Gorata : A hamlet of sacrifice

Gorata, a tiny village in Bidar dist of Karnataka, India is not an ordinary hamlet. It has tales of heroism in Indian freedom struggle. While India had got her freedom on 15 Aug 1947, part of India was still under the rule of Nizam of Hyderabad. While the Nizam wanted his region to be independent nation, most of the people there wanted then Hyderabad state to be cobbled with India.

The Nizam had a group called Razakars, who were known for their terrorizing atrocities against people. These razakars were instrumental in terrorizing the people against their plan of forcing Nizam to accede Hyderabad with India. The people were forced not to hoist tricolored flag and sing Vande matarm, during the same time, few youths at Gorata where enacting drama which had dialogues citing Vande Mataram. Having known about the drama, agents of razakars insisted the youths not use Vande Mataram in the play. The youths not budging to razakars, went ahead with the play as planned. They not only played the drama as planned, they also showcased their firmness to be part of India by hoisting Tri color flag and flying a kite inscribed with Vande Mataram.

Having understood the play was performed with callout of Vande mataram, the razakars planned for a destructive move against the whole hamlet. On May 9 1948, the razakars had laid a siege around Gorata. They attacked every household. They pulled out many people from their houses and killed them in front of a Lakshmi temple in Gorata. The eye witnesses say the whole street was painted red with blood by Razakars. More than 200 people were killed and few were also burnt alive. The stench was there for more than a month.

Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, the then home minister of India, having got to know about this unfortunate event, deployed K M Munshi to report the issue. K M Munshi records in his book “The end of an era”, that when his team visited the picture was dissolute. Many half burnt bodies were found laying. The whole village was ambushed.

Considering the report, Sardar Patel, ordered for police action and acceded Hyderabad with India.Gorata, stands a symbol of struggle and sacrifice for accession of Hyderabad with India. The village is often termed as Jallianwalabagh of South India.

All this while, there has been no memorial for built in remembrance of the people who were killed in Gorata. BJP Yuva Morcha Karnataka, under the leadership of Muniraju Gowda has taken an initiative to build a memorial in memory of patriots who laid their lives in Gorata.

Bhoomi pooja was performed by Shri. Amit Shah on 17 Sept (Hyderabad Liberation day) 2014. The memorial is scheduled to be inaugurated on 17 Sept 2015 by Shri. Narendra Modi.