Hardekar Manjappa

Early life and education

Manjappa was born in a poor family of Banavasi, a village of Uttara Kannada district. He studied in the nearby town of Sirsi and passed the Mulki (current primary education) final examination in 1903. He started his career as a teacher on a salary of seven rupees a month.

Movement

Manjappa and his brother were involved in the Swadeshi movement. The brothers knew Marathi and opened a weekly Dhanurdhari (journal/newsletter), (kn:’ಧನುರ್ಧಾರಿ’), on 2 September 1906 with more than 10,000 subscribers. He was slowly drawn to Saint-Reformist Basaveshwar's teachings. Basava's teachings included the elimination of casteism and the myriad evils and superstitions connected with it. Manjappa wrote several booklets to bring out the essential teachings of Basava and tried to encourage unity among his latter day followers. In 1913, he started celebrating Basava Jayanthi publicly.

Manjappa opened an ashram school in Almatti in 1927. He toured villages of North Karnataka to create awareness about Gandhiji’s constructive work. He discerned a number of similarities between the teachings of Basaveshwar and Gandhi and Manjappa became adept at expressing these teachings in easily understandable language in public speeches.

Later work

Manjappa delivered more than a thousand lectures on topics such as Satyagraha, patriotism and nationalism.

In 1924 with the help of his team 'Basweshara Seva Dala' he organized the Congress Party session in Belgaum. He had a leading role in the session and presented a book on Basaveshwara to Gandhi.

Manjappa was a freedom fighter who became popularly known as the "Gandhi of Karnataka".

He wrote more than 40 books including an autobiography.

Manjappa died on 3 January 1947.