Santbal A Saint with a Difference

Author(s): T U Mehta
Publisher: Navjivan Prakashan Mandir

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devotee of Santbal was, however, successful in persuading the villagers to allow only Santbal to stay overnight, (probably because he was a Saint), but rest of the party members had to go away to a nearby village. Santbal was, however, accommodated in a dilapidated place looking like a stable. In the next morning when his colleagues met him they saw parts of his body swollen due to insect bites during the night. The party then reached Vithalgadh proper at 12 noon. It was the order of the Ruler that if any Khadi-clad person entered Vithalgadh he should be arrested and put in jail. (This was because of the independence movement started by Congress, and on account of the Gandhiji's influence Congressmen were always indentified by their Khadi dress.) Persuant to this order all the party members of Santbalji, except Santbalji himself, were put to jail. However, the Karbhari of the principality happened to be a Jain who persuaded the Ruler that those people were not political agitators. They were thereafter set free.
Santbalji found as a result of his tour in all these villages that root cause of kidnapping of married women was the heavy expenses one had to incur in marriages. After people of the area became familiar with him he called the meeting of their caste people and explained the real cause of their trouble and asked them to resolve to limit their expenditure after marriages. This was successfully done.
Nal-Sarovar Shootings :
At the village Juwal in this area, there is a big shallow lake called Nal-Sarovar where in certain seasons international birds of different hues gather. They provided shooting game to those who could afford. Santbal who had, by now organised the agriculturists of the area in a conference, called by him as “Lokpal Patel”. Conference, had also persuaded them to see that this frivolous violence of shooting of innocent birds should stop.
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