Due to its resemblance to the massacre at Jallianwala Bagh in 1919, Vidurashwatha later came to be known as the Jallianwala Bagh of the South. Decades later, the village is now a forgotten chapter in the history of the country’s freedom struggle.
The year was 1938 and India’s freedom struggle was at its peak. On the morning of April 25, a group of villages led by leaders of the Indian National Congress (INC) had gathered at an open ground in Vidurashwatha village, close to the now Karnataka-Andhra Pradesh border, in Chikkballapur district, to hoist the national flag. Defying prohibitory orders, just as they were proceeding to hoist the flag, police opened fire, killing 32 people and injuring more than 100 others