Page 13 - seniors today August issue

With Gandhiji’s help and blessings the Maharao 1948, Gandhiji received a telegram from Father
of Kutch granted Pratap Dialdas vast acres of
land alongside miles of unspoilt coastline – to
build the tri-city – Gandhidham, Adipur and
Kandla – as well as Kandla Port, which has
become today India’s premier port and vies with
the best in the world. Not many are aware that a
small jetty port build by the Maharao’s ancestor
Khengarji III, in 1930s was developed into a
major port by Bhai Pratap –to replicate and
outdo the Karachi port lost to India, at Partition.
Unfortunately the sufferings of the migrant
Sindhi population didn’t end with their entry
into independent India –where they were
treated as refugees and denied residency and
citizenship. It’s only when Sindhi stalwarts like
Choitram Gidwani and the young firebrand
lawyer Ram Jethmalani fought the new
government to get the draconian Refugees Act
nullified, that the Sindhis got full rights of
citizenship in India.
The Fateful Bullet
Bhai Pratap started the work on the New
Sindh soon after partition. On 30 January
13 Bhai Pratap & Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurrating the Kandla Port in 1952
saying the work on the tri-city and port was
ready to begin on the vast desert scrublands
and coastlines of Kutch. Bapu was overjoyed
and assured his friend that he would come to
Kutch soon. But destiny had other plans…The
Mahatma was struck down by an assassin’s
bullet and killed on the same fateful day. Father
was shell-shocked, struck dumb so to speak.
He attended the funeral dry-eyed and collected
the ashes of Gandhiji to bring them to Kutch.
After the 12-day mourning period was over,
he began work on the task of building the
tri-city, hence 12 February 1948 is celebrated
as Gandhidham day. Few people know what
a beautiful Gandhi Samadhi exists in the
township here, apart from the one in Delhi - on
it, Gandhiji’s last words are inscribed – ‘Hey
Ram’.
The inception of the work also saw the birth
of the Sindhu Resettlement Corporation
(SRC) – the company founded by father for the
resettlement of refugees and the construction of
the new Sindh. ‘Sindhu’ is the Sanskrit name of
the River Indus in Pakistan and was meant to
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