Mahatma Gandhi's powerful speech that raised patriotic pitch in Gorakhpur

GORAKHPUR: It was on February 8, October 1921, when Mahatma Gandhi raised a strong pitch for freedom in the presence of 1.5 lakh people including great writers Munshi Premchand and Firaq Gorakhpuri.
Defying the British, Gandhiji gave a powerful speech from the Bale Miyan ka Maidan in Bahrampur Mohalla.
On his way to the venue from the Gorakhpur railway station, he halted at a tea stall which was later named after him as 'Gandhi hotel'.
Gandhiji was warmly welcomed at the tea stall situated on Vir Abdul Hamid Road at Buxipur near Ek Minara Masjid. The owner of Gandhi Muslim Hotel, Ahmad Raza, says, "When Gandhiji came to Gorakhpur, my grandfather Ghulam Qadir used to run a tea stall and it was a meeting joint of freedom fighters, intellectuals and sportsmen of that time. Comrade Zamin who was a renowned freedom fighter, also used to visit the stall."
"My grandfather named the hotel after Gandhiji. However, when we started selling non-vegetarian food, we renamed it as Gandhi Muslim hotel around 16 years ago."
"Comrade Zamin told me that the population of Gorakhpur at that time was around 58,000 and around 1.5 lakh people came to hear Mahatma Gandhi. Writers like Premchand and Firaq Gorakhpuri were also among the audience," he added.
The table which was used by Gandhiji when he came to the city has been preserved at Bismil Bhawan here.
The editor of Bismil weekly Shyamanand Srivastava said: "The table was used by Gandhiji during his speech at Bale Miyan ka Maidan. I got the table as a gift from my relative Vindyvasini Prasad Verma's family."