dadasiba kangra himachal pradesh has its own gandhi baba kanshi ram who is popularly known as pahari gandhi in the state the name was given to him by former prime minister jawahar lal nehru in 1937 his contribution to the country was also admired by indira gandhi and she had released a postal stamp in his name in 1984 however his village is still waiting to establish an identity in his namegurnwar is a far flung village in kangra district located around 60 km away from dharamshala pahari gandhi also known as baba ji in his village was born on july 11 1882 and it was his 135th birth anniversary on tuesday but there were no celebrations in this remote village the village doesnt even have a panchayat bhawan of its own despite the people donating their land to build the same pahari gandhi had fought against the british raj he was arrested 11 times and had spent two years in jail along with lala lajpat rai he had started wearing black clothes when bhagat singh was hanged he decided to wear black clothes till his death he was firm on the teachings of mahatma gandhi and had translated many of them in local pahari language said his grandson ravi kant sharma 68village pradhan bimla devi 45 said they had raised a demand to develop the area as a model village in gandhis name but no political party had considered the same i had written the to authorities for panchayat bhawan also for which a villager had donated 16 marlas we have sought to establish some replicas in the name of pahari gandhi on the main road or to make some entry gates but nobody has considered even this so far she said the villagers said they had written to mp anurag thakur also in august last year but got no replypahari gandhis house is a trembling mud structure the congress government has announced to make it a heritage and erect a memorial family members said it was good step but they had been demanding the same for a long timebjp legislator vikram thakur has termed it a political gimmick only two months are left for the elections and now the congress has remembered pahari gandhi he saidsurinder mankotia a congress leader from the area said it was a landmark announcement and assured that notification would be made for the same before elections the village has no particular identity in name of pahari gandhi many of the village youths dont even know that there was such personality from their village language art and culture department in hamirpur district had organized a poetry function in his memory on tuesday