kumar recalled his memory. “With the help of than-revenue minister Brajamohan Mohanty and CM Nandini satpathy the temple was constructed and inaugurated in 1974", Kumar said.

 Gandhi with others national leaders  

The priest of the temple Kalia Bagh hails from same community who performed puja every day since the inception of the temple. Now he is getting old but desires to take up the job till his last breath. ''I get peace and solace performing the puja every day so I will continue this till my last breath”, Kalia said.

Meanwhile the Aditya Birla group has taken interest to renovate the temple to make it more attractive. “We are thankful to the company who takes interest to renovate the temple. The company has already brushed the temple with new colour”, President of the development committee said.” It gives immense pleasure to visit the temple” eminent lawyer Sabbir Ahammad said. 

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