Kendrapada village to get museum centred around Gandhi’s visit

To honour Mahatma Gandhi’s visit to the state in 1934, the site where the freedom fighter had taken a bath during his padayatra in Kendrapada district then will be turned into a museum.
Gandhi had taken a bath while seated on a stone in Dhumat village on May 30, 1934. The stone has been preserved at the site by the locals. “Now, 87 years later, we have decided to convert the spot in Dhumat village, near the Brahmani, into a museum to remind people of the significance of the 1934 padayatra and highlight the Mahatma’s role in the freedom struggle,” said Sashibhusan Behera, former minister and MLA of Kendrapada.
A khadi cloth sales counter, a photo gallery, a library and a conference hall will be part of the proposed museum.Furniture used by Gandhi will be showcased, said Behera.
“A pedestal and half-bust statues of Gandhi and Gopabandhu Das were built around the stone. People worship that stone. It is known as Gandhi Shila,” said Kulamani Das (80) of Dhumat.
“The padayatra by Gandhi was one of the most important events in the country’s freedom struggle. He allowed dalits to enter temples in some villages during his long walk in Odisha in 1934. He also addressed a public meeting in Dhumat on May 30, 1934,” said Nanda Kishor Parida, former principal of Kendrapada college.